Whats a good borescope?

[Hydenseek]

Looking for a borescope to check behind after cleaning barrel.

 

[madmixerman]

Hawkeye

 

[6MMsteve]

the lyman works decent imho, it's told me what works for cleaning and you can use it to chk dies drill out cases and chk neck length to chamber all kinds of uses, locking lug cleanliness cavities

 

[JerryRVA]

Hawkeye if you want to check for barrel wear especially if you shoot competitively. Lyman is the ticket for copper and carbon buildup for the average shooter. Some people just don't give Lyman the credit it deserves.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Hawkeye is the only one for me

 

[MikeMcCasland]

Lyman came out with a higher resolution version of their borescope a few months back; you can grab it for $200 off Amazon. The image quality is significantly improved over the first generation model, and it'll absolutely let you verify your cleaning routine. I'd say the updated version is 75-80% as good an image as the Hawkeye.

That said, the Hawkeye is a much nicer tool overall, and will give you the best image quality. It's what I'd own if I were chambering rifles for paying customers. You'll pay a good bit for one though.

 

[Texas10]

If that's your intended use, you can save yourself a whole lot of coin and just buy an endoscope camera for about $35. My new one blue tooth's to my phone so I can take a picture if wanted. It will clearly show carbon in the leade, and if you run a cleaning rod up the muzzle the light from the camera will reflect off the rod illuminating the rifling. I get a lot of use out of it, and as I mention, it's cheap.

 

[wanttobe]

If that's your intended use, you can save yourself a whole lot of coin and just buy an endoscope camera for about $35. My new one blue tooth's to my phone so I can take a picture if wanted. It will clearly show carbon in the leade, and if you run a cleaning rod up the muzzle the light from the camera will reflect off the rod illuminating the rifling. I get a lot of use out of it, and as I mention, it's cheap.

Where did you purchase that camera?

 

[JimPag]

Hawkeye is the only way to go.

 

[Riesel]

If that's your intended use, you can save yourself a whole lot of coin and just buy an endoscope camera for about $35. My new one blue tooth's to my phone so I can take a picture if wanted. It will clearly show carbon in the leade, and if you run a cleaning rod up the muzzle the light from the camera will reflect off the rod illuminating the rifling. I get a lot of use out of it, and as I mention, it's cheap.

I Second Texas10 on the endoscope camera. I think I bought mine off Ebay some time back and it's simplicity makes it handy. Use with my tablet and with a bit of practice and understanding what it is you are looking at, it's very useful. You did say you just wanted to find out how efficient you were at barrel cleaning.

 

[dmoran]

For thorough barrel inspection, the Hawkeye, hands down.
For barrel cleaning and quick inspection, I prefer the Lyman and the Teslong (NTS150B).

 

[tmwinds]

If your barrel is shooting well never look at it with a bore scope. It will forever be cursed.

 

[LarryDScott]

Plus 1 on the Lyman.
If you dont use a borescope, you will
have no idea if the magic cleaning
solvent you are using is really working.
Probably not !!!!. LDS

 

[AckleymanII]

I have had the lyman and the Hawkeye.

The lyman is a digital image, still plenty good enough to examine a bore for carbon for cleaning. The lyman also has the ability to take pictures, and you just plug the chip into your computer. By using this option, you can monitor your barrels steady degradation from new throat to shot out throat.

The hawkeye is a true optical image, and the contrast is brilliant. The down side to the Hawkeye is saving pictures, as that unit is an additional cost of $1200 over the cost of the Hawkeye....YIKES!!!

The first bore scopes I used were endoscopes, and there was no 90* eye piece. So, when you are looking down the barrel, you were looking down a straw. I am not aware that there is a 90* eye piece for the endoscope. You can use the endoscope to see the fouling in the barrel, and for that purpose, it worked great.

OK, for a gunsmith, the Hawkeye is a needed tool. For a shooter wanting to examine his bore for cleanliness, the Lyman will cover this chore in spades...$200. I wish that everyone reading this post could order a lyman that is not a gunsmith in the next 5 minutes....I am not affiliated with Lyman or Hawkeye.

There is More Bull S. on the net concerning cleaning guns than you could ever imagine.

 

[Bogusname]

When the Hawkeye is focused properly, it’s night and day compared to the Lyman from my experience.

 

[Milo 2.0]

I've never heard of a Hawkeye owner ask a friend to come over with his Lyman to decipher what he sees in his barrel.

 

[AckleymanII]

Bogusname, Milo 2.0, I agree with both of you.

Not everyone has the disposable income to afford a Hawkeye, or they just do not want to plump down $850 on a Hawkeye. The lyman bore scope is one heck of a tool for a guy learning how his cleaning methods may or may not be working, and learning a tad bit about his barrel condition.

I have never had a regret for buying the Hawkeye, not a nano-second!
I wanted to encourage all shooters to have some kind of method of checking to see if their cleaning method is removing the carbon from their barrels, and the carbon build up in the neck.

The lyman will sure pick up on fire cracking, crooked throats, un even lands, bad barrels where the barrel slipped in the jig fixture when rifling was being cut, inclusions in the steel, hard carbon deposits, rust, missing partial land, gouges in the groove, scratching from any kind, Broken edge on a barrel button, micro finish of a new barrel, and cleaning rod wear.

 

[JMayo]

I have had the lyman and the Hawkeye.

The lyman is a digital image, still plenty good enough to examine a bore for carbon for cleaning. The lyman also has the ability to take pictures, and you just plug the chip into your computer. By using this option, you can monitor your barrels steady degradation from new throat to shot out throat.

The hawkeye is a true optical image, and the contrast is brilliant. The down side to the Hawkeye is saving pictures, as that unit is an additional cost of $1200 over the cost of the Hawkeye....YIKES!!!

The first bore scopes I used were endoscopes, and there was no 90* eye piece. So, when you are looking down the barrel, you were looking down a straw. I am not aware that there is a 90* eye piece for the endoscope. You can use the endoscope to see the fouling in the barrel, and for that purpose, it worked great.

OK, for a gunsmith, the Hawkeye is a needed tool. For a shooter wanting to examine his bore for cleanliness, the Lyman will cover this chore in spades...$200. I wish that everyone reading this post could order a lyman that is not a gunsmith in the next 5 minutes....I am not affiliated with Lyman or Hawkeye.

There is More Bull S. on the net concerning cleaning guns than you could ever imagine.

Very well said. Thank you.

 

[Jeff A]

I have both the Hawkeye and the Lyman. I think of a borescope as a necessity for the serious shooter. The Lyman can get you bye but I find that mine seldom comes out of the box because I own a Hawkeye.

 

[Milo 2.0]

Quick note: a replacement mirror for a Hawkeye cost as much as a Lyman, and a lot more then a Teslong.

Not in my case.