r/canadaguns • u/Oetter83 • 2d ago

Fix my gun New SIG Cross .308

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Never seen a rifle BNIB come in like this before.

I wonder if it would be fine after cleaning but leaning towards just returning it since these are far from cheap firearms

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u/Oetter83 2d ago

Apparently the entire batch a retailer got of cross .308’s had this problem

I ordered this from one of bigger reputable retailers from Ontario so I wonder if something majorly fucked up at SIG

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u/SpectreBallistics Spectre Ballistics International (Verified) 2d ago

The root cause here is moisture. At some point it was stored in a wet environment. Where that environment was wet, you'll never know.

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u/CryptidWorks CryptidWorks 2d ago

Yeah, this looks like it came out of a warehouse that experienced a flood or extended high humidity conditions.

If the whole batch was like the rumors OP mentioned, it may have possibly been the railcar/trailer they came in on.

Either way, the whole batch should have been an insurance write-off and never been delivered. Yeesh.

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u/Oetter83 1d ago

It’s interesting to me that it’s just the barrel. The rest of the gun is in perfect condition id have assumed some corrosion on the rest of the gun or outside of barrel

It’s almost like SIG was testing their barrels with corrosive ammo

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u/CryptidWorks CryptidWorks 1d ago edited 1d ago

Differing metallurgy/treatments. The receiver is aluminum, the barrel is steel. The bolt is nitrided/coated, so it's rust-resistant, etc.

The barrel I think is just regular 400 series stainless, which will rust if exposed to moisture for prolonged amounts of time. It's corrosion resistant but it's formulated to gain ease of machining at the cost of less rust resistance than higher-chromium alloys.

I almost wonder if they forgot to oil them before they left the factory. Being stored in a box, possibly with moisture for months with no shipping oil would probably do it.

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u/Oetter83 1d ago

Interesting thanks for the info. I thought stainless was just better for corrosion resistant than bluing.

Yeah I dont think there was oil on anything, it was pretty dry expect for what looked like a drop of grease in the receiver

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u/CryptidWorks CryptidWorks 1d ago

Corrosion in general, yes, rust, not necessarily - 400 stainless has more sulphur in it, which makes it more prone to rust than some other options. Normally it's not a problem, as typically rifles are oiled by their manufacturer/user/for storage, which makes for a pretty resilient finish. Some modern bluing processes are extremely resilient in that regard, but the rifling and threaded surfaces are usually the first to rust as they've been machined, usually after the fact. Same thing for laser engravings.

If there was no oil on it out of the box, I suspect that's the culprit. Would have appeared fine leaving the factory if the QA checker wasn't paying very close attention, since a lightly oiled brand new rifle and a dry brand new rifle are going to look very similar when you're looking for glaring issues like marring etc.