Cameras and bore scopes

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  • Last Post 07 January 2026
shootcast posted this 05 January 2026

Who’s the authority on what we see looking down our barrels with these devices. 
I’m seeing what is described on a website advertisement as barrel pitting. I have spent over a week with one rifle trying to clean it. I feel it must be embedded lead because some areas actually cleaned up. Other areas look no different. This made me check all my barrels. The ones that I have fired the most with cast alloy bullets all look this way. I know nothing last forever but if this is lead there must be a way to remove it. 

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Boschloper posted this 05 January 2026

My 2 cents.

Borescopes are not our friends. In my professional career, I looked at a lot of bores (and rejected a lot of them).  Barrels on my own guns that I have won postal matches with look worse than some that I have rejected. Bronze wool wrapped around a under sized bore brush will remove the worst leading imaginable. The strong ammonia bore cleaners will remove copper fouling.

Don’t stress over how it looks, how does it shoot?

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shootcast posted this 05 January 2026

Have used choir boy, steel wool and many different solvents. Soaked overnight and started stroking the next day. Some improvement as some ares now look good. Other areas still look the same. No copper or carbon. Just what is described elsewhere as pitting.

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RicinYakima posted this 05 January 2026

Solvents have NO chemical ability to remove lead! That's is the reason in the old labs, counter tops and drains were lead.  They can seep under the built up carbon and "lift" the lead to be pushed out.

Outers "foul out" is 100 effective at removing lead. 

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JeffinNZ posted this 05 January 2026

I agree with Boschloper.  Sometimes ignorance is bliss.  I bought a borescope.  Great bit of kit but caused me lots of worry about barrels that shot fine.

Cheers from New Zealand

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Aaron posted this 05 January 2026

Sometimes the macro view is the best. Yup. Bright and Shiny. 

With rifle in hand, I confidently go forth into the darkness.

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John Alexander posted this 05 January 2026

Boschloper and JeffNZ are absolutely correct. I too have bore scoped lots of bores that I either knew how they grouped before or shot groups afterwards to find out. Some of the worst looking shot better than a lot of "perfect" bores. Even bores with major damage right at the muzzle sometimes shoot great.

Bore scopes are useful for some things but but estimating the grouping ability of a barrel is not one of them.

John

 

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OU812 posted this 05 January 2026

After getting burned by one Remington 700 purchase, i would use my new borescope to inspect bore and throat of barrel before purchase. I've seen some terrible hammer forged remington barrels.

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sluggo posted this 06 January 2026

I have found that some bad looking bores shoot good and some good looking ones don't. The scope comes in handy for other uses, like checking cases for incepent head separation and such. I have used my bore scope to good advantage when it comes to buying a used firearm. Showing the seller a bad looking barrel has helped lower the price several times. My gunsmith says that borescopes keep him busy replacing barrels, a lot of the time without really needing to.

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OU812 posted this 06 January 2026

I have a new unused Bartlin 30 caliber 5 r barrel that I purchased for a 30 BR project. Rotating barrel under light inspection shows this barrel looks very non concentric. Shadow rings inside barrel wobble out of round. I am afraid to pay price to have barrel chambered and installed. Purchased the barrel on sale from Grizzly tool about 5 years ago. This 30 cal barrel is for sale.

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Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 06 January 2026

I have a couple of borescopes ...  my most useful was the short ... 7 inch .... Hawkeye with the 90 degree mirror ...   

the one area that inspection can be valid is the throat/leade ...   also especially for lever actions and 22 semi-autos you can look at see if there is damage near the muzzle from cleaning rods ...

BTW, since retiring 20 years ago and now just mostly *tired* this Hawkeye is for sale relatively cheap.. pm me if.

*******************

the only match barrel i have seen that actually looked like what we dream should show ... was a blackstar ... one of the good ones that they turned out for a couple months ... hart, lilja, shilen, pac-nor..  ... sorry, best not to look real close ... ha

ken in free iowa

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steveu posted this 06 January 2026

As Ken mentioned, you can find something with just about every barrel maker, mostly tool marks. The best one I ever had was a Broughton, made by Harold. He showed me multiple barrels with a scope and they looked great. I use my scope to check whether the barrel is clean and any carbon ring is gone. I have shot some sporterized Ross Mk.III’s that had sewer pipe bores and shot well at 100 yards with cast. Definitely good enough for deer or pigs.

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beemer posted this 06 January 2026

I have a $100 Teslong borescope and think they are worth it. Have found problems, sometimes they can be correct and sometimes not but at least you know. I do like the take a look at he throats to see what I am dealing with. In the end it's just another tool, nice to have when needed.

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shootcast posted this 07 January 2026

Lots of good replies and I’m basically agreeing with. My concern is whether the pitting is pitting or is it hammered in lead. As I stated nothing last forever but every one of my barrels that are past the theory of good accuracy indicates they are pitted. Lead being softer than steel why would this happen. Pitting is said caused by condensation I first noticed this is my 250 Savage that was past down to me from my father. I took my first deer with this rifle. I remember growing up and bringing this rifle indoors after a days hunting. The outside of the barrel condensates . Never thought to check the inside. Even though this rifle is probably as old as I am it never got fired except for deer season. I have owned it over 30 years and put many thousand cast rounds down it. sentimental to me I always try a match with it in hunter class. I have never done well with it. It seems to shoot light plain base loads the best. 
I believe that what looks like pitting is probably hammered in lead. The other barrels that look this way haven’t been exposed to the elements. 

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Lucky1 posted this 07 January 2026

If you could post some pictures of what concerns you; it might give everyone a better idea of what is bothering you. A tale of my 2 Krags. The one with the beautiful bore doesn't shoot worth diddly but the sewer pipe Krag- loves cast. Go figure.

Scott Ingle

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shootcast posted this 07 January 2026

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shootcast posted this 07 January 2026

The first two photos pretty much look like most of barrel. The last photo shows area that cleaned up. If it were pitted it wouldn’t have cleaned up. Looking closely it appears those pits are raised areas with pockets. I might be wrong. 
My military barrel 7x57 small ring Mauser is pitted from breech to muzzle. Supposedly back in the day the primers used caused this. Even as bad as this barrel is, it’s not visible with normal eye sight. Not mine anyway. I have held 10 shots in the 10 ring at 100 yards. Although they look similar I’m not sure it’s the same.

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