Interpreting borescope results, corrosion?

[Matteman]

I got a cheap bore scope to be able to check my barrel for wear, and often take it with me to the range if anyone wants to have a look into their barrel. On a couple of occations i have had a look in a couple of Tikka T3x 308 light barrels, that according to the owners only had shot a couple of houndred shots.

Both of them did how ever have strange pittings that i dont really know what they are or what caused it. My first guess was that the rifles(being hunting rifles) had been used in the forrest, and rain droplets had gotten into the barrel during hunting trips causing corrosion. But i have seen this in a third barrel also, and i know that one hadnt been used in rain. There are several of these areas in each barrel, and the steel look a bit matte in the whole barrel, the rifles didnt have any accuracy issues according to their owners.

Could this be a manufacturing defect, or is it corrosion?

 

[spife7980]

Looks like corrosion to me but it’s probably just fine.

 

[culater]

Yep it’s fine get out the JB bore past and clean it out

 

[FUNCTIONAL]

A barrel maker had mentioned to me that he sees pitting like that when using boretech. I had sent one of my barrels in to this manufacturer for pitting exactly like that in the last 3 or 4" of my barrel. He also said if shooting suppressed you will see it more when using boretech.

My gun still shot great and he only lapped it very lightly.

 

[ShtrRdy]

A barrel maker had mentioned to me that he sees pitting like that when using boretech. I had sent one of my barrels in to this manufacturer for pitting exactly like that in the last 3 or 4" of my barrel. He also said if shooting suppressed you will see it more when using boretech.

My gun still shot great and he only lapped it very lightly.

On early bottles of Bore Tech the instructions implied that you could leave it in the bore for corrosion prevention. I found this to not be true on one of my rifles. Had some light corrosion after sitting in the safe for a year or so.

I still like using Bore Tech but now I will coat the bore with gun oil if I'm going to store it.

 

[Hecouldgoalltheway]

How did they shoot? If they shoot well, I don't know why anyone cares what it looks like in there. I'll never own a borescope because it gives you nothing but irrelevant information. Does the barrel shoot? Then it doesn't matter. Does the barrel suck? Then replace it. Looking at borescope pictures won't change a thing.

 

[spife7980]

Borescopes are only useless to the ignorant

 

[Hecouldgoalltheway]

Borescopes are only useless to the ignorant

Ok, explain. Let's say you're looking at a borescope and you see a problem. Tell me that you will operate on a barrel and make it shoot. I dare you to pretend you can do anything to improve the function of a barrel based on anything a borescope will show you. You can't. You think you can predict when you will begin to lose accuracy based on the borescope of the chamber? You can't. I'm far from ignorant.

 

[jmw]

carbon ring

 

[Hecouldgoalltheway]

carbon ring

I'll give you that, but there are other ways to determine that problem too.

 

[hkguns]

I find borecopes are required to determine if your bore is actually clean. Without one, it may look clean when it is not. This may matter, or may not depending on your intended use. However, I have a lot of guns and prefer to store mine, sometimes for extended periods, without carbon and copper in the barrel.

Yes, that indeed looks like corrosion OP. JB bore paste may or may not take care of it completely.

 

[Haney]

How did they shoot? If they shoot well, I don't know why anyone cares what it looks like in there. I'll never own a borescope because it gives you nothing but irrelevant information. Does the barrel shoot? Then it doesn't matter. Does the barrel suck? Then replace it. Looking at borescope pictures won't change a thing.

Sweet story . Barrels are not a simple pass/fail .

 

[Haney]

Ok, explain. Let's say you're looking at a borescope and you see a problem. Tell me that you will operate on a barrel and make it shoot. I dare you to pretend you can do anything to improve the function of a barrel based on anything a borescope will show you. You can't. You think you can predict when you will begin to lose accuracy based on the borescope of the chamber? You can't. I'm far from ignorant.

Haha, pretend all you want . Stupid borescope, damn thing saved me a pile of money . Some bore problems can be alleviated if you have knowledge , some folks are not bright enough to believe it . Can you honestly say a borescope will not aid a person ? Have you ever used JB Bore Paste, Iosso, etc . ? Many a fine rifle has been brought back to being a shooter once again with a simple paste . Abrasive bullet kits like Tubbs have smoothed out some rough bores . I could go on to prove you are wrong , but I doubt you would ever admit it .

 

[FUNCTIONAL]

On early bottles of Bore Tech the instructions implied that you could leave it in the bore for corrosion prevention. I found this to not be true on one of my rifles. Had some light corrosion after sitting in the safe for a year or so.

I still like using Bore Tech but now I will coat the bore with gun oil if I'm going to store it.

I do the same now, bought too much boretech to not use it and it does clean, I just patch it out then put slip2000 or similar down it.

He has said in his analysis boretech is mostly water and recommended plain old hoppes.

 

[Hecouldgoalltheway]

Haha, pretend all you want . Stupid borescope, damn thing saved me a pile of money . Some bore problems can be alleviated if you have knowledge , some folks are not bright enough to believe it . Can you honestly say a borescope will not aid a person ? Have you ever used JB Bore Paste, Iosso, etc . ? Many a fine rifle has been brought back to being a shooter once again with a simple paste . Abrasive bullet kits like Tubbs have smoothed out some rough bores . I could go on to prove you are wrong , but I doubt you would ever admit it .

I'm glad you are salvaging the guns that went down with the titanic. I don't leave gun barrels in salt water.

 

[Haney]

I'm glad you are salvaging the guns that went down with the titanic. I don't leave gun barrels in salt water.

If it's the money causing your denial , I can let you borrow some to buy a bore scope .

 

[BugIn762]

You can get a Teslong for $55.

Why not see.

BugIn

 

[Hecouldgoalltheway]

If it's the money causing your denial , I can let you borrow some to buy a bore scope .

I wish I could plead poverty, but alas it isn't my issue. I spend copias amounts of money on shit that I don't need, but I've seen a hundred people on these forums whining about how a barrel looks, and it shoots fine. I don't care if there is a family of homeless people in my barrel having a BBQ, if it stacks bullets, it doesn't matter.

 

[Charger442]

Wait, you guys are cleaning your gun bores??

 

[hkguns]

He has said in his analysis boretech is mostly water and recommended plain old hoppes.

With all the new fancy products out there, it is STILL hard to beat plain old Hoppes #9 as a carbon remover.

I was doing annual maintenance on my Milsurps and Blued guns recently and re-discovered it, after not using the rather large bottle sitting on my bench for several years.

Smells good too.

 

[CK1.0]

IMHO, these days, cheap access to borescopes probably causes more problems for guys than they help.

If the barrel isn't doing anything wrong or out of the ordinary, then who cares what it looks like inside?

Besides, an easy and proven way to get shit like that out of the barrel is just to put some rounds downrange, done. There's nothing you can put on a brush that will do more than press-fitting a piece of copper and lead through the barrel with thousands of pounds of pressure behind it.

I NEVER use any abrasives of any kind on my barrels, nothing besides Boretech Eliminator, nylon brushes, and cotton patches, cleaning a barrel takes 10 minutes if I go slow, and my shit shoots great.

 

[StaveyIL]

IMHO, these days, cheap access to borescopes probably causes more problems for guys than they help.

If the barrel isn't doing anything wrong or out of the ordinary, then who cares what it looks like inside?

Besides, an easy and proven way to get shit like that out of the barrel is just to put some rounds downrange, done. There's nothing you can put on a brush that will do more than press-fitting a piece of copper and lead through the barrel with thousands of pounds of pressure behind it.

I NEVER use any abrasives of any kind on my barrels, nothing besides Boretech Eliminator, nylon brushes, and cotton patches, cleaning a barrel takes 10 minutes if I go slow, and my shit shoots great.

Think of how much better it would shoot if it were actually clean . I can tell you first hand. If you’ve been using boretech per the instructions. You’re barrel is probably filthy . However you wouldn’t know it without a borescope. You also wouldn’t know your barrels full potential, without knowing if it’s actually clean. If you are just blasting steel etc… it doesn’t really matter. If you are trying to put every bullet through the same hole it does matter. A borescope is a tool. Anyone serious about accuracy should own one.

 

[Matteman]

I got the borescope to try to see if i could learn how to tell how worn a barrel is, and to get some data on the subject bore scoped other shooters rifles on the range, and recorded it together with an approximation of how many shots they had fired. Most of the rifles are either 6,5x55 or 308w. (I never had any issues with cleaning or changing POI when cleaning, and my cleaning didnt effect group size)

The results i came up with are as follows(imagees are taken just in the beginning of the barrel):

0 shots: No cracks
500 shots: Slight and superficial cracks on the glands
2500 shots: cracks form a pattern and are not superficial any more
4000 shots: small peaces of material starts to be missing
>5000 shots: barrel starts to look "flaky" with long groovs

None of the barrels in the photos had any problems with accuracy, the one that had shot above 5000 shots was a Sauer STR 200 that performed really well on a 300 meter competition, shooting groups well below 1 MOA.


(disclamer: I am not a gunsmith or a scientist, this might be biased and missleading)

 

[xciapup]

Ok, explain. Let's say you're looking at a borescope and you see a problem. Tell me that you will operate on a barrel and make it shoot. I dare you to pretend you can do anything to improve the function of a barrel based on anything a borescope will show you. You can't. You think you can predict when you will begin to lose accuracy based on the borescope of the chamber? You can't. I'm far from ignorant.

Jacked up flutes on an HK roller?

 

[CK1.0]

Think of how much better it would shoot if it were actually clean . I can tell you first hand. If you’ve been using boretech per the instructions. You’re barrel is probably filthy . However you wouldn’t know it without a borescope. You also wouldn’t know your barrels full potential, without knowing if it’s actually clean. If you are just blasting steel etc… it doesn’t really matter. If you are trying to put every bullet through the same hole it does matter. A borescope is a tool. Anyone serious about accuracy should own one.

Bringing the barrel back to bare metal every cleaning won't make it shoot any better.

It's just another myth that keeps getting kicked down the road, like: barrel break-in, OCW, "nodes", etc.

I'm serious about accuracy and I own one. Mine just stays in its box on the shelf (where it belongs) until I actually need it to help diagnose an issue if one were to arise.

 

[lycokayaker]

Is this a common issue with boretech eliminator? I just switched to this cleaner

 

[Precision Underground]

Ok, explain. Let's say you're looking at a borescope and you see a problem. Tell me that you will operate on a barrel and make it shoot. I dare you to pretend you can do anything to improve the function of a barrel based on anything a borescope will show you. You can't. You think you can predict when you will begin to lose accuracy based on the borescope of the chamber? You can't. I'm far from ignorant.

I’ve had two instances where AR barrels shot really well when new and then accuracy fell off after 75-100 rounds. On the first one I cleaned the hell out of it (multiple times) and it still shot bad. Then I got a borescope and looked closely at the gas port from the inside and found a huge chunk of copper stuck on the edge of it. I cleaned and cleaned and couldn’t get it off. Finally I left a wet patch on it overnight and it came off. Accuracy returned. The second barrel was easy bc I knew right where to look/what to do when it happened. So yes, I was able to diagnose and cure a problem inside the barrel. Without a borescope both barrels would have likely been thrown out after wasting a few hundred dollars of ammo trying to make them shoot. I agree that worrying over a little pitting or fire cracking is the downside of borescopes. But you can choose not to worry over that stuff and use it as a tool to help diagnose problems(and sometimes fix them) in a barrel.

 

[xciapup]

When I am thru with Boretech, or any cleaning fluid for that matter, I use a dry patch, then one with alcohol to neutralize, then one with light oil.

And I used PFG pellets, not patches.

 

[37L1]

I got the borescope to try to see if i could learn how to tell how worn a barrel is, and to get some data on the subject bore scoped other shooters rifles on the range, and recorded it together with an approximation of how many shots they had fired. Most of the rifles are either 6,5x55 or 308w. (I never had any issues with cleaning or changing POI when cleaning, and my cleaning didnt effect group size)

The results i came up with are as follows(imagees are taken just in the beginning of the barrel):

0 shots: No cracks
500 shots: Slight and superficial cracks on the glands
2500 shots: cracks form a pattern and are not superficial any more
4000 shots: small peaces of material starts to be missing
>5000 shots: barrel starts to look "flaky" with long groovs

None of the barrels in the photos had any problems with accuracy, the one that had shot above 5000 shots was a Sauer STR 200 that performed really well on a 300 meter competition, shooting groups well below 1 MOA.


(disclamer: I am not a gunsmith or a scientist, this might be biased and missleading)

View attachment 8037403

500 shots: Slight and superficial cracks on the glands