Bore condition

Rex Mahan

Ive been collecting Winchesters for a few years now. For most of that time, I just put a light at one end and looked for a shine and rifling. I did notice some had a better shine than others, and knew that meant that one was not as good as the other.
Of course some were just bad and youd have to be blind not to see it.
Now I have purchased a bore scope from Hawkeye. For me that changed a lot of perspectives. Several guns I used to think were really nice dont have as good a bore as I thought. They shined and had good rifling, but lots of pits. Some worse than others.
My real question isL Some people are able to identify what I see without a scope. When some sellers say mint bore they know it is. What do they see?

I know for some the bores only need to be shootable and for others, some collects see guns as Collector pieces and not shooter. I like to shoot mine and prefer the best bore possible.

Thanks

navc130

I learned that I could not really see a bore's condition without a magnifying glass. Of course, a borescope is much better. As you said, a shiny bore is not necessarily a good, smooth, clean bore.

rufe-snow

The only way to really tell the actual condition, is a bore scope as you have noted.

Without a scope all folks could do in the past, is situate a diffused light source at the chamber end of the barrel. This would indicate the condition of the barrel, to a reasonably knowledgeable individual.

Don't agree they could ascertain if there was very fine pitting/roughness in the interior of the barrel, without a scope.

kimi

Mint = Like New. However, it's apparent that some people have a much different understanding of the word.

Added: White paper works great.

Rex Mahan

I did hear that useing LED lights make the light too bright and you get a better reading using an regular light. One guy even said its better to put paper and use it to reflect light downt the barrel

slumlord44

I hate the led lights. As stated, too bright. Went back to the old regular light. Would love to have the borescope. Have not been able to talk myself into spending the money yet.

gotstolefrom

As kimi, a strip or fold of white paper at an angle in the reciever to reflect light down the bore gives a soft light.
Don't be satisfied with just a bright looking bore. Move or rotate the bbl to move the reflections in the bbl which can give you a little more information. And...swabbing the bore with oil before a buyer checks it out will relect a lot of light, making the bore look nice and shiny , even if it has frosty or lightly pitted areas.

A Mosin 44 I have shows some pitting along the 'first half' of the barrel. If you have just given it a GOOD cleaning, it takes 3 or 4 'fouling' shots to get it where it will shoot 3" to 4" groups again.



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ap55

The best bores do not always make the best shooters. If you are not going to shoot it will be usefull in value only.

yblockhead

I have a Hawkeye bore scope (from my lock-smithing days) and it proved me wrong on what I thought was a good bore on a couple of my rifles. Really nice for checking throat erosion. Works great for inspecting cylinders on motorcycles without pulling the heads.