I always say.... if it's shooting good.... don't look down the dam thing! Shoot it... clean/maintain it. Enuff said! LOL!
I know what youre saying about bore scopes, they can be kinda dangerous sometimes, a man has to be prepared when he sends one down a barrel of a rifle that has been shooting well.... easy to "psych you out" by what you see. Particularly things like firecracking, and how much there can be, how far down the bore it goes, etc.
On the other hand, for a guy like me (kinda anal retentive/OCD about some things, but with a fair amount of laziness thrown in too sometimes), bore scopes changed my way of thinking when it comes to barrels, particularly RE cleaning.
Before, i used some faifly light weight cleaners and just a few patches... staring down the bore by eye, seeing it look nice and shiny and calling it good. Borescope showed me just how much carbon and copper i was leaving behind, and where. Certain things like carbon rings around neck/ throat i never would have guessed at / understood. And could have become real problem that would have made me chase my tail.
Im glad that i discovered bore scopes about the same time i finally got access to my first "real range"... a range open most days that has a great benchline for 600 and 1000 yard paper and plates.
The thing ill say about borescopes now is that i dont worry about fire cracking, its just a fact of life, and ive got one barrel that was abused a lot by prior owner, pretty rough inside, i dont worry about getting it PERFECTLY clean. I just try to get MOST of the stuff, with an emphasis on getting carbon ring from throat area, and keeping the rest to a certain balance. Knowing the rifle shoots well w a bit of carbon/copper left in certain places, and just trying to get it back to that level each time.
Ive got a bartein mod400 blank waiting to go on rifle (waiting for me to get my lathe operational, manly just short on time to work on anything that isnt related to my main business), and w a nice clean smooth barrel starting out from new ill be sble to maintain it better, keep it cleaner better, easier.
I think the best thing for a guy who has never used a borescope before is to run it down the barrel of a rifle that shoots well, but has a lot of rounds down the barrel... particularly something hard on barrels... look at THAT... then realize a barrel can look like that and still work (stuff like fire cracking, its amazing how you can see it with bore scope, but otherwise never see it otherwise, short of cutting up old barrel and sectioning it).
So i know borescopes can cause problems, but for me, im really glad they exist, i wouldnt be properly cleaning / maintaining my bores without one. Id be getting carbon rings in throat and chasing high pressure signs for one thing, i know that. Maybe if i just had good cleaning habits, using some of the newer solvents out there that really do better / work so much faster than the old stuff (and havibg separate carbon vs copper cleaners is a big step forward, imho), just doing that, msybe i wouldnt ever need borescope. But i DO know that wo a borescope i never would have understood WHY a good cleaning process is necessary.
Maybd borescopes are one of those tools that really is good in the hands of some people, not in others....
EDITED TO ADD- I really appreciate Frank getting online and discussing things like this (and many other things relating to his barrels) on open online forums. Takes a lot of balls / dedication to the business to do it, you dont see that too much anymore (if nothing else, discussing things online opens up a big can of worms, lots of unhappy people out there who like to talk crap, carry a grudge, just be a problem in general).
Id rather have that then the "black box" of most businesses where you really dont know much about what happens behind the scenes.. or whats best to use w their products... or avoid using at all! (Like abrasives on brushes).
Anyways, have two bartlein barrels, theyre who id look at first for a another one, posting conversations online is what made the biggest difference to me in choosing them personally...
