What am I seeing in my barrel?

Tac-O

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I finally broke down and got one if the $50 teslong borescopes. I must say.... It is a wickedly cool little toy. I'm excited to stick this little camera into all kinds of crevices!! Anyway, I'm currently cleaning my Tikka, so I haven't looked in it yet.

The pictures are from my kids' savage axis 7mm08. This barrel has around 225 rounds through it. I've always cleaned this barrel after 20-25 rounds, but did go a stretch of 75 without cleaning. I always use a possum hollow bore guide, I rarely use a bronze brush but will use a nylon brush sometimes. I always use sharpshootr foam Wipeout, the accelerator, and tactical advantage. I usually will let it sit overnight to soak, two nights in a row. Sharpshootr says these are ammonia free and safe to let soak in the bore. I have NOT used JBs or anything like that yet. This gun shut much more consistently accurate up to about 100 rounds. But, it has the bushnell banner scope that it came with so any change in accuracy could be due to that. I have an swfa scope on the way to replace the bushnell.

I think there is an obvious carbon ring, which surprises me because a lot of the rounds shot have been reduced loads with h4895 or Hornady reduced recoil. All the carbon in the throat surprises me too. Always cleaned after 20-25!

I'm really wondering what the stuff near the muzzle is. It looks like pitting, but I don't know how it would have got there!!! I wish I would have had this borescope when it was new so I new if it was already there or not. Can anyone shed light on the "pitting"?
 

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It looks a bit like some kind of oxidation deposits from the Wipeout doing its job or maybe cotton fuzz deposits from your bore mop.

You might try that dreaded bronze-phos brush for a few strokes to see if it will remove it

I'm with you, I don't use it unless there is an identified need.
 
I'd love to use a bronze brush every time to remove carbon, but I'm too scared from all the hate on them.

Here's my Tikka .30-06 bore. I wiped the cleaner out so I could inspect it. There's some leftover copper deposits. I use the same cleaning regimen on my Tikka, but there's about 550 rounds on it and I went for a 275 round stretch without putting a single patch down the bore. I've used JB a couple of times, a maroon 3m pad on the throat once around the 220 round mark, CLR after not cleaning for 275 rounds to help remove carbon, and had been in the habit of spinning a .338 bronze brush in the neck near the lands to take care of the carbon when I wasn't cleaning the bore.

I'm surprised how good it looks.

The picture I'm also wondering about on this one is the end of the chamber where the case mouth would be. There's a slightly different uneven light grey colored area near the edge. No carbon ring that I can see!! Unless... Can carbon rings be an almost invisible light yellow haze color?
 

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OP...
Other than a good carbon ring at the throat...looks really good....
To work on the carbon ring after soaked...i have installed my cleaning rod from the muzzle..extend out back of receiver..put on a bronze brush just big enough to slide back into the carbon ring and spin it for a bit to help break up the carbon...then put on a patch and wipe it out....recheck...and maybe rub a little more with carbon remover or JB non embedding paste.......then clean the heck out of the entire barrel again.....
 
OP...
Other than a good carbon ring at the throat...looks really good....
To work on the carbon ring after soaked...i have installed my cleaning rod from the muzzle..extend out back of receiver..put on a bronze brush just big enough to slide back into the carbon ring and spin it for a bit to help break up the carbon...then put on a patch and wipe it out....recheck...and maybe rub a little more with carbon remover or JB non embedding paste.......then clean the heck out of the entire barrel again.....

You're talking about the carbon ring on the savage, right? I don't think there is one in my Tikka, which is a bit odd because there is some carbon buildup about 4 inches into the throat. And I shot 3 pounds of staball through it
 
The dreaded carbon ring is usually at the edge of the chamber where the edge of the brass ends....builds up at the edge of the leade(?)....that dark colored ring.....
The savage has it and shows that your soaking is deteriorating it by the "peeling edge"...but looks like both rifles have the ring....
 
The dreaded carbon ring is usually at the edge of the chamber where the edge of the brass ends....builds up at the edge of the leade(?)....that dark colored ring.....
The savage has it and shows that your soaking is deteriorating it by the "peeling edge"...but looks like both rifles have the ring....

I see! I always thought it was on the lead just before the lands. So the light gray colored area at the end of the chamber is actually a carbon ring? That's interesting!.
 
This pic here, I think it is carbon that was not removed while cleaning, it is shiny only because of final cleaning patches.
You are not me, but some JB or Witches Brew knocks that with minimal work.
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The dark area looking like a shadow is the carbon ring...the light gray powder residue....

Which dark part? The one circled in red is actually the end of the chamber.
 

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The red is the transition from chamber to barrel, your carbon ring is visible in photo # 8, it is not bad, but will continue to build up.

Ah yes I definitely k ew that was a carbon ring. But that's the savage. I was referring to picture number 11, which is my Tikka. I think 26Reload was referring to picture 11 also
 
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