For my recent birthday, KYHillChick bought me a Teslong borescope.

$50 from Amazon. What’s not to like?  It comes with the flexible 3-foot borescope, a nice long USB cable and a decent set of instructions.

First off, it did not fit my older Samsung smartphone. It’s got various adapters USB built in, but I could not get it to work. I may have been able to make it work, but I had other options. It came right up on a Windows 10 laptop. With WIN10, you just run the Camera program. Nothing else is needed. I then tried it with the Ubuntu LINUX machine that I have in the reloading room. That solution was not quite as easy, but nearly so. In that case, I did a search for “Camera” in the Software Center. GUVCView came right up with no problems after installation. You don’t need much function with this camera– just a view of what’s in the scope and a couple of buttons to take either a still pic or a video. GUVCView worked fine. That is what I used to generate the pics.

What you see in the pics is a little circle with a bunch of other stuff around the edge. This is because the scope comes with an array of little 45-degree mirrors that screw onto the end of the scope in front of the camera. It reflects the image from the side back into the camera. You can also operate the camera without the mirrors in place, but all that does is throw light down the bore farther than the camera can focus.

You can see the results in the following slideshow. I used two examples. One is from my 223 REM Ruger American Predator. It has less than 100 rounds through it. The other pic is from my 30’s-vintage MAS 36. This thing looks like 20 miles of bad road on the outside and the bore looks no better– lots of fouling and copper buildup. The funny thing is that the MAS 36 shoots pretty well for being a basket case. I keep it around for dragging through the cedar thickets.

Is it worth $50? You bet. Give this 4 shamanic thumbs-up.

Practical everyday use? No, you cannot use this as a DIY home colonoscopy set. Were I able to get this working on my Smartphone, I would be able to take this puppy to the LGS and look at a bore before I buy the rifle. My Samsung Galaxy S7 is 2016-vintage. The newer ones have the right USB port. That somewhat limits portability, but 90% of what I’d want it for would be accomplished with my laptop right at my bench. This camera can tell me if the throat is cooked on rifle– so far, I have not found one in my collection. It can tell me if the bore is fouled or pitted and to what degree.

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