So I finally broke down and bought one. Curiosity killed the cat for $40. So I stuck one of my prepped pieces of 22BR brass in the rifle and sent the Teslong down the bore for a looksie at this 1000rnd old barrel:

Looks like my cleaning regime is just slightly under-par and my cases can grow a little before they need to be trimmed again!

Here you see the end of the freebore, start of the lands. Little bit of fire-cracking, and again, perhaps modestly dirty. I did not do my normal thorough job after last week's shooting and so it's interesting to see what my quickie clean does. I'm also pleased that there is not more cracking than there is for 1000 rounds of "over-bore" 22BR. This rifle has seen both LG and HG at 1000 yards, shot 3, 5, 10 shot strings at a rapid pace. Not an easy life, but also not terribly abusive either.
Pretty fun toy for $40 and I'll be interested to run it down a freshly dirty bore, clean it as I normally do, and then check it again. If $40 isn't a great burden to you, then I'd recommend you pick one up too!

Looks like my cleaning regime is just slightly under-par and my cases can grow a little before they need to be trimmed again!

Here you see the end of the freebore, start of the lands. Little bit of fire-cracking, and again, perhaps modestly dirty. I did not do my normal thorough job after last week's shooting and so it's interesting to see what my quickie clean does. I'm also pleased that there is not more cracking than there is for 1000 rounds of "over-bore" 22BR. This rifle has seen both LG and HG at 1000 yards, shot 3, 5, 10 shot strings at a rapid pace. Not an easy life, but also not terribly abusive either.
Pretty fun toy for $40 and I'll be interested to run it down a freshly dirty bore, clean it as I normally do, and then check it again. If $40 isn't a great burden to you, then I'd recommend you pick one up too!