Anyone good at reading borescope pics?

The blow-by with the Hornady cases is likely due as much to being excessively hard, as anything else. If you have fired and resized the claimed dozen times, those necks are going to be work hardened pretty badly.
Try annealing.

As for the bore, it looks like a rough bore from a mid-grade manufacturer, in need of some cleaning. More what I would expect from ER Shaw, than Shaw.
There appears to be some erosion, but not a terrible amount.

Try to get a video, next time you want a borescope analysis. It is much easier to interpret how the condition progresses in video, than with still images.
 
Thanks FrankenMauser
Ya they very well could be work hardened after over a dozen firings, I also measured and they had shoulders set back .004 to .007..
I'm glad you can read those borescope pics, I will try to remember if I can get a video next time, I understand that because rotating it reveals many more abnormalities. This was the first barrel I have ever had replaced and I guess I got what I paid for, of course the store said Shaw was one of their favorites, I have my doubts. It has been for the most part at least a half moa barrel with a few quarter moa groups. But yea I think I can see the roughness of the throat.
Thanks again
 
I took about 30 pics of my 243 barrel this morning, and would like to know if anyone can interpret them,
Click to expand...

lol I've not read any of this thread but cracked up at that . Not at the OP but because that's exactly what I would be asking . I've almost bought a bore scope several times . Every time I talk my self out of it for that same reason . I'll have no idea what I'm looking at haha
 
Do not buy a bore scope.
Once you know what your bores look like - even the good ones - you'll never sleep soundly again.

"But I just cleaned it!"
"How the... What does... Why... How does a gouge like that end up in the middle of a bore!?"
"Is that tar? Or copper? It looks like bubblegum..."

I have several, from two manufacturers. (One 5 meters long, but that's an automotive story.)
I sometimes regret buying them. Bore scopes turn words like "clean" into a means to teleport into some strange alternate reality, where the definitions have no limits, consistency, or true meaning.
 
I have heard that the 22-250 is one of the quickest barrel destroyers, not sure, but I think the .243 is not far behind it.
 
That surface cracking is due to heat expanding the surface of the metal faster than the heat can travel below it (only a couple thousandths of an inch in normal barrel time). Thus you get more expansion of the surface metal than the substrate. That difference causes enough stress to eventually result in the cracks. They don't seem to hurt anything until the small areas surrounded by cracks start to chip or flake off in the throat. Then you can start to see fliers showing up due to some bullets getting a little out of alignment as they are engraved by the throat. G. David Tubb claims his Final Finish system will fix that and double barrel life. It removes the cracked surface and exposes new metal. Something to consider when un-called fliers start to appear.
 
.243 Win is definitely another throat destroyer.
But, as with any of them, you will get substantially longer life if you keep the barrel cool.
 
Unclenick

I used the Tubbs final finish bullets in a fairly new Mossberg 308 rifle, it never shot that good since it was new, but it was a cheap 400 dollar hunting rifle, so I guess I can't expect perfection. But I fired I think around 40 rounds of his bullets that had polishing compound embedded in them, starting from course to very fine, from my experience with that gun, it was no good. I actually had worse groups after using them per the instructions than before I used them.
I would not recommend them in an expensive barrel.
So I gave the rifle to my son and bought a Remington 700 with a heavy 26 inch barrel and so far it has been doing pretty good, plus it doesn't kick the heck out my shoulder because of being about 11 pounds. The cheaper pencil barrel Mossberg only weighed about 5 pounds and kicked like a mule.
 
Yeah, that's something that can happen on occasion. Firelapping's originator, NECO, says they only guarantee the rifle will be easier to clean afterward because of that, though they also claim it more often improves accuracy. But this is why I recommended not trying to do it until accuracy was falling apart anyway due to the heat-stressed areas of the throat falling off and causing uncalled fliers. In other words, try it when you have nothing left to lose.

That said, since you have a borescope, a much more controlled job is possible to do with abrasive-embedded lead bullets and catsneeze loads. You just look at progress after every five rounds and stop when the cracked areas are gone. There can be deep spots left but the sharp edges at the high spots are removed by then, too, and that really does cut down on metal fouling.
 
Borescopes: As FDR, the only thing to fear is fear itself. Come on guys buck up. Once you know what is normal, then you can see what is abnormal.

What a borescope does tell you is how good your barrel cleaning is.

Since I went with Carbon Killer 2000 (mostly) and Boretech, no issues. I buy good barrels (mostly Shilen) and very little copper and the carbon comes out with the CK2000.


If the barrel has had 2000 rounds down it, fire lapping is not going to do any good.

I do my barrel cleaning at the range when the barrel is warm (not hot)

I have found a nylon brush works best as it soaks up the cleaner, I use an eye dropper to apply the CK2 to the nylon brush before I put it through the bore . Then Drizzle more CK2K on the brush sticking out of the barrel, then back and forth 3 -5 .
Apply CK2K to the nylon brush when its sticking out the muzzle after the last stroke, pull it out.

Then a dry patch.

Do that two or three times, then a dry patch when you have the green (CK2K) discoloration showing on the patch and no carbon showing.
One more dry patch to get all of the CK2K out of the bore.


There are similar cleaners to C2K, non haz, non toxic, no odor and very focused on carbon (or copper) - beats the old cleaner all hollow as shown by a boro scope look.

If you get copper then the Bore Tehc Eliminator is very good, it does carbon to, not as good as C2K but good and works for stripping layers of carbon and copper

It to is a non haz, non toxic and pretty odorless. I think others out there as well but that's the one I have used and settled on.

Same clearing MO as the CK2K.
 
What Tubb has claimed is a shot-out barrel can benefit from cleaning up the throat. I can see that because you can see with a borescope that the little segments of cracked surface that look a little like log charcoal can start to flake off, making the throat asymmetrical, and that grows fliers. Tubb says you can clear all the cracked surface off, revealing a new throat surface and thereby doubling barrel life. I have not done that for myself (I'm probably too quick to want to try a different barrel maker's product), but that is the claim.

Bore Tech and Slip 2000 are just about impossible to beat. I've found KG-12 actually is even faster on copper than either Eliminator or Cu++, but it doesn't turn green or blue, so you really need a borescope to be sure it is done with the fouling or you need to follow it with one of the Bore Tech products to see no color change to be sure the copper is gone.
 
Not to derail the thread but fast forward to 8:19 of this video and listen to the part about cleaning to about 13:00. As a F classer I only clean about every 75 - 100 rounds but after watching this I have became more aggressive on my cleaning routine and yes I use a cheap cell phone borescope to check.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFTypsX0wqo
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top