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MEDICAL SCOPE FOR RIFLE BORE?

HAS ANYONE TRIED USEING A MEDICAL SCOPE TO LOOK AT A RIFLES CHAMBE AND BORE? I KNOW HAWKEYES ARE WELL KNOWN BUT THEY ARE OUT OF THE PRICE OF MOST OF FOLKS.
 
OH YEAH BEEN THERE DONE THAT. I WAS LOOKING AT VARIOUS MEDICAL SCOPES ON EBAY. IKNOW THE HAWKEYE WORKS WELL BUT I AM LOOKING FOR SOMETHING THAT WON'T BREAK THE BANK. I WAS LOOKING TO SEE IF ANYONE HAD FOUND AN INEXPENSIVE SCOPE THAT MAY NOT WORK AS WELL AS THE HAWKEYE BUT GIVES SOME HELP CHECKING FLASH HOLES AND THE FIRST FEW INCHES OF THE BORE.
 
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=46506 - minimum bore diameter: .236", though the manual says 8mm, or .315"

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=46703 - minimum diameter is 7.2mm, or roughly .28".

Or, for $30, contact Wally Siebert in Issaqah, WA, and order a "mini-borescope". It's a 5/8" diameter,best guesstimate) brass tube with a single lens in it. Take the bolt out of the rifle, and run the tube in, lens first.

I've only used the Seibert unit - it's good for finding stuff that is easy to spot, such as gross pitting, and uneven rifling wear.

Anotehr option is to go to e-bay and type "Borescope" into the search tool. If you thought a Gradient Lens,makers of the Hawkeye) product was expensive, you ain't seen nothing yet!
 
Asa Yam,
Thanks for the information, I will give Wally a call Monday.
I might buy a Hawkeye for my gun club and rent it out until it is paid for.

chuck
 
Go to www.mdsincorporated.com. I received mine from a friend at a very reasonable cost without the light source. I purchased the lightsource from MDS. I sent the probe to them and they did their thing to it and sent it back with no charge except shipping.
Butch
 
Asa_Yam said:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=46506 - minimum bore diameter: .236", though the manual says 8mm, or .315"

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=46703 - minimum diameter is 7.2mm, or roughly .28".

Or, for $30, contact Wally Siebert in Issaqah, WA, and order a "mini-borescope". It's a 5/8" diameter,best guesstimate) brass tube with a single lens in it. Take the bolt out of the rifle, and run the tube in, lens first.

I've only used the Seibert unit - it's good for finding stuff that is easy to spot, such as gross pitting, and uneven rifling wear.

Anotehr option is to go to e-bay and type "Borescope" into the search tool. If you thought a Gradient Lens,makers of the Hawkeye) product was expensive, you ain't seen nothing yet!

No body experience with these borescope's,harborfreight)?
 
Over on the Main Message Board there is a thread where James Phillips, of Reloaders Nest, is making a medical borescope available to members of this 6mmBR board. Here's a link to that thread.

http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/6mmbr/vpost?id=1256787
 
About 5 years ago, I bought a chamber bore scope from a guy in Florida, but don't remember his name. This is a hard plastic tube about .8 diameter, with lens inside. You need to remove barrel, insert tube over breech end, and with a small light, you can see all around the chamber, but very little of the bore. The Wally Seibert unit sounds similar. The chamber is, of course, more important than entire bore. I believe the cost was about $50. I don't have his name or address, but recall he was in FL. Perhaps someone can dig up his name and phone number. I do not think he had a web site.
 
I've had one of Wally's for years, great for looking at the throat at gunshow rifles, etc.
I had a Hawkeye for about a month but got concerned about the unprotected first-surface mirror. It can be damaged by cleaning solution vapors, etc. So I sold it and bought a medical unit on Ebay. The latest unit cost MORE than the Hawkeye but I really like it.
It has two probes, one about 4.5 mm or so that will go in .22 cal barrels and is ? maybe 16" long. It has a bigger and longer probe that is probably about 10-12 mm in diameter. It is fun to use to look inside walls, engines and could be handy if you wanted to look inside of safes through a small hole.
It is a "Lennox", has an adjustable, very bright, light source that goes through a fiberoptic shielded cable. The front end mirror and lighting area are protected by some kind of glass cover.
I don't use the borescope much anymore but sure did when learning what and how to clean custom barrels. Be careful who you let look inside their barrels, if often leads to a request or demand for a new barrel. Great, if you like putting barrels on for people but I'm tired of that.

Jay
 
On the HarborFreight scopes... they have a focusing range of 3/4" and beyond, so this will not focus inside a barrel. Same with the Provision flexible scopes on ebay. I'm weary to buy one of these and find out it doesn't focus close enough.
 

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