Cheap borescope - any good?

You get what you pay for. I don't see how that thing can focus close and get a clear image for that price. Unless a gunsmith designed it, I doubt if image quality would be good enough to make a reasonable diagnosis of the condition of the bore.
 
Jerryrva said:
You get what you pay for. I don't see how that thing can focus close and get a clear image for that price. Unless a gunsmith designed it, I doubt if image quality would be good enough to make a reasonable diagnosis of the condition of the bore.
Click to expand...
It "might" work, however I am like you, you get what you pay for. Interesting to see what other posters have to say.
 
Jerryrva said:
You get what you pay for.
Click to expand...
I would have to agree with that -- "you get what you pay for". However, I just wondered if anyone had bought this and what their opinion was? If there's a focus issue, it certainly wouldn't work for our purposes!
 
Jerryrva said:
A Google search turned up some reviews. Skip to poor bore view at 2:39 in video. Similar views on other link at ar15.com.

https://www.ar15.com/forums/General...-50-bucks-and-fits-a-22-cal-barrel/5-2181402/
I'm happy I spent $180 on a Lyman and not $50 on this.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the video. I've often thought about the Lyman but also wondered about the quality there too. So -- I asume you consider the Lyman to have much better quality than this Endosnake! Is the focus clearer or what? Can you explain why you're happy with the Lyman over this Endosnake?
 
Would probably be great for checking inside your brass to check for thinning. or any tiny mechanism you needed a close up view of.
Probably not so good for looking at the lands on a bolt action rifle.
I use the Lyman. It has better resolution and is a 90 angle view. So you are looking right down on the lands.
 
It all depends on what your needs are out of a borescope. A gunsmith or Match shooter will have different needs than a hunter who isn't going to shoot out a barrel. I can't tell from the video if the Endosnake will work even for copper buildup. The guy didn't turn down the brightness enough to tell.
The Lyman does all I need with no wishing I could see better with a more expensive borescope. I bought 4 used rifles last year and on one it had a carbon ring that was causing some accuracy problems which was easy to see. Despite the carbon buildup, it only had minimal fire cracking considering the age of the rifle which would probably be harder to see using the Endosnake.
As for copper buildup, some copper is desirable and you need a quality scope if you are looking to judge how much to leave or how much to remove.
My opinion is that a cheap borescope will just make you want a better one. I can tell a difference among the 14 rifles I have used the Lyman on. It does show the differences between Shilen, and McGowan match barrels I have compared to Sauer, Bergara, Browning and others I have. More or less tool marks the main thing. Of all I would say the McGowan and Bergara appeared to have been lapped the most.
 
Jerryrva -- Great reply and thanks for the detail! Looks like a Lyman borescope is in my future! Thank you again!
 
One last thing about the Lyman. The pics it saves to the memory card are not as clear as what you see on the small viewer. Just too low of a image resolution. What I do is take a pic of the display image with my phone and I don't have to bother with downloading the images to my computer as well. It also works better when I examine a dry bore. A wet bore reflects too much light and you see less detail. My version is the newer updated borescope. So it is good that Lyman is continuing to update its product. Also their latest reloading manual has an article on what you see when you look in a bore. I just read it while standing in Cabelas as I didn't need a new manual and it is more of a one read and done article anyway.
One other story to relate. I bought a well used 243 WSSM Browning from a local guy that shoot it a lot for Groundhogs. I cleaned it out when I first got it a few years ago but never shot it. I looked at it when I got my borescope last year and it had bits of hard baked on carbon from the throat to halfway down the barrel. It took some JB bore compound and a lot of brushing to get that carbon out. I am sure the original owner thought he was keeping it clean and I wouldn't have noticed it because my regular cleaning routine wouldn't have loosened it up .

I don't think you well regret getting one if you like cool gadgets to play with.
 
This looks similar in concept to cheap, home-use otoscope cameras that help parents diagnose ear infections in their kids. I think the underlying concept is good-- there are endoscopes that cost thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars that I bet would give resolution as good or better than the best borescopes out there-- but the execution is poor. I say this as an owner of one of those $25 otoscope cameras.
 
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