Superkirby did you get a chance to take a picture of the bore? I'm curious to see what it looks like, even though it's kinda hard to see much in a picture.

I wonder how long that rifle had been sitting on the shelf. I bought a new-old-stock Knight KP1 not too long ago from Gander Mountain that had a dirty fouled bore and breech plug. And no this wasn't any kind of packing grease or oil I can assure you, this was powder fouling. I assumed this was from test-firing the barrel, although I was kinda surprised they didn't atleast half-ass clean the bore before packing it up. It was not rusted or pitted. But it had been shot.

Same thing happened on my replacement T/C Black Diamond barrel I got a few years ago. They shipped it out to me test-fired without cleaning afterwards. No rust or pits, just dirty powder fouling.

My Triumph was a different story. It did not have a dirty bore as far as powder fouling goes, but it did have a bunch of nasty grease in it.

Surely something similar has happened to somebody on here before.

As far as your barrel goes, if it's in that bad of shape then yeah that's B.S. Don't worry though, if Dick's doesn't make it right T/C will. Good Luck.