bore pitting

[olympicmotors]

I just got back from the range with my nearly new 640 pro ( only my 3rd time out with it ) and noticed when I was cleaning it the bore is pitted and scratched along at least 2 grooves in the barrel .

I do not have a bore scope but I was just shining a light at the bottom of the receiver ( not sure if that is the right term ) and found this.

I have been very careful with cleaning it after every range trip and am sure I did not do this. ( not even sure it is possible to do this with cleaning )

I am wondering if I should contact Smith and Wesson or not? Has anyone else had this problem with a new gun? How concerned should I be?

It seems to be fairly accurate, ( although I am still getting used to it ). My groups are a little larger than with my autos, but not really that much.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Hapworth]

Can you post pics, and have you been shooting lead?

 

[olympicmotors]

I will try to post a few pictures later, pretty hard to see inside the bore.

I have shot about 1 box of semi-jacked hollow point Remington 357s through it.

Would lead cause this? It doesn't look like the lead can contact the bore, the copper jacket appears to be in contact with the bore, just the nose is exposed lead.

 

[murphydog]

Unless you used corrosive ammo (unlikely), what you see are likely leftover machining/tool marks from the rifling process. You can certainly contact customer service and they may want to inspect it, but it will likely be returned to you as "within spec". Perhaps some more jacketed rounds will smooth out whatever you see also.

 

[gwpercle]

Before you contact S&W, try this. Wrap a thin strand of 0000 steel wool around a 38 cal. bronze bore brush, not a whole lot or it wont fit into the barrel, oiling well (better would be a smear of J-B Bore cleaning paste. Scrub barrel real good, two or three times and see how it looks. It could be leftover jacket or lead fouling in there and the brush/steel wool/ J-B cleaner , will scrub
it out.
Good Luck
Gary

 

[olympicmotors]

o.k. good news, it was copper fouling. I have been cleaning and brushing on it for about 1 hour now. I have made about 8 - 9 passes so far and it is much much better.

Wow that stuff is tuff to get out.

I was only using Hopps #9 solvent before tonight. I guess that does nothing for the copper in the barrel.

I have never used copper solvent in any of my autos, but they all have polygonal barrels and are super easy to clean. Although even though they look clean I have noticed a significant loss of accuracy in my Glock 27 over the last 5 years. It looks absolutely clean and smooth , but I wonder if it has become fouled as well?