What to do with a new gun

[AJ]

You are all excited as you have just left the gun shop, gun show, favorite X Mart store, carrying your new gun. The anticipation level is high as you may have saved up for a long period of time or it could have been an impulse buy, but you have just laid down a decent chunk of change to purchase a new gun. Now what do I do? Are there things I should be doing before I go to the range? Hopefully, you will not go directly to the range and start slinging lead. There are a few things that can/should be done first. We will concentrate mainly on a bolt action rifle. But many of these will be the same on any type of gun.

The first thing that should be done is to read the owners manual. Unless you know everything about the new gun, you should look it over. The company could have added a new gadget to the gun since you bought your last one. One example to this is Remington’s J-Lock on the bolt. Read the manual, it can save you some heartburn and embarrassment when you complain to the store or the manufacturer that your new gun is not working.

After that, I give the gun a close inspection. I try to do that in the store, but if it’s a special order, this is the one I am getting. Now, I will go over the gun from butt to muzzle and look for problems. If I see something I don’t like, I will jot it down on paper so I can fix it as needed, and continue the inspection. How is the wood to metal fit? Is the barrel channel consistent? Does the barrel touch the stock on one side? Is there a pressure point? Does the action work properly? Are the scope mounting holes aligned properly? How is the crown?

Next, I give the gun a thorough cleaning. I remove the barreled action from the stock and proceed to remove all of the packing grease the manufacturer uses to keep the gun from corroding. I clean out the bore with solvent and oil as normal. I check the magazine to be sure it will operate properly. Since the gun is out of the stock, I can inspect the bedding area of the stock. As I have said many times in the forums, I feel all guns benefit from a proper bedding job. Often I will do that before firing the first shot. If you see any bare wood areas, be sure to give them a coat of Tru-Oil or some other wood finish. Usually this is in the bedding areas. Since I typically do a bedding job at this time, it solves this problem.

Another area I examine is the trigger. Some guns like the Remington 700, use an enclosed trigger mechanism. I use carburetor cleaner aerosol to clean them out. There can be chips or dirt or who knows what inside the unit that can make a trigger pull feel terrible. I use a Teflon lube sparingly on the mechanism to properly lubricate the mating surfaces. You don’t want the gun to freeze up in the cold portion of deer season. I like to disassemble the bolt and then degrease the interior, the firing pin, and the spring and apply a Teflon lube for the same reason. On the exterior of the bolt, I clean and lube the locking lugs. This will keep galling down and allow the bolt to operate smoothly.

Now, I will reassemble the gun and give it a functional test. Since all of the nasty packing grease is gone, it should operate easier and smoother. I use some dummy ammo that is inert to test functionality. Live ammo should not be used for this test. You can buy dummy ammo from Brownell’s. I fill the magazine and work the action to be sure the gun will feed properly. If not, I need to find out why or take it to a factory authorized gunsmith for repair. I will check to make sure the safety works properly. Work the bolt fairly violently and be sure the firing pin does not get released. If it does, it goes to the gunsmith or back to the manufacturer for repair. Once everything passes inspection, I mount optics and head to the range.

Since the manufacturers are doing all they can to cut costs, but still keep their customers happy, there are going to be some undesirable things that fall through the cracks and get out of the factory and make their way to the consumer. By giving a proper inspection, and doing a little repair, or in the event of a major problem, sending it to an authorized gunsmith, or back to the manufacturer for repair, you will end up with a gun that works properly and can be counted on to work properly for many years to come.