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Gunsmithing Damage to bore?

TVLLIVS

Private
Minuteman
Oct 23, 2018
36
11
These are some borescope shots of the last two inches of my bore on my brand new Tikka T3X CTR. I've fired approximately 80 rounds through the pipe and it seems like there may be damage to the bore. When I initially noticed this, I sent the rifle back to Stoeger (our Beretta/Tikka distributor in Canada) for warranty and was told that they noticed nothing "abnormal" and shot the rifle with no accuracy issues. I borrowed my friend's borescope so I could get a clearer image of what I was seeing and I feel like this isn't normal considering the rest of my bore is clean. Now this may be dismissed as borescope hysteria and I'm willing to own that, but I figured that a few of you here could give some educated insight to a non-expert.

Thanks!
 

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Looks like carbon to me nothing nefarious to my eye. Have you tried cleaning it with clr?
 
Looks like fouling to me.

Over in the reloading forum some guy is obsessing because his case runout is .004" or something after loading, yet he doesn't tell us how that ammo shoots. I told him the purpose of reloading was to make accurate ammo, not to make ammo with zero runout.

So I ask you, how does that rifle shoot?
 
Looks like carbon to me nothing nefarious to my eye. Have you tried cleaning it with clr?

I’ve only used boretech C4 and a nylon brush so far with no luck getting it out. Ive heard CLR works for the baked on stuff so I may just try it out.
 
Looks like fouling to me.

Over in the reloading forum some guy is obsessing because his case runout is .004" or something after loading, yet he doesn't tell us how that ammo shoots. I told him the purpose of reloading was to make accurate ammo, not to make ammo with zero runout.

So I ask you, how does that rifle shoot?

The rifle shoots well, half MOA or better. I’m just concerned that the the performance of the barrel will diminish faster if the crucial last few inches of the bore are damaged.
 
The rifle shoots well, half MOA or better. I’m just concerned that the the performance of the barrel will diminish faster if the crucial last few inches of the bore are damaged.
The last few inches of the barrel see virtually zero wear from firing. The throat is what gets destroyed over time.
 
The rifle shoots well, half MOA or better. I’m just concerned that the the performance of the barrel will diminish faster if the crucial last few inches of the bore are damaged.

Shoot the piss out of it. If you aren't having issues why worry about it?
 
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Use Boretech stuff but use a brass brush a good one not the cheap one's and scrub.
First use a bunch of patches with the bore tech stuff to soften the fouling up.
Then the brass brush. Remember to fully pass the brush out and pull it back to scrub the tuff out.
Let it sit after brushing it will soak through better.
Final a few patches to make sure it's all out and then a few with a break cleaner to remove any residue.
 
If the rifle shoots the way you say it does and most Tikka owners will back up that claim get rid of the Borescope and be happy.
If you want a barrel you can admire with a Borescope get a custom barrel but you might also find imperfections there as well.
Let the barrel tell you what it likes and dislikes based on rate of fouling and type of fouling and round count before accuracy deteriorates.
 
Chemicals, a brass brush, soaking time and frequent cleaning is how you manage a factory barrel. If you wait until you HAVE to clean it. It's going to take a long time. That's when people prematurely turn to extreme measures.
 
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Frank needs to ban any newer members from asking about a bore scope image without a release from a mod.
Nice thing about the Teslong is that it's cheap enough that when you finally figure out you've been mostly chasing your tail, you don't feel bad about coming across it six months later in the back of the bottom drawer of your tool box, gathering dust.

When I first got mine, I scoped a brand new Bartlein .308 blank that I had just chambered. Christ, it had "pits and cracks" all over it. I was so shocked that it took me a minute, then I remembered that I had also just cleaned it and dry patched it. Those "pits and cracks" were lint from the dry patch :rolleyes:. I blew it out with shop air and guess what ? The bore was "perfect" when I scoped it the second time. Sure am glad I din't call Bartlein and complain. Or, even worse, start bad mouthing them here. (neither of which happened).
Borescopes are like any other tool. You have to know how to use it and know what you are looking at. I'd buy the Teslong again But, I now know that you can get yourself really wrapped around the axle very quickly if you don't know what you are looking at and more importantly, the significance (if any) of what you are looking at.

Just go shoot it........ ;)
 
There needs to be a guide stickied on borescope use. These threads are getting out of hand.

A compilation of images of what you might encounter and that there is nothing wrong.
If the gun shoots, stop worrying about it.
It's a cleaning tool. Used to check for carbon rings and how bad copper fouling is. As long as you don't drop the rifle off a cliff in Colorado and then clean the bore with a rusty ram rod, odds are its going to be fine.
 
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If the newbies don't ask and if we don't explain stuff. They don't learn stuff and they will remain newbies. That's what experience does it transfer knowledge.
If not we cease to exist.
 
Nice thing about the Teslong is that it's cheap enough that when you finally figure out you've been mostly chasing your tail, you don't feel bad about coming across it six months later in the back of the bottom drawer of your tool box, gathering dust.

When I first got mine, I scoped a brand new Bartlein .308 blank that I had just chambered. Christ, it had "pits and cracks" all over it. I was so shocked that it took me a minute, then I remembered that I had also just cleaned it and dry patched it. Those "pits and cracks" were lint from the dry patch :rolleyes:. I blew it out with shop air and guess what ? The bore was "perfect" when I scoped it the second time. Sure am glad I din't call Bartlein and complain. Or, even worse, start bad mouthing them here. (neither of which happened).
Borescopes are like any other tool. You have to know how to use it and know what you are looking at. I'd buy the Teslong again But, I now know that you can get yourself really wrapped around the axle very quickly if you don't know what you are looking at and more importantly, the significance (if any) of what you are looking at.

Just go shoot it........ ;)
I just bought my teslong to show me carbon rings and cleaning.
I acknowledged I’m incredibly ignorant about what I see in a barrel but it has shown how atrocious a barrel can look yet still shoot well.
 
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I'm all for learning a.d teaching. I just wish there was a rquired in depth read before asking. Lots of guys quick to blame barrels with out a problem
 
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If you think this is bad, go read the reloading forum. Holy fucking rabbit hole of useless crap Batman
 
If you think this is bad, go read the reloading forum. Holy fucking rabbit hole of useless crap Batman
I know. I skim through just to see. Honestly the new and same question over and over or not listening is getting worse. I understand people wanting help but its not really people learning just trying to fix something they don't understand.
 
i think time certain people attend a gunsmithing school when their gun shoots flipping great but their bore looks like shit... to their untrained eyes.