Help identify borescope discoveries please?

[Widows Son]

Hello, I hope everyone is doing well.

I just got a borescope and I ran it down my Parker-Hale Whitworth barrel. I’ve had this rifle for about 10 months and I always clean it to a military standard, as I do all my firearms. It was made in 1978 and I have no idea how many homes it has had. When I bought it, it was in rather unloved condition. It was dirty and had rust all along the underside of the barrel. I cleaned it up and have been obsessing over it ever since.

The borescope shocked me! There were rust ‘freckles’ all along the bore that no amount of scrubbing with bore brushes and 0000 steel wool would shift. I had to resort to a chemical solution to remove the rust, which worked perfectly. Yes, before anyone asks, I was exceedingly careful and followed the instructions closely and flushed out all trace of the chemical product. No damage whatsoever was incurred.

I’m attaching a couple of pictures of the bore. There are a few white coloured splotches in the lower half of the bore which I can’t identify. Is it leading or pitting? I have only ever used paper-patched projectiles in this rifle, so I don’t think any leading was caused by me. Also in the upper 1/3rd of the bore there are two white hexagonal lines around the bore. Strange.

 

[SDSmlf]

Looks typical of many of the ‘bright and shiny’ bores I have looked at. Many of the ‘4-5 wet patch and lubricate’ cleaning types would be shocked if they really looked down their gun’s bores. The guns shoot well, so everything is ok, until they don’t shoot well.

Is the gun accurate enough for you? If so, keep the gun clean and shoot it. May be more difficult to load and clean than you like, but that’s what you have. You say you tried steel wool, have you tried Scotch-Brite or a product like Big 45 Frontier Metal Cleaner to polish and smooth things up a bit?

 

[Widows Son]

Thank you for your reply.

Actually the rifle is easy to load. I wipe between shots to keep the fouling consistent and the patches don’t snag on anything and the weight of the ramrod pushes the projectile down.
As far as accuracy goes, so far I haven’t seen anything bad that I can’t attribute to my own skills( or lack thereof.) The rifle itself is sound.

For the sake of appearance I would like to brighten up the metal in the bore. Perhaps a bore paste of one brand or another?

 

[Erwan]

For the sake of appearance I would like to brighten up the metal in the bore. Perhaps a bore paste of one brand or another?

Perhaps the JB-Bore, the Ultrabrite toothpaste of the barrels...

 

[LME]

Thank you for your reply.

Actually the rifle is easy to load. I wipe between shots to keep the fouling consistent and the patches don’t snag on anything and the weight of the ramrod pushes the projectile down.
As far as accuracy goes, so far I haven’t seen anything bad that I can’t attribute to my own skills( or lack thereof.) The rifle itself is sound.

For the sake of appearance I would like to brighten up the metal in the bore. Perhaps a bore paste of one brand or another?

"The weight of the ramrod is all it take to seat a ball? That is not as tight as I have to get for accuracy?

 

[Erwan]

"The weight of the ramrod is all it take to seat a ball? That is not as tight as I have to get for accuracy?

Minié may-be ... ?

 

[Rifleratt]

My son came to me and said he cleaned his cva .50, I said "let's just see." After 2 more times cleaning and the scotchbrite treatment with Kroll. It looks better than the first time. They may look clean, but they aren't.

I just put about 20 rounds through my pedersoli Quigley 45/70 from brand new. It's amazing how you can see the machining marks and how well , or not so well the barrel was cut and getting cleaned.

 

[Brokenbear]

The white rings may ..just may be optical and not there to the bare eye or actually exist
I see oxidized lead which I think a good lead remover applied (Hoppes) and brushed and patched clean and repeated until the white along the lands is gone ..
Then JB Compound to lap it out to a smoother finish
If the above does not clean it up to expectations ..and just on the off chance that some one has run plastic in some form thru it look at this:
https://www.brownells.com/gun-clean...re-solvents/shotgun-wad-solvent-prod1166.aspxNow if you really are desperate ..while brushing (bronze brush only/aluminum rod only) the bbl with the lead remover ..chuck your rod in a varible speed drill (obviously do not reverse the drill) and at low speed move it in and out slowly
We are talking more than one pot of coffee so just be patient ..that barrel will clean up a lot better than it is now

Bear

 

[user 48702]

Big 45 Frontier Metal Cleaner

Big believer in it, I have had several rifles that I thought the bores were shot, but after cleaning with Hoppes scrubbed with Big 45, I found that what I thought was rust or pitting was actually built up lead and crud due to poor cleaning in the past.

 

[deerstalkert]

with my borescope it boils down to "who you going to believe? the vid feed picture or your lying eyes?"
i can steam clean a bore, scrub it with the scotch brite method and the borescope shows black grooves and dark lands.
just for giggles i ran it down the barrel of a unmentionable that has never been fired.
black grooves and dark lands.
i then tossed a barrel light down the Flinter bore. the shine of those self same rifling's was blinding.
i only use the borescope now to look for fouling deposits, check vent liner protrusion, and to look for rust.
optics are wonderful but are just a gadget we have to help with our new crop of ulcer's.

 

[Widows Son]

I appreciate everyone’s advice. Thank you.

 

[Widows Son]

"The weight of the ramrod is all it take to seat a ball? That is not as tight as I have to get for accuracy?

It’s not a patch round ball rifle. It’s a Victorian era target rifle using paper patched conicals.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Big 45 Frontier Metal Cleaner

Big believer in it ...

Me too, a PHENOMENAL product for gun care!

 

[Eric Krewson]

My Teslong bore scope takes pictures so clear they are frightening, and make you wonder about your cleaning procedures, head on pictures make everything look terrible, side pictures tell the truth.

Head on, rusty looking;

Side, the same TC Hawkins as in the above picture, lots of milling marks but no corrosion.

 

[deerstalkert]

I need to replace my chincom bore scope with a Teslong i think. mine doesn't do sideways. all shots are forward and make the bore look black.

 

[SDSmlf]

My Teslong bore scope takes pictures so clear they are frightening, and make you wonder about your cleaning procedures, head on pictures make everything look terrible, side pictures tell the truth.

Head on, rusty looking;

View attachment 145476

Side, the same TC Hawkins as in the above picture, lots of milling marks but no corrosion.

View attachment 145477

My Teslong will definitely let you know if you have rust, crud, carbon buildup or whatever. Photographs of the same spot in a bore, before and after a cleanup. Using one of their WiFi models with photographs saved on my phone.

 

[Rifleratt]

This isn't my muzzloader but my Quigley 45-70. Looks like I have to address some leading. These teslong cameras are a cats meow; and I don't like cats.

 

[SDSmlf]

This isn't my muzzloader but my Quigley 45-70. Looks like I have to address some leading. These teslong cameras are a cats meow; and I don't like cats.

For getting lead buildup out of most any bore (would not use on a brass bore for example) I have found Big 45 Frontier Metal Cleaner to be one of the better products out there. Wrap a little bit around a bronze cleaning brush and the lead along with anything else that’s not supposed to be in the bore is gone.

 

[Widows Son]

Thank you for your help. My bore camera is not capable of side views but I certainly see how useful it is.
I may have to order that Big 45 stuff from overseas, I’ve never seen it in Australia.

 

[KIt]

I have an Winchester, model 54 30-06 rifle that was my Uncles. It is 100 years old more or less. It has that "alligator" checking in the bore. I was told by a gunsmith that the gun is safe to shoot, but the checking does contriibute to degraded accuracy. It never was meant to be a target rifle, but it should last for another 100 years if used as a hunting rifle.