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I rather fancy the idea of having a borescope "on hand" at home to check cleanliness/barrel state. Does anyone know of/have experience of a reasonably priced one?

No is the short answer (that i've found anyway). All of the ones priced at a point i'd be interested in as an individual are usually too large in diameter for anything other than a shotgun, which don't particularly benefit, or need one :roll:

If someone does find one that could be used in .22 or .30 cal guns i'd be very interested

I brought a cheapie, the usb type, from that well known auction site a while back - it has its limitations but is ok for what I use it for. It only has 640x480 resolution but with a bit of tweaking of the variable led's it is fine for looking down the bore of my Martini Henry, 451 Volunteer and 8mm Kropatschek and the throats of the smaller stuff but I haven't tried it on the 308 or Mauser yet.
It worked a treat looking into the bird box to see how the coal tit chicks were doing too.

For a proper Hawkeye borescope we are talking c. £500. This seems an incredible amount of money but, when you realise what it can save you, it's cheap!

If you ever buy a secondhand rifle - it's invaluable - and you'll get to beat the price down! If you buy a new factory rifle - you can choose the best barrel - some can be horrible!

You'll also improve your cleaning regime and extend the life of your barrel (I'm always 'salvaging' barrels that were ditched as 'shot out' by the owners - they just needed a good clean!).

Your borescope will tell you if your barrel is worth 'topping & tailing' rather than replacing.

If you are a serious comp. shooter, you need to know if it's you or the barrel when your shooting 'goes off'!

You'll soon wonder how you managed without one!

Try looking for rigid endoscopes as well.

I use an Olympus system which is absolutely superb however I shudder to think what it would cost new. Matt of this forum has a digital bore scope that did not break the bank and worked really well when we tested it at the end of last year, hopefully he will pick up this thread and give us details of the model and make.

You could make one
http://www.targetmasteruk.com/page5.htm#127371

Demonic69 wrote:You could make one
http://www.targetmasteruk.com/page5.htm#127371

Interesting idea! Although I don't fancy the hassle of finding (importing!) a bore viewer.

snayperskaya wrote:Try looking for rigid endoscopes as well.

Good call- my quick ebay earlier didn't bring any up but a bit more searching may be in order

ovenpaa wrote:I use an Olympus system which is absolutely superb however I shudder to think what it would cost new. Matt of this forum has a digital bore scope that did not break the bank and worked really well when we tested it at the end of last year, hopefully he will pick up this thread and give us details of the model and make.

Having used high end optical kit (electronic microscopes) I'm sure that the Olympus system would be fantastic, and reassuringly mortgage-inducingly expensive!

The Gun Pimp wrote:For a proper Hawkeye borescope we are talking c. £500. This seems an incredible amount of money but, when you realise what it can save you, it's cheap!

If you ever buy a secondhand rifle - it's invaluable - and you'll get to beat the price down! If you buy a new factory rifle - you can choose the best barrel - some can be horrible!

You'll also improve your cleaning regime and extend the life of your barrel (I'm always 'salvaging' barrels that were ditched as 'shot out' by the owners - they just needed a good clean!).

Your borescope will tell you if your barrel is worth 'topping & tailing' rather than replacing.

If you are a serious comp. shooter, you need to know if it's you or the barrel when your shooting 'goes off'!

You'll soon wonder how you managed without one!

This is basically the jist of what I want it for- I don't compete (aside from some smallbore stuff on occasion!) but the idea of "checking up" on my cleaning (prompted by some dodgy results recently) and barrel condition (unknown number of rounds through my .308 in a previous owners hands but I suspect I'm topping 1k (only started record keeping about 12 months after I got it ). As it's a Steyr SPG I'd rather not rebarrel early.

The issue of checking potential purchases is a good one but my planned purchases (7.62x39- probably new, .303 and some shotguns) don't justify an expensive system.

I wonder if something like this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-USB-Insp ... f#shpCntId

or this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5M-Waterproof ... 460f6c27e0

is worth a punt, although I think the second will be a little tight down a .308....

Remember to check the diameter of the end of the bore scope/device as some are in the 9-10mm range which means they are limited to chamber work only.

The Olympus system I use is superb, has a separate light control system and can be steered remotely. A friend came across it after his company was taken over and all of the existing equipment was thrown in a skip for some unknown reason, it came with the Samsonite case, full spares package and to this day still looks brand new.

I have an Olympus one, cost £8000.00 but its very good.

I also have three of these,

http://www.dartsystems.co.uk/products/e ... -1069.html

Also work well, but you get what you pay for.