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If you ask the average firearm enthusiast what some of the most important tools you need to clean your guns are, you may get answers like cleaning rods, jags, patches, solvents, and even a bore guide. While all those are important, I would argue that a borescope may be way more important than you think. You may need to ask yourself whether your barrel is truly clean. A borescope can take your barrel cleaning routine to the next level. In the video above, I demonstrate how.
What is a borescope?
A borescope is a specialized tool that allows us to see inside the barrel. It offers a close-up view of the barrel's condition. With the Teslong borescope, you can take pictures and even record video if you want. That’s the one I’m currently using. It can look at bore sizes from 22 caliber on up, and it has become invaluable in keeping my barrels clean.
Cleaners
Some of my favorite cleaning products are a combination of ThorroClean and ThorroFlush, as well as some of the Bore Tech cleaning solvents like the Bore Tech C4 Carbon Remover and Bore Tech Cu+2 Copper Remover. I also like to use IOSSO nylon brushes. The one I'm using in the video is the IOSSO Eliminator Rifle Bore Brush.
Cleaning Steps
My first pass will always be with some ThorroFlush just to get started. I'll run a couple of wet patches down the bore just to get the rough fouling out. After this, the picture should become clearer. There will always be some combination of copper and carbon to deal with. With some ThorroClean and an IOSSO nylon brush, 10 to 15 strokes in and out, repeating with ThorroFlush to clean this out. It is my weapon of choice. You’ll be able to see an enormous improvement in literally less than 5 minutes. This process is super-fast, it doesn't stink, and, depending on your barrel's round count, it might be enough to proceed to the next step of dealing with your carbon ring.
Be aware that no matter how clean your barrel is, this product will always make your patch look like it’s coming out of the barrel with carbon on it. It turns darker in the barrel when you're using it. That's another reason why it's so much nicer to have the borescope to see exactly what we're dealing with when using this product. The borescope will tell you everything you need to know if the barrel isn't clean. Another examination may show you that you’re just not done yet. You could attempt 10 to 15 more strokes with the ThorroClean, flush that out, then check, or you might let it soak for a few minutes with some Bore Tech Carbon Remover and see how that works. If you’ve got your bore looking like we need to, you're done, right? Likely not. I've always had to deal with the carbon ring separately. These carbon rings can cause excessive pressure signs, among other problems, and without the borescope, sometimes it's hard to know if our cleaning process was effective.
What if there's copper? Well, Bore Tech Copper Remover works pretty well too, but if you don't know what you're fighting, it's really hard to pick the product that does what you need. Looking through a bore with a borescope, you’ll know what chemicals you need to use, what your next step should be, or whether you’re already done.
Nylon Brush Size
I like to size up my nylon brush from whatever I was using based on the outside neck diameter of the case I'm working with. For example, in my 6.5 Creedmoor, the outside neck’s case is somewhere around 295-thousandths, so I might grab a seven-millimeter nylon brush, wrap a patch around it, soak that in some of my carbon remover from Bore Tech and let it soak for about 15 minutes, turning it in the bore with my action wrench cleaning rod. 99% of the time when I return, that carbon ring is gone. If there's any left, I just repeat the process.
Final Thoughts
I’ve found this process extremely effective at keeping my firearms clean. It makes perfect sense to have a borescope when you think about it… Would you walk into a boxing ring with a blindfold on? Then why in the world would you want to clean your barrel, not knowing what you're fighting with? As another example, I found someone who thought their barrel was clean, and I said, "Let's just look inside this clean barrel and see what's clean or not." Though the process used to clean that barrel allegedly yielded a clean patch, I could see via my borescope that it was not clean. Just adding 10 to 15 strokes with ThorroClean and then flushing it out with ThorroFlush again, lo and behold, now the barrel is clean. I'm not here to pick on anyone's cleaning process, but once you can see what you're dealing with, it changes the game completely.
This process also reduces the amount of time I have spent cleaning because now I know exactly when it's clean. If it's not, I know exactly what I need to do. When you're using the borescope, I do recommend that you use a bore guide to help you not damage your bore, but if you’re gently sliding it back and forth in the barrel, you should be just fine.
For me, the borescope is one thing I never knew I needed and now something I don't want to live without.
--Bolt Action Reloading
