by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier
The Endosnake is an affordible endoscope/borescope that works with a smartphone or computer. The camera has mini LEDs to illuminate what’s in front of it.
This report covers:
- A job worth doing…
- First use
- Videos not necessary
- Resolution
- Summary
For years I have wanted a borescope so I could look inside my barrels. Twenty years ago they were priced in the thousands and out of my reach. Ten years ago they dropped into the hundreds and were still pricy. But they were not optimized for airguns. They were mostly sized for .22 barrels, as though AR-15 owners were the target market. Again, I had no interest.
Then about two months ago I started getting emails about a product called the Endosnake. It was selling for $50 and I needed a wifi kit to connect it to my iPhone. I got the one that’s 2 meters long. The camera is 3.9mm in diameter and when I asked the Endosnake people whether it would fit into a .177 caliber airgun bore they said they didn’t know. Well, I know now and it does!
A job worth doing…
… is worth doing poorly. A pastor of mine used to say that. In other words, get on with it. Don’t wait until it’s perfect! In the interest of sharing the Endosnake with you today that’s just what I have done. I have two videos that are both silent. They will show you what I have seen so far and perhaps give you some ideas of how this tool might be used.
First use
I will call the first video the first time I used the Endosnake, but the truth is, it took me many tries and three days of playing with it to get what I’m about to show you. Hopefully I will get better with practice
A reader remarked that he would like to see the inside of the Slavia 618 barrel. So I photographed it for you. I also photographed my keyboard before putting the camera inside the bore. The film resolution is low so the image isn’t sharp, but it does show all the detail. Of course if you have never looked through a borescope the 360-degree image may be difficult to resolve the first time you see it.