After cleaning my Remington 700 with C2R Cleaner in a previous blog post, after seeing the difference from Forrest Bore Foam with C2R, I was interested to see what was going on inside the barrel of my rifle.

I looked on-line for a little while to see what was about and noticed that there are some 5.5mm cheap bore scopes on eBay which may just fit inside the bore of my smallest rifle – 5.56mm (.223).

After a long wait for my package to arrive from Hong Kong (ordered 23rd Sept, Delivered 16th Oct) I set to work plugging it in and having a go.

I ordered a 2M long bore scope from eBay at £8.09 (link) which was an acceptable gamble to see what’s going on inside the barrel of my rifles.

I’m still waiting on a decent rod guide for my RPA from the Shooting Shed ready to do a before and after on my 7.62mm RPA target rifle. Since I only ordered it Friday it’s not quite arrived, however I have done the before test. This is a test of both the camera, and also to see what’s going on inside my barrel of my “Forrest Foam Cleaned” rifle – I now have absolutely no doubt that my cleaning routines are sub-satisfactory however now I know, I can make steps to make it better.

Here’s the bore scope “Before” through my 30″ Krieger Stainless Steel Barrel.

Starting at the chamber from the outset it is obvious that there is some surface rust from the very beginning of the barrel all the way to the end – I need to make sure after cleaning that the rifle is well oiled to stop it rusting in storage.

At 25 seconds in there appears to be some fabric from the patch in the bore, perhaps pay attention to the quality of patches getting stuffed down the tube.

It’s hard to tell due to the quality of the bore scope what some of the white spots throughout the barrel actually are, however We’ll see if there is the same amount of rust and crud within the rifle when the rod guide arrives and I can clean it with C2R.

My Action on this rifle is horribly rusty and will be cleaned thoroughly with brushes, C2R and well oiled to hopefully clear up the action as seen at the end of this video.

Check back soon to see the results after C2R.

The Camera

The camera is very easy to use, the quality is not spotless, however an idea of what’s going on inside the rifle can clearly be seen. Machine marks however are not easily apparent, and differentiating between carbon build up and shadows from the camera is quite cheap xanax pills difficult.

This model came with a 90 degree adaptor, however since the focus is set 2 inches from the lens, the barrel is too close for the camera to focus.

One other gripe, which may be more my phone, is that the camera connects to CameraFi (a popular android software for USB cameras) however it doesn’t stay connected for longer than 15 seconds before disconnecting – I can’t find any settings which may be disconnecting the camera and is quite frustrating. The camera gives higher resolution from computer though, and works flawlessly on my PC using free software (MyCam – as always, be careful what you install on your computer).

It also has a tendency to twist in the barrel, which may cause issues if you were trying to pinpoint where on a barrel may have an issue. I’m sure practice with it will help alleviate this issue.

Does it fit in .223?

Thankfully, yes it does.

This is the .223 that I cleaned with C2R earlier this month. The chamber and first 18 inches or so are clean and oiled well, however the bore scope shows that my oiling routine worked well for the first 18 inches, however rust is prevalent in the rest of the barrel.

There seems to be a lot less “shadow” of carbon in the grooves compared to the 7.62mm “Before” shown above.  There are also a couple of questionable patches within the barrel that I don’t really know what they are. Seen at 51 seconds in and again at 1:03.

I’m not sure whether the bore scope is a curse or a godsend. I was happy before not knowing there was (quite so much) rust inside my barrels and will they now make me wonder if it’s me or my cleaning when I (inevitably) miss.

Still, when I get 5 mins spare I’ll put some more patches through the Remington too and try and shift this surface rust and give it considerably more oil down the barrel for storage.

It also leads me to think that the desiccant in my safe is not quite up to the task.