RIFLE BORES / BORE SCOPES: ONE OF THE BEST ‘CONS’ OUT THERE?!
I do NOT particularly like or advocate bore scopes. The comments and ‘opinions’ that tend to follow them CAN range from absurd to pure stupidity.
If you want a brand new bore there is only one way to get a brand new bore. That is to buy a brand new rifle. (Even then it HAS already been shot when group test fired as well as hopefully when going through proof).
When I invested in a bore scope the first rifles I took a look at were actually my own.
In all honesty I got slightly to rather ‘depressed’. With more than a couple I did consider ‘selling them quick’. One in particular, an OLD Steyr in .275, did not impress at all when I took a look. It was also a favourite! Depressing…..
The first rifle I ever bought …a Sako in .243, very similar. More depressing!
I ‘chewed on’ for about a week and then in the middle of watching a film: ‘Hang on a minute…. Using these rifles almost EVERY time I go out shooting / stalking for the last 8 to 30 odd years. Never once have any ‘missed a beat’.
IF a shot ‘went off’ it was always proven to be me or my mistake. Checking afterward the rifle/s would be on zero or you would find an offending twig etc.
Even tall grass on one occasion …..
That time smoke was actually rising from the mountain side inches in front of the barrel!
I assumed the bullet must have clipped a piece of tall grass that went unnoticed through the scope. Some actually ‘peeling off’ straight down into the ground. It was a neck shot at a stag. FORTUNATELY the bulk of the bullet still ‘smacked’ him at the top end of his nose. That dazed him sufficiently for the follow up shot. He just stood there (poor beggar, but LUCKY for me) and, I suppose, him in the end.
I noticed the smoke as I looked on watching for the reaction to the shot, reloaded and it was still burning as the stag hit the floor.
Anyway I decided to take all my rifles out and have a day on my range (friendly farmers field). All of them shot as well as I am still capable and I would say all are probably still well capable of even better groups. They ALL produced sub inch at 100 yards and are ALL I need.
I then got to thinking about the ACTUAL time a bullet takes to travel along a barrel.
At roughly 2000 miles an hour (Average of say 3000 feet / second x 60 (for a minute) x 60 (for an hour) equals 10,800,000 ft/hr). A mile is 1760 yards so x 3 is 5280 feet.
Divide 10,800,000 by 5,280 and it comes back just over 2045 mph. That COULD be regarded as ‘MOVING SOME’!
Now, if you say an average barrel to be 24″ / 2ft. Most are actually a lot shorter. (ALSO bear in mind the actual bullet / projectile also starts somewhere between 2” and 3”+ further up at the start of the rifling / end of its bullet case. As such, in reality circa 18” or 1 ½ feet) but JUST for ease of numbers let’s say 2.
3000 / 2 means a bullet is in contact with a bore for somewhere around 1500th of a second even for a ‘slow’ full bore rifle calibre.
I invite ANYONE to TRY explain to me what effect an odd bit of pitting, scratch, gouge or any other minor defect in a barrel can have in that time scale for the average quarry shooter.
A good conversation will start.
I am not talking about a bore so worn out that rifling has all but gone. I am not talking about a bore with sufficient defects it is unsafe to use. THEY are another matter altogether but again a rifle needs an AWFUL lot of soft lead down a substantially harder steel barrel to get to that stage.
OK….PERHAPS if someone wants to be ‘shooting paper’ out to a mile or even two they MIGHT benefit from a new barrel that they ‘shoot in’ to suit however they like to do that. That said I would still say a good percentage of any (possible) additional success would be placebo related. (‘If I don’t spend a fortune it can’t POSSIBLY be the best’ attitude). Also, someone chasing that type of shooting will invariably spend a LOT more time practicing and actually shooting which SHOULD / generally end up with better results anyway.
When a 200 yard shot is (OR SHOULD BE) classed as ‘far enough’, even on the ‘Open Hill’ by any REAL and responsible stalker or live quarry shooter I would suggest any problem generally lies behind the butt and not in front / the bore. Also, If you can’t get substantially closer than that leave the rifle at home and put the time in to sharpen your fieldcraft skills.
You are still a LONG way from being a Stalker!
MOST rifles are probably more capable than most people pulling the trigger.
All I would say is ‘THINK ABOUT IT’…. BUT, as it’s such a TINY moment in time its actually impossible to do it!
JUST MY opinion and you can take it or leave it.
From experience, the MAIN reason quite a lot of dealers like a bore scope is to wipe out trade-in values when the public (YOU) walk through their door wanting to sell or trade.
YES, it should affect the TRUE value of a rifle but not to the degree many try to justify. In the end it’s what you and your rifle can produce down range that counts. All I am suggesting is that for all but a ‘chosen few’ the average bore will still be better than you, still produce a perfectly acceptable result and probably still do so for many years to come.
