Best Borescopes ?

[GS455]

Several years ago I had an old Enfield at an old-timer-gunsmith for some work. When I picked it up he let me look down its barrel through his bore scope. The detail to see inside the barrel was amazing through this optical device. Could see the sharp corners of the rifling and dirt in the lands. His borescope was a long rod with a magnifying lens/light at one end a viewing eyepiece at the other with the ability to focus near or far from the end of the scope. It also had a kind of a pistol handle to hold/maneuver. Said the thing cost around a thousand bucks years ago.

Recently I was paging around the internet looking at endoscopic borescopes with camera lenses and various means of viewing the image. For a moderate investment I think it would be worth:
• knowing how clean the barrels truly are after cleaning
• knowing the true bore conditions of all my guns
• having a handy inspection tool to bring to gun shows or to a purchase/sale transaction.

I bought a cheapo little $20 rig which was basically a little lens and LED tipped wire that plugged straight into my smartphone.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...+UVC+Function+

I didn’t have high expectations but it was a neat proof of concept. You could record pics and take video. While you could see the difference between a bright mirror clean and pitted bore it did not really show the detail I recall seeing through the old-timers optical bore scope. There has to be better out there for more money

The wife is hounding me for Christmas gift ideas and I thought this would be pretty cool. Not averse to spending a couple/few hundred bucks on a decent product. Anyone have any experience with what’s a good product out there? Maybe you can share some pictures you captured with it?

Preciate all comments.

Information

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[maxim]

Just used a Hawkeye today and they are very clear. Also have experience with the Lyman and maybe not quite so clear but certainly serviceable. Carbon and copper show up well along with leading and flashing at the chamber mouth and leade, showing alligatoring of the steel due to hot Ftr loads. Crowns can be checked for nicks and chambers for carbon or machine marks.
I had a AR .223 carbine that would not extract anymore and found due to leaving a .22 rimfire conversion in the chamber for a year or so caused severe pitting and it will in no way extract .223 cases. Now relegated to a .22 conversion full time. So the scopes do have a purpose, just the actual time spent in operation may be small.

[GS455]

Been looking at videos online. The Lyman seems to do a great job at 90 degrees but no zero degree view option. Wonder why. The Hawkey is the cats meow especially wi video hook up but definitely could not justify a grand. Those people have military contracts, manufacturers and other industries that can pay those prices. Not for your basic gun collectors.

[GS455]

Why I would like a 0 degree view is because I can see the whole barrel at once as I transit through it. 90 degrees only allows you a look at the 1/4 or 1/3 of the barrel wall at which the camera is aimed at that moment. If initially passing through at zero degrees I can make note of where I'd wanna see something up close at 90 degrees.

Anything else out there that will do 0 degrees as well as 90 degrees ?

[muffett.2008]

My endoscope does down to .22, it is 0 degree, but I made a right angle fitting from a 22 case that gives me the extra option.
The big drawback is the picture quality is limited by the camera pixels, small in this case is certainly not better.

[tbonesmith]

I bought a Hawkeye 6 months or so ago and it’s great. I use it to monitor and quality check chambering jobs and inspect barrels and having bought it, I wouldn’t be without it.