This is a broad question regarding the practices of firearm manufacturers for post firing/pre-shipment firearm cleaning. It's not a thinly veiled question for me. I have only been collecting for ten years, and the Marine Corps taught me much better skills and higher standards.

A relative called today to exchange information on the post firing cleaning practices for firearm manufacturers. He has a Colt SAA that is more than thirty years old. He is the second or third owner, but bought the revolver a few years ago. The Seller had owned it for > 30 years,

For whatever reasons, he had pulled out the SAA from his safe, looked at the bore, and decided to run a bore patch through it. The patch was a light to medium brown in color. He's used Break Free CLP and Hoppe's on the barrel bore and the patch color has significantly improved in color. He's off to his gunsmith for a bore scope testing for pitting and other damages.

In our communication exchanges today he is rationalizing (theorizing) that probably none of the gun manufacturers clean the cylinders and barrel bore after the test firing.

Has anyone had experiences that support or contradict his theory? I have never read a post on this forum that indicates that the manufacturers do perform pre-shipment cleaning.

Now the firearm owners who are members of this forum have high standards for cleaning and maintenance, which probably explains why this may not be a problem for other collectors.

Bill

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That's what we do!

I can only say that when I worked at Marlin in the early 70's, the rifles and shotguns that went thru the Range were supposed to digest a Proof round,,5 function rds and then over to the target side of the Range they got another 3 or 4 rds (usually) to put the sights somewhere on 'target'.

After that the guns went right back onto the 30gun carts they had been wheeled into the Range on.
At that point one person wacked a Proof mark on each with the stamp being inserted in a small pneumatic pistol grip tool.
At the same time another employee ran an oiled patch down in and back out the muzzle of each gun on the cart.
The patch was never changed out or reoiled that I ever saw, but I didn't work in the Range,,just what I observed as a frequent visitor from next door in the Repair/Service Dept. trying out/reproof'g repair jobs.

Off the cart went with the newly proofed and swiped clean bores and down to packing.
I don't know if further attention was given there or not to the bore.

Pedersen Custom Gun where I worked after that (also in the 70's) the semi custom built guns made on Beretta bbl'd actions were shot & then were cleaned and checked over as you would clean your own before shipment.

The cheaper,turn-over Spanish made Aramberri (sp?) shotguns were mearly unboxed when recv'd from the mfg'r.
The bores wiped out clean and the guns inspected. These were never test fired that I remember,,though they should have been!
Maybe they did after the time I left there.

Some rejected for cosmetic reasons,,actually quite a few.
The others that were acceptable were wiped down & went into a hard case with some accessorys and were sold that way.

Every new gun from any manufacturer I have EVER bought was cleaned and lubed by me before firing…I have bought more than a few really filthy, full of grease (yes, grease!) brand new guns over the last several years. Have been buying new and used guns since the 70’s but didn’t really start noticing this tendency with new guns until the past 10-15 years. I too am curious to learn of others’ experience in this regard.

If a person is the second or third owner, it would be difficult to say it's never been fired before, unless you knew the prior owners well.