steel quality in new shotguns

[mjbgalt]

this new winchester 1300 i bought two days ago is a great gun overall. fit and finish are good and the wood is beautiful, very nice overall.

but when i took it home to clean it as i always do with new guns, i wiped it down with rem oil and my white rag came off very orange. there was, as far as i could see, no surface rust and no pitting or even a mark on it.

is this rust? if so why? the number the clerk wrote down on my FFL form had a "2002" in the middle of it...perhaps its been stored that long in a box at the store. but why would it rust?

is this a bad sign for the rest of its "life" then if it is rust? will it get worse from now on or is this just a film from storage? or maybe even orange is the color of the cosmoline they used?

anyone have opinions or ideas? i had a remington 870 express with the matte finish which would do this regularly but it was only after one day my brother took it out when it was snowing and sleeting and forgot to wipe it down. there is no reason, IMHO, that a brand new gun as nice as this one is, should have rust AT ALL.

-Matt

[savageT]

Re: brown stain........No I don't believe that was rust you got on the wipedown.  The factories have a tough preservative that they use on metal surfaces and in the bore tha will not come off readily.  If you were to take some strong degreaser, like brake cleaner, you will save yourself a hellava lot of work cleaning up your shotgun exposed steel parts.  Just be careful that you don't get any degreaser on the stock finish as it will remove that beautiful shine!!!!

Don't worry about the steel.  You'll see rust develop before it comes off on a rag.  Use the Remoil and make certain to re-treat the exposed surfaces after cleaning with the brakecleaner.

Jim

[mjbgalt]

i wiped it down 3 or 4 times with rem oil and then with a thicker gun oil.

i like the rem oil because i can simply spray it on and it has teflon for triggers and springs and such....but it isnt thick enough to coat and stay on.

i love the fact that the receiver is built from alloy so it CANT rust or scratch. too bad the barrel isnt made form alloy as well. that would be one heck of a fast handling shotgun.

-Matt