Borecope Techniques and Interpretation

[Tiny Tim]

Ive found that I get a better look at the area just in front of the case mouth when placing the scope in from the muzzle. Less shadowing and less chance of mistaking a shadow for a carbon ring..

 

[milo-2]

What advantages have you found coming in from the muzzle, and also why do you leave the bolt in? I'm going to try this - it'll be different for me.
I've had a Teslong since they became available but have always went in from the chamber. The shadows drive me nuts trying to figure out what I'm looking at.
Thanks to the OP for posting and for your response. I'm always willing to try something different if it gives you a warmer fuzzy feeling.

The opening is right there, no fishing, being the cable is coated, don't worry about crown damage. Just easier, I'm lazy.
Bolt in, stems from 22LR chambers, so short, bolt face stops progress, you're not gathering light from the bolt being pulled, once again, just ease of use.
Trust me, my ways are not for all. hehe.

 

[milo-2]

For the larger calibers you can use orings on your Teslong to help w/ keeping it centered.

That's a solid idea! Thanks

 

[asd9055]

That's a solid idea! Thanks

Now I will have to find my o-ring assortment....glad I keep one handy

 

[VinceMule]

Just make sure you use a bore guide. Makes things a lot easier and smoother plus my personal opinion is it's easy to manipulate your bore scope.

I drill out the flash hole of a case slightly larger than the bore guide, this centers the bore scope shaft. I insert the case with bore scope attached into the chamber.

 

[M1A1ABRAMS]

That's a solid idea! Thanks

I find after putting the oring on apply a light coat of lubricant to help keeping it from dragging. I have a Site light for scope mounting. So I use the orings from that. And if none of them work then I dig the kits out.

 

[BigNate]

I used to borescope jet engines for work, and although the equipment was different some things just apply.
Perception is generally shocking to a first time user. Without knowing how to gauge size everything looks catastrophic.
If you know depth of grooves, width of lands, or chamber dimensions for example, it helps keep things in perspective. A flaw is a flaw, however a crater in the borescope might only be a couple ten-thousendths deep.

Look at a couple of good shooting barrels first, knowing they shoot well and seeing how they actually look while doing it, will help keep blood pressure and heart attacks under control.

 

[baldhunter]

I've had a Teslong flexible model for about three years now.Can you predict how well the barrel will shoot?Not really,but it lets you see things you could never see before.I did rebarrel one rifle that was a poor shooter after the Teslong showed me bad problems with an a used near mint condition older Tang Safety Ruger 77 with one of the Wilson barrels that are know to have problems during that era of production.The metal the barrel was made of was bad.There was voids throughout the barrel and some really deep small voids in the chamber.It had one bad spot about an inch past where the bullet touches the lands.That spot was all the way around the barrel,about an inch long,so the bullet jacket was being destroyed from the start down the barrel.That rifle wouldn't shoot better than 2-3" groups.I tried to get it to shoot better,it just wouldn't.Rather than wasting a lot of time and and money,I had it rebarreled and it shoots very well now.It's also a great tool to check for erosion,how clean the barrel is,how much room a chambered case has before it reaches the end of the chamber and carbon build up and more.I know I use mine more than I originally thought I would.I recently bought one of the new Remarms Remington 700 Long Range 300 Win Mags with 5R rifling.I inspected the barrel and it looked quite good throughout the barrel.One thing I noticed there was zero copper from test loads that are usually shot at the factory.I don't know maybe they don't do that anymore,but anyway,the barrel was really clean inside.I finally had a chance to take it to the range yesterday.I only fired a small sample of twelve rounds with two different bullets and loads.I shot the first four rounds to get it on paper where I could see how it was going to group.After each shot,I ran a wet patch with Sta-Bil CPL,followed by two dry patches.The rifle grouped well for with the small sample I ran through it.I was impressed to see no copper after scoping it when I got home.Another thing I just added was the Teslong mirror set.The mirrors are bigger than the ones that it came with.It helps to keep things centered,making it easier to adjust focusing.Here's some pics.
Ruger Barrel Issues




Full length case chambered in a rifle.

New Remarms Long Range 300 Win Mag Before Shooting






Remarms Long Range after 12 rounds





Nine of the first twelve round shot in the rifle with two different loads and bullet weights

Sta-Bil CLP

 

[milo-2]

I used to borescope jet engines for work, and although the equipment was different some things just apply.
Perception is generally shocking to a first time user. Without knowing how to gauge size everything looks catastrophic.
If you know depth of grooves, width of lands, or chamber dimensions for example, it helps keep things in perspective. A flaw is a flaw, however a crater in the borescope might only be a couple ten-thousendths deep.

Look at a couple of good shooting barrels first, knowing they shoot well and seeing how they actually look while doing it, will help keep blood pressure and heart attacks under control.

I bought a Hawkey 12 yrs ago under the assumption that I was qualified to interpret what I saw inside a barrel.
Barrels that clearly had tooling marks, shot extremely well, and some finely lapped customs were good, but not Great. I have since mainly use to determine cleaning intervals.
Though, to my credit, on a Proof carbon 6mm barrel, I did find an edge hanging off one rifling 3" in that shed copper extremely bad, not only in that groove, but the grooves to either side of it, though not as bad. It never affected the precision aspect of the rifle, but was going to cause issues cleaning it. I ironed it out 3rd try with JB paste and that barrel was one of the most accurate Dashers I loaded for.
You are right, keep things in perspective!

 

[Tiny Tim]

Worked in aviation years ago as well. Used borescopes too, but they were true optical devices rather than digital images reproduced on a phone. Very different.

Also agree about dimensions. Sometimes it seems I'm looking at 4-6" of barrel when it's really 1-1.5". Lol

 

[JustMe2]

Here's a set of 5 rifle bore mirrors to help center your borescope. Only $19.

https://www.amazon.com/Teslong-Borescope-Diameter-22-308-38-50-Calibers/dp/B085XXZQK2/ref=mp_s_a_1_16?adgrpid=115348031681&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.zBpGCfaPoGjTJ2rX1hZyDehfrv45ligj9Y6C1iwSXLFarYC3-yig9RusjsxLVlfa4dhtgHbpQW3NTiUT5B4KNdn9h7Rf263oF6pJbEBhMQl0eFq2NK968nASSc7m3cg1v04vTdCWGtl1evnTVByHYnRgUAeCCu6hZsngstk5bfzjDAsEJnT_7uci7D0mIsUX9oOAc7cqozIe9_sYGSKEOQ.9gFTwRDlyxwzCpqfhd6t5w6nesMvlJIpV3iwBi3Du-I&dib_tag=se&hvadid=580721399490&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=9011694&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=b&hvrand=13357467373021850070&hvtargid=kwd-422233961213&hydadcr=24421_13541991&keywords=borescope+teslong&qid=1713029022&sr=8-16