New rifle, bore scope, thoughts?

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Bang!

Bang!

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The rifle is an Armalite AR10a. Bought it a couple of months, ago. Thought I would pull it out of the safe and start putting rounds through it to see what it can do. Inspection included bore scope. This good to go? Tack driver or will probably pattern like a shotgun? Don’t want to waste the ammo if this is junk.

Have a video I could post to Utube that better shows all this pitting if that would help.

Expected a lot better considering the price, $1800, for this rifle.



7A17AF89-7712-45B9-9CD2-7B4F417CC617.jpeg E0B5926F-FF01-4EF1-A583-30849B7272E3.jpeg 10BA4AA4-4812-4986-9367-77F649343C31.jpeg 697E39DC-12B1-4A04-A6BF-B7593444B8B7.jpeg
 
Although nice, shiny bores are suggestive of "better standards of manufacturing practice," there's no true correlation with group size.

I would assume that only signs of severe firecracking and the like would really tell you anything.
 
Have you cleaned it? The photos aren't clear on my monitor, can't tell if there's anything going on other than what looks like just needing a cleaning.
Here's my Armalite AR-10 barrel as received.
BOCCWGS.jpg

Here's a CZ 452 barrel for comparison. The CZ is bare metal, not chromed.
UBcf68D.jpg
 
I looked at a new Savage Axis (exact model has slipped my mind) once in a bore scope that clearly had had a chip get caught on the finish reamer before it was button rifled. The damage done by this chip left the lands looking like long thin washboards. It was really bad with the damage from the reamer nearly as deep at the grooves near the muzzle end. The thing was it would shoot sub-MOA with cheap Remington Core-lok and nearly 1/2 MOA with better ammo.

Bore scopes are great to help find a problem once your sure you have one, but until you shoot it you never know.
 
There is some dust in your bore. Not a big deal but it would make your barrel look worse than it is. Clean it and see what goes away. Also keep your lenses and mirrors clean, dirty either can make a barrel look worse. One of the big learning curves to a borescope is it magnifies the tiny imperfections, many of which will have no influence on how it shoots.

You also spent $1800 on this rifle. Chances are it will shoot fine regardless of what the bore looks like.
 
Those aren’t dust or dirt. They’re holes in the metal. I’ll get a video up. Just have to remember how.
 
Bang! said:
Those aren’t dust or dirt. They’re holes in the metal. I’ll get a video up. Just have to remember how.
Click to expand...

Things you may think are holes might not actually be holes. The short focal length of a bore scope plays tricks with elevation.

The only thing I can tell from your pic is that it’s dirty. As a matter of fact, that’s about the only thing a bore scope will tell you.
 
I implore folks to look very closely at everything in their lives.

Here is a thought experiment to help clarify what I mean. It is a little aged since we mostly use electronic payments now.

Just imagine all the places where money has been. Physical money as in currency. Paper notes and coins have touched thousands of hands and been in horrifying places. There was a theory once put out that most any $20 bill and up would have trace amounts of cocaine on them.

If you can imagine it then it has happened.

If you look closely enough at anything then you are bound to find things that seem like problems but when played out in actual real world scenarios, are just fine.

Bore scopes are one of those items that are a tailor made “solution looking for a problem”
 
I have much worse barrels that shoot great.
True rust pits, Dark bores, charter marks in the rifling, etc.
They all shoot well for at least a couple dozen shots.
Your barrel is dirty. Clean it
 
CoalCrackerAl said:
Bore scopes make mountains out of mole hills. They really magnify things. But they can be useful though. What i thought was pitting in my Mosin Nagant. Turned out to be years of build up of lead and copper and carbon fouling.
Click to expand...
You too? I spent days cleaning my Krags and Mausers because I got a bore scope.
It was insane how dirty "clean" barrels are.
 
For the uninitiated a bore scope can be a real shock. I’ve looked at many barrels. They don’t surprise me anymore. I’ve got 110 year old service rifles that lived through cordite and corrosive primers with less pitting. As well as purty barrels that won’t shoot for crap and ugly barrels that somehow manage to be real shooters.

Again, that’s not dust or dirt. You can look at a two dimensional screen and make out a hole. A hole. Massive amounts of pitting. The 90 degree mirror attachment was used for closer looks at pitting.

Yes, shoot it. I know that. But before the shooting starts…

No, I don’t plan on putting a few hundred rounds down the barrel to fill in the holes.


This is a new barrel. First 10 inches are normal. Occasional tool chatter, skips, etc. The last six inches blossoms into thousands of pits. Would like to hear thoughts on a new barrel that blossoms into thousands of pits in the last six inches. Any experience with this? Safe? Poor quality? Seen worse?
 
Can't tell what type of accuracy you're going to get by looking at the bore scope. Bore scopes are for checking if it's clean, or damaged.

I have barrels that look great under the scope and will only do 1.5" @ 100 yards on a good day and other barrels that are 'meh' under the scope and will consistently print clover leaf groups.
 
A bore scope is a fine tool,don't get me wrong.About a year ago,I got a new Select Match Barrel from Shilen.I headspaced it and screwed it on.At the same time,my buddy let me have his bore scope to experiment with,so naturally I had to look down my new,hand lapped,unfired premium grade barrel.It kinda looked similar to what you have in your pics,and it was scary.I decided to shoot it and see what happened.Of course it shot bad-if you call .2's and .3's bad.Pay no mind to the damn bore scope and see what it shoots like.Also,look in it after you shoot it and it'll look perfect.
 
If sending it back is an option I think that will be best. It seem your very disappointed in the condition of the barrel.And I think that you will never be truly happy with the rifle .And that’s not what you want in a fine expensive rifle.I wish you the best of luck. Bob
 
Bang! said:
The rifle is an Armalite AR10a. Bought it a couple of months, ago. Thought I would pull it out of the safe and start putting rounds through it to see what it can do. Inspection included bore scope. This good to go? Tack driver or will probably pattern like a shotgun? Don’t want to waste the ammo if this is junk.

Have a video I could post to Utube that better shows all this pitting if that would help.

Expected a lot better considering the price, $1800, for this rifle.



View attachment 1019491
View attachment 1019492 View attachment 1019493 View attachment 1019494
Click to expand...

Looks like something from star wars...
 
I've had Mosin Nagant's that literally had rust in the bore as well as other crud from not being cleaned properly that I've bought for $49 ( my last one ) a really good cleaning and firing some cheap ammo and more good cleaning and it still shot 2-3" groups at 50y.
 
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