Is this pitting or Carbon deposits?

coyoteking

coyoteking

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I just got a borescope and I’m amazed at how poorly some of my rifles bores are looking. I’m not sure what I’m looking at here. Theses spots appear to be raised bumps, darker than the barrel steel, so I’m assuming its carbon deposits?

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There was a lot of carbon in this barrel. I ran a few patches of Hoppes Black, let it soak, then ran a few more followed by some dry patches. Then I soaked it overnight with Patch-out which removed the little bit of copper that was remaining.

There was still a lot of carbon so I ran a smaller nylon brush wrapped with a patch covered with JB Bore bright. I made 50 passes with this and it really cleaned the bore up nicely, but I’m still left with a few of these spots.

The rifle is a Ruger precision in 6.5 CM with 700 rounds through it. Until recently it was shooting in the .4’s, but the last couple of range trips it had opened up to 1moa.

I know the photos aren’t the greatest but I appreciate any opinions. Thanks!
 

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It might be an optical illusion or a function of the photo process, but I see those as "pits" - depressions into the steel - not as raised things. Is what I noticed when I got my bore scope a few years ago - really did not know what I was seeing, nor did I know the consequences of it. I can not predict how well a rifle will shoot by looking at its bore - but I can and do see the progress of various cleaners at removing stuff in there - and that was from barrels that I had thought were "clean" - before I got a borescope ...

I might be totally "out to lunch", but do not think your barrel is explaining that variation that you experience - perhaps the last bullet diameter of the rifling? Perhaps the muzzle sharpness? Perhaps the bedding? Perhaps the scope or mounts? There are many things that can change a .4 MOA rifle into a 1 MOA rifle - assuming that you had a statistically valid expectation for that. Not based on a single group, for example.
 
Potashminer said:
It might be an optical illusion or a function of the photo process, but I see those as "pits" - depressions into the steel - not as raised things. Is what I noticed when I got my bore scope a few years ago - really did not know what I was seeing, nor did I know the consequences of it. I can not predict how well a rifle will shoot by looking at its bore - but I can and do see the progress of various cleaners at removing stuff in there - and that was from barrels that I had thought were "clean" - before I got a borescope ...
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Yeah, I’m almost regretting getting this thing. lol.

I guess I’ll see on the next range trip if this rifle shoots decent again. I’ll be happy with consistent .75 moa. If I don’t see any improvement then I’ll just re-barrel it and take better care of the new barrel.
 
Potashminer said:
A late thought - after 700 rounds - have you re-checked your lands? Maybe they have worn, and is time to re-jig your bullet jump?
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I have bumped out my seating depth a couple of times, but it’s probably time to look at doing it again. Especially now that I’ve cleaned the barrel this thoroughly. Good tip!
 
OP,
You have witnessed pits in the bore.

Do not chase the lands with reloads so you can ascertain how many rounds it takes to get the barrel back shooting groups & then you will know how many foulers are required after a thorough cleaning.

Each barrel shoots different....each barrel cleans different....each barrel fouls different.

What does the leade look like-alligator skin?
Is the crown sharp or worn?
What powder burst pattern is in the crown after shooting?

If the leade looks like alligator skin(fire cracking)-set the barrel back & run a reamer in to clean up the leade.
Cut the crown to refurbish it.
 
coyoteking said:
Yeah, I’m almost regretting getting this thing. lol.

I guess I’ll see on the next range trip if this rifle shoots decent again. I’ll be happy with consistent .75 moa. If I don’t see any improvement then I’ll just re-barrel it and take better care of the new barrel.
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I wish everyone would get a borescope. I could give up my day job and just screw on and chamber new barrels for people every six months.
 
maynard said:
I wish everyone would get a borescope. I could give up my day job and just screw on and chamber new barrels for people every six months.
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This! When I got my Hawkeye 30 years ago I was totally amazed at what I thought was a pristine bore.

I've chambered and fit top dollar air gauged barrels that looked perfect and only would perform so so and shot some old crappy barrels that looked like cobble stone and they shot sub moa.... Shoot the thing man or you'll spend way too much on therapy.
 
"Thorough cleaning" - as was posted above - is no guarantee, at all, that a particular barrel will shoot its best when perfectly clean - almost all need some level of fouling to be consistent - and then accuracy will drop off as the fouling gets to be too much - is a game - not the same one barrel to another - one barrel might take 2 or 3 fouling shots to shoot good, next one might need 15 fouling shots. One barrel might hold its accuracy for 25 shots after fouling, the next one is good for 400 shots. Is NOT a reason NOT to clean your bore - just to be aware what that is doing.

To paraphrase a bench rest shooter guy that I trade messages with - it is ONLY the holes on target that count - and they do not lie - anything that you do is supposed to help you with that result - if you are not getting improved groups, then it was a waste of your time - neck thinning, bullet jump, weighing powder charge to .001 grain, measuring bullet run-out, etc. It does not really matter what someone else does or does not do with their unit - is about what YOU can do with your outfit, that determines what is useful for you to do.
 
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maynard said:
I wish everyone would get a borescope. I could give up my day job and just screw on and chamber new barrels for people every six months.
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I have a bore scope since more than 5 years, but never used the thing.
Do i really want know?
 
I have an old 43 Mauser that is pitted and abou a 3/8” section missing from one of its lands. First 5”’s in front of the chamber looks bad. It will cloverleaf its first 3 shoots at 75 m. Rest of the bore is excellent. I don’t bother with borescopes as I believe that they are almost useless. Holes on paper matter more than what the rifling looks like.
 
Snider shooter said:
I have an old 43 Mauser that is pitted and abou a 3/8” section missing from one of its lands. First 5”’s in front of the chamber looks bad. It will cloverleaf its first 3 shoots at 75 m. Rest of the bore is excellent. I don’t bother with borescopes as I believe that they are almost useless. Holes on paper matter more than what the rifling looks like.
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:agree: Bore scopes cause a lot of needless anxiety.
 
Bore scopes are great. I didn't take me long though not to get too uptight about bore condition after looking at my old lever guns. I have a rem 700 with that type of pitting and my brand new miroku 1873 had patches of pitting just like that when I bought it
 
I use a bore scope often. I am not an Olympic quality shooter, but find it interesting to note the difference before and after a cleaning. Lots of people weren't going to use any blankety blank digital camera either. Some refuse to read a book on an iPad, or listen to a audio book. It is totally up to the individual.

We "computerized" our tractor salvage yard inventory back in 1981-82. Customers would give us flak over using a computer to manage our inventory. "So and So doesn't need a computer. He knows where everything is". Right. We sold parts in the early 1990's that we put away in the 70's. We started off with a paper card system in 1974, at the advice of an old-time wrecker. He told me that people would phone for parts that he knew he should have, but had no method of tracking where he put the stuff, and just told the customer he didn't have it.
 
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