Rifle Assembly Question

[BTB Joe]

A few weeks ago, my brother bought me a new Winchester Model 70 in .416 Rem Mag. Yes I know, he's a great brother...
Well after some research, we've concluded it's new old stock. Appears to have been produced in 2011 in South Carolina.
We shot a few Norma 450 grain rounds with open sights shortly after we picked it up. Great fun!
Last weekend we topped it with a Leupold 1.5x6 and sighted it in. We noted that the bolt was sticking a bit after that.
Closer inspection showed that the bolt was picking up a smear of green colored gunk around the lugs and in the channel the bolt slides in.
There were a few green "shavings" down in the magazine (may be wrong terminology) as well.
Well, back at home, after taking things apart, we found a bit more green stuff at the front of the chamber.
A good cleaning with Hoppes No. 9 removed all the gunk and a coating of high tech gun oil had it working well.
Actually I'm impressed with how smooth it is.
My question for those of you with way more knowledge about rifle manufacturing than me is this: Do they use some version of lock tite when they thread a barrel?
We're wondering if that's what was in the throat of the chamber.

 

[BnC 04]

Haven't experienced any green substances in any of my NIB 70's but sounds like dried up packing grease possibly.

 

[baxterb]

I’ve seen rifles skim brass from a shell and that brass corrodes into green gunk. This happens at the bottom of the chamber mouth and under the rails and at the magazine. My model 70 30.06’does this. Yes, it means I didn’t clean it well enough.

I am not aware of any gunk Winchester would have used except for the bedding. None of my m70s had anything. I’d clean and lube lightly (like you have) and just roll on.
Question...were there set screws on the scope taps? If not, it may have actually been used a bit and the green could have been green loctite from the previous install that was knocked loose. Green is wicking so may have collected at the bottom of the tapped hole over the lug area.

 

[C.W. Richter]

the most common green in a bbl is copper fouling, but you said NOS so it was likely just test fired. I wonder if they used green loctite on the bbl itself?! in any case, it sounds like luckily you corrected the issue! some of those old cosmolene-cosmolube military packing greases did have a green hue to 'em, so who knows?! it would make sense they'd use such a thing on a rifle 10 yrs old in storage. Some guns of that vintage were actually assembled in Portugal, so maybe they treated them prior to shipment to the US? (Like an interarms Mauser stamped Alexandria, VA but made in various E. European countries). Also, petroleum products degrade in air over time and even invite bacterium to accelerate the process (typically aerobic, like algae.) We use the process at work to clean up certain spills.

 

[BTB Joe]

We also speculated that it could be cosmoline aged over time but the consistency of it where it smeared along the bolt seemed more like plastic than grease. Yeah, i’m happy that it worked out. Solid rifle now it seems.

 

[BTB Joe]

Set screws were intact. Had it shipped from a store that billed it as NIB and it looks it. I’m always tentative about online purchase because I like nice wood. I’m that guy that has them bring out several and pick the wood I like among them... Lucked out on this one. Pretty nice.

 

[baxterb]

Set screws were intact. Had it shipped from a store that billed it as NIB and it looks it. I’m always tentative about online purchase because I like nice wood. I’m that guy that has them bring out several and pick the wood I like among them... Lucked out on this one. Pretty nice.

That’s great, then. Enjoy that beast!