On Sunday I set up the borescope and went about inspecting the chamber and bore of my Marlin 1894 followed by a clean. I had at hand some Riflecraft cleaner (i.e. Bore Tech) and Wipeout tactical. I do have other cleaners but these are my go to cleaners for general cleaning.
Setting up the Borescope
Setting up the bore scope with my Android Samsung S8 was straight forward, but I wanted to give some tips which I found useful.
The package includes a QR code in the instructions to download “Endoscope camera” from the Play Store. This app was buggy and would often crash after taking a picture and would never save a recorded video. I would recommend downloading “Teslong HD Camera” as this app worked very well. This app only works when the borescope is plugged into your phone using the provided USB cable and you have given the necessary permissions to run On the Go (OTG). The USB cable provided also comprises a USB-C, so you can open the adapter and connect to your Android smartphone which has USB-C connection. From there, you can use the app to take pictures or record videos. I found this adapter to be a little sloppy, and the camera would disconnect from my phone if the cable was pulled on causing misalignment with the adapter. The cable has more than enough length so make sure the adapter isn’t pulled when moving the borescope through your bore. Within the app you can set the image and video quality. Taking a picture or recording a video is a simple one touch operation.
The camera works at a fixed focal range and it was pretty much set up to work for a .223 bore. Since I was using it with my .357, the distance between the chamber/bore and the camera was longer than the focal length. You can adjust the focal length on the camera by screwing the mirror towards the camera and then tightening the locking ring between the mirror and the camera. There’s a bit of trial and error here.
Cleaning
As mentioned above I had Riflecraft bore cleaner and Wipeout Tactical. I used the Pro Shot Chamber cleaning kit along with a jag and 2” round patch (suitable for .35-.38 cal). The Wipeout is not pictured. For the bore, I used a standard parker hale .30 cal rod with a jag and 2” round patch.
I started off with a complete stripping of the firearm followed by taking pictures of the chamber and bore in a “pre clean” state. I then proceeded to clean the chamber using Riflecraft bore cleaner followed by a bore inspection and taking a video. Finally, I cleaned the chamber using Wipeout followed by another bore inspection and taking a second video. I took screenshots from the videos. See the first load of pictures below, showing (left to right):
- Pre clean
Post Riflecraft / Bore Tech
Post Wipeout
Chamber (click
HERE for full resolution of the collage)
Cleaning was performed by using one wet patch followed by two dry patches . Here are the patches after each respective clean (left to right).
- Top row is the carbon ring at the throat
Middle row is centre of the chamber
Bottom row is towards the edge of the chamber
Bore (click
HERE for full resolution of the collage)
After cleaning the chamber I went ahead and repeated the cleaning regime for the bore. Here are the patches after each respective clean (left to right).
Top row is towards the muzzle of the firearm
Bottom row is towards the throat
Summary
From the pictures it looks like the Riflecraft / Bore Tech did a good job of cleaning the chamber to the point where the Wipeout didn't pick up anything, but the chamber was not fully clean. The carbon ring has mostly disappeared but I reckon the chamber could be cleaner. Reading online it sounds like JB bore paste plus a good fitting felt pellet will do the trick so I’ll go ahead and make an order.
In terms of the bore, I’m now 100% certain that my rifle is a Remlin
If the tool marks on the inside of the receiver weren’t bad enough just look at those tool marks half way down the bore! It’s funny because it’s actually a pretty accurate rifle at 25m when standing. During load development I was easily getting cloverleaf groups which is good enough for me as 99% of the time I shoot this as a gallery rifle. The bore does look shinier but not a great deal cleaner. The patches didn't feel overly tight so I had to overlap two patches, I reckon this is because I was using a .30cal jag rather than a slightly larger one so I will be order an appropriately sized jag.
In terms of the Teslong bore scope, I’m very impressed! Inexpensive and produces good quality images/video with an easy to use app. There’s not much difference in image quality between taking pictures or taking a screenshot from a video, but you need to make sure you capture a frame where the camera remained still and in focus!
Now, I can only image the state on the bore of the 1920's Mosin that I have...
