I used the manson guage as a horizontal gravity guage like the Hosford tool. Not vertical as the manson instructions say to use it. It was much easier and also portable.
The limitations I found was that you can't read the depth of pitted areas due to the large size of the ball. And also it was good for only 20g and up. And even some very tightly choked 20g barrels would not allow the guage to go into the muzzle.
Now for bore guages, I still use the brownells guage for bores. It is VERY good for the money. The only major downside is not being able to do 10g bores with it. Well, if I remember correctly, it will measure modern nominal 10g bores, but if the bore is oversized, the guage is maxed out.
The Hosford bore guage is very nice, but a LOT of money.
I think the Hosford dent removal tools and wall thickness guage are well worth the money.
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B. Dudley
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