metal flakes at first bore cleaning--never fired

Cleaning the bore with only hoppes and a patch worm, I got 4 or 5 shiny metal flakes from a new no-mod, never fired 22/45. Is this common or a cause for concern?

I'm going to the range tomorrow.

Probably lead that got stripped off the bullet from some really cheep ammo.

Make certain you get all the lead out of the bore before you shoot it, may also indicate a rough or rough spot in the bore too.

Don't want to keep ironing lead into the grooves of the barrel.

OP said it had never been fired.

dallash43 said:

Cleaning the bore with only hoppes and a patch worm, I got 4 or 5 shiny metal flakes from a new no-mod, never fired 22/45. Is this common or a cause for concern?

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Hi, and welcome to the Forum

Since it's a Ruger, sadly that's absolutely normal. One of my ol' gunsmith boss' favorite adages concerning Ruger said "Ruger has no trash cans on the floor, so the janitors just empty their dustpans into the nearest gun being assembled."

Point being, Ruger's "assembly hygiene" is not so good, so it's best to completely field strip, clean and lube any new gun from them the best you can prior to shooting it. Unfortunately, other mfrs are picking up some of Ruger's bad habits, too, so that's a valuable drill with ANY new gun these days.

Good luck at the range!

Rick C

That and there is no such thing as never fired. You may not have fired it but Ruger did.

They are fired at the factory prior to shipping. These guns used to come with a fired case when still required by law.

They usually run at least one magazine through them. "Proof loads" they call them. Probably cci mini mags in a LR.

It's not unusual...

Thanks for your input. I'll go to the range tomorrow and post if anything unexpected comes up.