In the store it is REALLY hard to judge barrel quality. Ive seen some that looked like hell but cleaned up without JB and looked great. When a gun is in a rack barrel UP, dust settles inside and sticks to the packing lube.

Not many retailers are going to let you clean it out before you buy it for a good inspection.

SuperKirby

IF T/C would refund just the cost of the barrel, you can get a better SMI barrel for slightly more or a Bergara for slightly less. I doubt they will but i would still take a good look at your aftermarket barrel options. The Encore is plenty strong for a SML barrel even if you dont want to shoot smokeless. Plus the barrel quality is MUCH MUCH higher without a QLA. They are also very BH209 friendly.

When I talked to the store manager last night, he said he wants to just have me bring it back and return it. They don't have anymore of them so exchanging it is out. He said he can't do that until he gets approval from their district manager because of the store policy. He seems to think that will happen it just might take a few days. He said if that doesn't work he's going to try to work something out with TC and either have them send him another gun or another barrel, but he's not sure how that's all going to work out and isn't going to mess with it much since he wants me to return the gun. So we'll see.

Well atleast the manager is trying to do something. Just don't give up on TC. I have dealt with thier Customer Service and have no regets. They always go above and beyond what you ask them.

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.

The bores of my new Encore and new Black Diamond were clean but very rough. There were long gouges and circular rings on the lands. i scope and sight in a lot of rifles for other folks. Have seen this on 6-8 other TC rifles, mostly Encores.

My son is a machinist. He says the tool marks are the result of not properly polishing the bore.

My Encore had a whole host of other problems as well. After a lot of work and some expense the gun is very accurate. But theres a bad taste in my mouth every time i look at it.

I forgot all about taking the pictures of it yesterday. I'll try to get it done today. What falcon is talking about sounds almost exactly like what it is. I've been looking at it trying to decide if I should try to polish it out or not. I'm torn between working on it more and figuring it will be worth it in the long run and thinking it's a brand new gun I shouldn't have to put that much work into it.

I would have had the gun back to TC by now, and a new one would probably be coming back to me.

This whole deal is becoming ridiculous.

Every TC I have seen puts tons of creosote in there new. Are you sure, its not that? Many mistake it for rust.

It took me 75 patches with brake cleaner to get mine clean. It's oil for hell.

You know kroil used to be the bomb for old school penetrating oil/cleaners for centerfire.

I bet it would work here too. I quit using it when I quit moly bullets.