Should I be upset

[GerSan69]

Brother George! Sounds like this "gunsmith" is a ripoff.
We've all been there in one thing or another, don't worry about it.
You've got plenty of good advice, so I won't add to it except to say just follow this forum often for info and advice. You can save some serious time and money with what you will learn from these guys.

 

[Dpris]

I can't imagine the reasoning behind spending $40 to pay somebody to clean a relatively new J-frame, or to think it'd need to be "deep cleaned", whatever that means.

Not dumping on you, just bewildered at both ideas.

Aside from those, no- you should not be upset.
Your gun was cleaned.
A little dark residue coming off the ejector rod in front of the star is meaningless.

I don't know what "deep cleaned" means.
Did you?
Was it explained to you?
Did you ask?

If you weren't told & didn't ask, then your conception of "deep cleaned" may have only existed in your own mind.
Whoever did the cleaning may have considered whatever he did to be "deep cleaned".

If the important areas were addressed, and the rod travels smoothly & functions perfectly, then you may have just picked up a little lube mixed with a fractional amount of burned powder residue.
That won't affect your function.

At typical shop rates where I am, $40 for the time it takes to do a thoroughly thorough cleaning is about right, and the presence of dark matter on the rod shaft doesn't mean it didn't get that thorough cleaning.

The only time I've ever paid anybody to clean a gun of mine cost me $35, and that was done with a certain old surplus rifle that needed power tool assists.

You appear to be new to guns.
They don't need to be stripped down to the bare bones for a "deep cleaning" until or unless they're old & gummed up, high-mileage & gummed up, or....gummed up.

I would suggest re-orienting your understanding & expectations, and doing your own cleaning.
Denis

 

[joeintexas]

George, welcome aboard. You got some very good suggestions and some not so good. I suppose some folks knew exactly everything to do to a firearm the first time they picked one up, the rest of us had to learn from someone else by doing what you are doing, asking or being shown by an experienced gun person. Mine was my dad and granddad some 60 years ago. Do get a gun cleaning kit and if needed have someone show you the proper methods of cleaning, I'll bet you will enjoy it once you start doing it. Try to ignore the negative comments, they're of no benefit to anyone.

 

[Bakebfr480]

You got ripped off!

 

[haywood]

It looks to me like he just put it in a sonic cleaner and what you have there is the liquid they put it into to lube it. I would spray it with gun scrubber and lube it myself .

 

[diyj98]

Not making excuses for the gunshop, but someone may have used an old oily rag to wipe the gun down after they were finished. They would have spread dirt over the gun they had just "deep cleaned".

 

[cmj8591]

Sometimes when you are cleaning a gun, the rags or patches will be perfectly clean by the time you are done. Once the gun sits around for a while, when you go back to it, the rags will show residue. That's because the cleaning solvent continues to leach carbon residue out of the metal and it seems that the gun is dirty. It is very difficult to get a gun white glove clean with only one cleaning. This also happens sometimes with ultra sonic cleaning if the gun dosen't soak long enough. That might be what is happening with you. The good news is that unless you are incredibly anal retentive that gun is clean enough.

 

[Arik]

New guns don't need to be detailed cleaned. Even old guns don't really need it although it doesn't hurt.

Maybe he shot it afterwards to make sure everything was good and forgot to wipe down that area?

It really isn't necessary unless you're doing thousands of rounds a month. Maybe then once a year!

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[pharmer]

Meh, at least you got something for $40. I feel we get "deep cleaned" every time (every 6 weeks) we give Shoot Straight $22 for 2 admits to the "gun and gadget" swap meet at the Fairgrounds. Add $14 for 2 bottles of water and 2 chili-cheese-fries and it's a spendy case of heartburn. Clean it yourself. Get a metal pan, fill it with diesel to soak overnite. Buy a cheap "pancake" compressor from Harbor Freight for $50 to blow them out when done. Breakfree or grease and carry on with your day. Joe

 

[Inusuit]

If you soak it in anything, which I've never done and don't consider necessary, take the grips off first. Probably a good idea to take the grips off regardless how you clean it.

 

[Muss Muggins]

I would bet all this "gunsmith" did was take off the grips, drop it in an ultrasonic cleaner, eat a nice mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, fish it out, shake it off, put the grips back on, and put it in the "ready to go" pile.

I wouldn't be upset - I've learned lesser lessons that cost more than 40 bucks.

This ^ ^ ^ . . .