Should a new gun be dirty?

[Hvymax]

My LCR was slightly gooey when new, my blue MK IV, 10/22, and Mini 14 were very gooey when new, my stainless revolvers were all clean-ish, my Ruger American Pistol Competition Model was absolutely covered in preservative to the point the slide functioned poorly. After a cleaning and some light lubrication they all were smooth as can be.

As they should be. You'd be pissed if your New Gun was rusty wouldn't you???

 

[9x19]

I can see how/why the Service Department folks might fire more rounds than the Production folks.

 

[daveag.]

Ruger did same thing to a 77/50 I bought. New. In box. Bore was rusted. Bad. But, it still shot tighter groups than a new Remington. Muzzle loader. That bore was mirror shiny. But, did not group well. Had no resistance pushing sabot down.

 

[rkrcpa]

According to the Ruger "How it's made" video GP100's get 6 proof loads before shipment.

 

[Stantheman1986]

Just reporting what a Ruger tech told me when I questioned them about this concerning a customers pistol.

This may have been true in the past but I had heard that Ruger noticed that the $$ amount for ammunition was over $1 Million per year, and so revolver test firing was every other chamber and semis were 3 rounds , along with bolt actions.

My newest Ruger is a .41 Magnum Bisley and I distinctly recall 3 chambers having burn rings fresh out of the box, brand new. Every other chamber. The same with my Redhawk .44 snub.

It's about cutting costs or else the customer will pay $50 more per gun to pay for the ammo

Are "cheaper to shoot" guns like 22s and 9mm test fired more? I don't know but the brand new big bores I've bought were fired 3 times

I sent my .45 ACP/LC Redhawk back for service, because new out of the box it was binding up. It came back filthy probably to prove it worked. The invoice simply said something like "Forcing Cone fitted, test fire passed OK" so they probably put a couple cylinders through it

Also, 2 brand new .38 Special GP100 "over runs" I got from Davidsons locked up after 2 cylinders. I returned them to Ruger for repair. There seemed to be a period around 2011 or so where revolvers were fitted too tight. If these guns received a cylinder of proof loads, would this issue not have revealed itself ?

Gunsmiths do this too. I had my .22 SP101 worked over by my gunsmith, he told me he took it out back and put a box through it and left it dirty to show me he fired it, and he would clean it up if I wanted.