Borescope images

Just got myself a borescope. Not for any particular reason other than I love playing with Techy stuff and it seemed like a good idea.
Anyway maybe I've opened a large can of worms. Most of my rifle are quite new and/or on a very low round count so I was expecting the bores to be pristine.
Here are some images taken in the bore of a Tikka T3x .223 which is only a few months old and has had no more than 50 rounds down the bore.
For those of you who have experience with borescopes. What are those white areas I am looking at?

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Looks like it could just be some residue that's oxidised or a bit dander that's found its way in. Push an oily patch through, then a dry one, then take another look.

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Originally Posted by Pommy

Looks like it could just be some residue that's oxidised or a bit dander that's found its way in. Push an oily patch through, then a dry one, then take another look.

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After the first pass with the borescope and seeing this white stuff I then brushed the bore out with a bronze brush and patched it out, the marks were still there as per the images.

dont have a 90degree mirrow with your borescope?

And that didn't remove even a smidge of it? Maybe soak it for a bit and have another go.

I reckon give it a good clean with some boretec and see afterwards.

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Originally Posted by STC

dont have a 90degree mirrow with your borescope?

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Yes I do have a 90 degree attachement. would images from that give a better perspective?
I did try that but the marks were nowhere near as obvious as in these images

Looks a bit like lead. Either way could do with a clean and recheck

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Originally Posted by zeropak

Yes I do have a 90 degree attachement. would images from that give a better perspective?
I did try that but the marks were nowhere near as obvious as in these images

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With the mirror lens on you may well see the froward looking view as well on the screen. I can with my teslong one

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Originally Posted by zeropak

Yes I do have a 90 degree attachment. would images from that give a better perspective?
I did try that but the marks were nowhere near as obvious as in these images

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For "unknowns" having different perspectives tends to be a good thing. And the 90 degree image should give you a nice close-up. Problem with some of the cheaper "borescopes" is that the 90 degree image will not be clear because the cameras focus point is wrong. Teslong is the only one I know where that is not an issue (but there might very well be others).

I had a similar experience, a brand new bore I had had images like that and also a brown sort of looking stuff that had me panicking thinking it was rust, this was in a brand new unfired barrel, after some googling I came to the conclusion it is some sort of protective coating that hadn't been cleaned out properly and had baked in, after allot of cleaning it came out and the bore came up perfect, I believe it probably doesn't make that much difference any way and most people don't have a scope so ignorance is bliss.

I cannot remember what got it out in the end, possibly soaked it in Kero, or JB bore paste, but I don't go crazy with that stuff.

Some pictures to give you an idea of what was in mine
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Looks like it might be the remains of a similar coating, that is slowly wearing away.

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Originally Posted by rusl

Some pictures to give you an idea of what was in mine
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rust

@STC my first thought aswell, but if it was rust a simple clean would have made a difference to it but I tried multiple things for 3 nights until it started to make any difference, it was some sort of coating

You have to be very careful with borescopes, they will show you a whole lot of magnified "issues" that aren't

All that matters is what the rifle (and driver) will do on the target

I have seen plenty of horrific sights with my bore scopes & when you shoot the rifle there is clearly "nothing to see here"

However once you get the hang of driving them and can recognise, rust, corrosion, copper, carbon, lead fouling, fire cracking & damage etc they are a helpful tool especially on brand new rifles....

As above. How does it shoot? Have you had a drop in velocity?
Cool toy but can cause more worry than needed.

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Originally Posted by Kiwi Greg

You have to be very careful with borescopes, they will show you a whole lot of magnified "issues" that aren't

All that matters is what the rifle (and driver) will do on the target

I have seen plenty of horrific sights with my bore scopes & when you shoot the rifle there is clearly "nothing to see here"

However once you get the hang of driving them and can recognise, rust, corrosion, copper, carbon, lead fouling, fire cracking & damage etc they are a helpful tool especially on brand new rifles....

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This what Greg said
More harm than use to the average hunter

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borescopes highlight issues. Often they do that before those issues manifest themselves with regards to a rifles accuracy. By the time a gun does no longer shoot well because of corrosion/pitting it is too late.

Seen many a barrel. Looks like rust to me too.

I had a 6.5-06 that had the screw hole for the rear sight drilled through into the barrel (whoops) and it still shot superbly - 50mm 10 shot groups at 300m in competition were not uncommon. Of course, AR15's have a hole deliberately drilled into the barrel, and they can be tuned to extreme levels of accuracy - what I am trying to say is that a hole, some pitting or surface imperfections aren't necessarily the end of the world accuracy wise.

If it was mine I'd clean it back to bare metal with an abrasive on a patch, shoot it and see what I had. Consistent, repeatable accuracy is more important than borescope photos.

Thank for the input so far. I am actually very happy with the accuracy of this rifle. 5 shots well under the inch at 100m. later today I will give the barrel a wipe out with JB's bore cleaner and see what it look likes after that. As @kiwigreg says bore scopes do tend to open a can of worms but its hard to ignore what you see.

Never run a bore scope down the barrel of an accurate gun lol. It'll often show "problems" that aren't really problems. Ignorance is usually bliss in this case, imo.

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Originally Posted by ChrisW

Never run a bore scope down the barrel of an accurate gun lol. It'll often show "problems" that aren't really problems. Ignorance is usually bliss in this case, imo.

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Especially to the untrained eye

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I have had a borescope for a few years. I do agree what you see sometimes needs interpretation. In saying that I have rifles with new barrels and one can see machining marks in them. Looking at a new Remington barrel compared to a cut and lapped S&L barrel is chalk and cheese.
Where I find them useful is checking cleaning and copper defouling regime is working, and also buying second had rifles.
What is intriguing is how good some of the barrels I have in some of my older rifles. Some of most beautiful barrels I have are an early Winchester 30.30 1894, Gevarm .22, and Browning .22 auto.
But the bore scope has saved me from laying down big cash on high end rifles with supposedly mint barrels.
My 2cents worth.

Never seen rust like that in a stainless barrel. Rust is usually a mass of pitting or worm tracks and that is not apparent here.

Seems more like a coating that is burnt on. Try wrapping a bronze brush with patches and bore paste, with a bore guide and stainless cleaning rod....give it lots of passes and check a specific area by marking the borescope position......it should come up bright and shining. It needs to come out otherwise corrosion is guaranteed to work away hidden underneath.......!

I think the main issue in using a borescope effectively is interpreting the images as you see them. here are 2 images of the inside of a 6.5 Creedmmor barrel with a low round count. The directly down the barrel image looks like the inside of a drainpipe but the side view shows a different story. In those 1st images I posted I believe the bright spots were just the light of the borescope reflecting of either a small piece of copper fouling or a small imperfection on the barrel surface.

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One thing to bear in mind is that a land may only be 2-4 thou tall. You're able to see imperfections at a tenth of a thou level to give some sort of scale to this.