The Cheap Chinese Borecam

The Cheap Chinese Borecam

 

The cheap Chinese bore cam.  The photo of the camera in a glass of water is misleading - moisture killed it

 

The €5 Chinese borecam provided this photo of lead fouling in my Mosin-Nagant bore before dying like a crippled Mars probe

Severe leading destroys accuracy

Home Cast rifle bullets are vastly cheaper than factory copper jackets but can cause leading if used with some propellants

The endoscope/laparoscope/borecam have been with us for a long time but cost prevented their use by the average shooter.  In a pattern that has been repeated across the world of electronic gadgetry the Chinese have reduced the cost to a mere couple of euros and the shooter who suffers from bore-neurosis can now inspect the innards of his most important piece of equipment and determine its health at a glance using his smartphone.  A few years ago a bore camera cost £1,000.  Mine cost €5 and I ordered two because in truth I expected one or both to fail rather quickly.  They took months to arrive from somewhere beyond the Yangtze-Kiang and just in time to assist in the cleaning of my much-abused Mosin-Nagant rifle that had been used to test a batch of lead bullets which I expected to cause a bad case of lead fouling.  I set the rifle up in a rest and wiped the bore a couple of times with carburettor cleaner to remove the “easy” stuff – a mixture of bullet lubricant, burnt powder and carbon.  I next inserted the camera cable and was able to see, for the first time, the effect on my bore of several years of shooting copper jacketed and lead bullets.  The pictures I took showed a bore in good overall condition with some blobs of lead here and there – not as bad as I expected.  I followed with a thorough cleaning with steam, copper remover, bore solvent and elbow grease.  I dried and rustproofed the bore and applied the bore scope again.  The second batch of photos showed a clean, bright bore with well defined lands and grooves and no sign of damage, carbon, copper or lead.  Then the camera, like a bee that has given his all in defence of the hive, simply died.  As near as I could ascertain, some liquid had penetrated the camera; the lights dimmed and then the smartphone decided there was no longer a camera connected – always a bad sign.  For €5 I had bought temporary peace of mind and an introduction to bore cameras.  There were several issues apart from the insect-like lifespan.  The camera could not focus inside 14mm so the mirror attachment returned images of the barrel wall that were so blurred as to be useless.  Without the mirror the images were sufficient to show small fragments and debris an inch or two from the lens.  The photographs were useful and informative up to a point but did allow close inspection of the bore surface.  I could not check for wear, cracks or scorching.  I had some photography for comparison provided by Fabian Connolly in which microscopic features were clearly visible.  The most important lesson learned, apart from the fact that you get what you pay for, was that high resolution bore inspection is possible and that it need not cost anything like the prices paid ten years ago. How much exactly one should pay for a serviceable bore scope remains vague – Fabian Connolly thinks prices would start around €80.  Professional gunsmiths will pay a lot more but €80 seems reasonable for a gadget that is used only occasionally.  If it eliminates the need for excessive cleaning and prolongs bore life then it would be money well spent. 

An older but much better quality model borescope provided these images of bore damage.  This model still costs around €700