Stainless Barrel Bore-Scope Discovery

[barnaby]

Stainless 308 Barrel from one of the big three makers. Has 279 rounds on it.

Found a bunch of this with the bore scope.

Rust? Pitting? Or something else?

Should I worry or just shoot it?

Cleaning does not much to remove it.

Regards,

Barnaby

 

[black5.3]

How does it shoot??

 

[smoooth1]

Send it to me, I will dispose of it properly

I'll even pay the shipping cost

 

[jimisbell]

Do you use a wire cleading brush?

 

[Im2bent]

Just shoot it.

 

[Threadcutter308]

Stainless 308 Barrel from one of the big three makers. Has 279 rounds on it.

Found a bunch of this with the bore scope.

View attachment 7717468

Rust? Pitting? Or something else?

Should I worry or just shoot it?

Cleaning does not much to remove it.

Regards,

Barnaby

If you have an air compressor, blow some moderately high pressure air down the bore, then scope it. I cannot say for sure, but that could just be fuzz from cleaning patches. When I first received/started using my borescope, I did have that same issue after cleaning/patching. I didn't realize that I was looking at fuzz, thinking there were problems with the barrel, when indeed there were not.

I bought the Teslong scope that plugs into my MacBook. While I don't necessarily regret it, I am now in the camp of those that think borescopes can cause more problems than they are worth, due to people not correctly interpreting what they are seeing (in the beginning, myself included). I'm going to keep the scope, but it's not going to see a bunch of use.

It's probably pretty hard to buy a bad barrel from any name brand manufacturer these days. Doesn't mean that every once in a while someone might not receive a turd, but pretty damned unlikely. Stick with a name brand manufacturer, shoot it/work up/refine your loads, don't go off into the weeds with the borescope and you should be just fine.

There are a lot of guys that either say "just shoot it", or "how does it shoot ?". They're not wrong.

 

[Rubicon Precision]

It absolutely amazes me how well rifles shot before Chinese borescopes were in every shooters hands….

 

[Boatninja]

Termites

 

[barnaby]

Termites

Sure looks like termites

Never used a wire brush.
Patches and nylon brushes only with Patch-Out.

Mostly just curious about what causes these patterns to develop.

Regards,

Barnaby

 

[GrumpyOleFart]

Think of it as a Damascus pattern.
Not uncommon to see scrawl on the barrel interior.
Just shoot the fuck out of it.

 

[Holliday]

Not uncommon to see scrawl on the barrel interior.

Yep.....

Jesus with the SH sewing circle. Wish some of you guys would start posting pics of your needlepoint in these threads.......

 

[Diablo]

IMO

Barrel is made to shoot.

Do that.

If barrel does not shoot well, replace it.

When you clean, do not leave solvent any longer than is needed to remove what ever you think you needed to remove.

Get the solvent out, neutralize it, finish with an oiled patch and dry patches.

Some like to finish with a lightly oiled patch, and have done this (still do it) with CrMo barrels in wet/humid shit.

Oil/grease seems to attract crud.

If you never go shoot, you won't need to worry about that anyway.

Suggest selling borescope to someone that thinks they need it.

 

[GrumpyOleFart]

I use a bore snake when hunting, a cleaning rod if at home and the OCD kicks in, a bore light, but don't own a borescope.
Confident my barrel is machined right, by it's performance on targets and ferals.

 

[Diablo]

Very good. In that case, shoot till it pukes, rebarrel and do it again.

 

[Steel head]

Stainless 308 Barrel from one of the big three makers. Has 279 rounds on it.

Found a bunch of this with the bore scope.

View attachment 7717468

Rust? Pitting? Or something else?

Should I worry or just shoot it?

Cleaning does not much to remove it.

Regards,

Barnaby

I’ve had that on a few of my shilens.
I’ve read it’s corrosion from leaving a barrel dirty with carbon for extended period in moderately humid conditions.
Both barrels shot excellent with normal round count lives.
I still neglect regular cleanings with my 260 Shilens

 

[Ledzep]

I've seen that before. A friend's barrel had a few patches of that and we're not really sure what happened to cause it but our leading suspicion is that we shot in a really humid place, he put the rifle in the case, and left it there for like 5 weeks before taking it out. Nothing else got rusty but he had bore scoped it when it was fairly new and it didn't have the termite marks before. His rifle still shot well.

 

[seanh]

Toss/sell the bore scope, go shoot. As mentioned, what you took a pic of is not uncommon

 

[Diablo]

It does look like solvent residue/ stain.

Sidenote. Consider all the responses from the borescope haters to be ignorant misinformation. Since they don't use a borescope and have never seen the inside of a barrel.

Reubenski, am not a "hater" and have logged plenty of time using borescopes.

When the user discovers that his barrel has a case of clap, there's no cure, the damage is done.

Choices are to either shoot until it actually needs replacing, or replace the "damaged" barrel and shoot until it needs replacing.

Prior to buying, if you can check a barrel great, do it.

At a minimum, checking with a good borelight (as others have pointed out) is a good idea.

 

[The_engineer]

Threads like this make me thankful I don’t have a bore scope. I’d probably find plenty of imperfections and it would keep me up at night.

 

[Rubicon Precision]

It does look like solvent residue/ stain.

Sidenote. Consider all the responses from the borescope haters to be ignorant misinformation. Since they don't use a borescope and have never seen the inside of a barrel.

Or some of us look at hundreds of barrels a year with a bore scope and understand what may look a bit sketchy under high magnification, and a potentially distorted view, very well could be completely insignificant on target.

 

[barnaby]

Yikes.. did not mean to ignite a bore scope war.

Shoots better than I can from the first 17rd of 175 FGMM since I had the rifle bedded to it's new stock.
Had about a 10 to 15 MPH Gusty headwind as well.

Thanks! for all the advice and comments.

 

[37L1]

It's minor pitting, NBD.

 

[DownhillFromHere]

Until two weeks ago, my cheapo borescope had only seen the inside of Bartlein and Vudoo/Ace barrels. Nicely finished as one would expect.

Then I pulled a safe-queen AR out just to plink with something different. Loaded up some mild 69SMK loads and off to the range. Even with just 3x magnification (etched BDC reticle, not dot), the rifle could hold 1" groups at 100yd. This rifle (16" SS barrel) was made by a well-respected local manufacturer - they make everything in-house down to the pins. They source barrel blanks and do final machining in-house. I've never heard of one of these rifles that wouldn't hold, with match ammo, 1MOA and most (including the two I've owed) will do 1/2MOA most of the time. These are built to be battle rifles, not match guns.

My point: I put the borescope in that AR barrel and was astounded that it could be that accurate with the machining marks, gouges, scratches etc etc etc.

The advent of easily affordable borescopes is a fairly new thing. I understand the "what does this mean" questions; for me personally, the value has been in honing my cleaning routine. It was very enlightening to see how chewed-looking a barrel bore can be, yet still shoot superbly.