resolved

[BRL]

You sure it's not lead fouling - looks like it to me. Before you send it in try some bronze wool and a bit of your favorite solvent.

Looks like possible lead build-up to me too.

Soft lead bullets being pushed fast, base melts a little on the way out, and some residue is distributed with the expanding gasses.

Hard to tell from a picture though.

[I Swan]

Clean and shoot it first, take it from there.

[Pupulepeter]

Clean it up properly. I agree that it looks a lot like lead buildup. I don’t see anything crazy in your picture, unless those dark spots are indeed craters.

[Pupulepeter]

It’s not a Glock or an AR. you’ll need a good bore cleaner, lead away, etc..

[langss]

Looking at both pictures, the OP's and his friends, you can see where the OP's gun has come in contact with something down near the underlug and again although to a lessor extent just below the front sight. A better picture would make it easier to see, but it look's to me like it made contact with something hard enough to leave a mark(Concrete Floor). It doesn't look dropped but like it was drug across. The actual marks just at the rifling may be as someone else suggested from being hit with a cleaning rod or those storage rods. I have a nice Nickle Plated revolver that had been dropped, and there is a difference. As always just my .02.

[Abenaki]

Looks like lead to me.

Try to clean it, gently using a wooden match or a popsicle stick.

Take care
Abenaki

[Pardini]

Hard to tell from the picture, but if it's not lead or carbon build up, then the previous owner most likely damaged it with a cleaning rod. Any type of fouling will chip off fairly easily with a square edge on a piece of wood or plastic.

[ZombieLivesMatter]

Ruger service was fast! Sent it out Monday morning and got it back today Saturday afternoon. Ruger told me it's policy for me to overnight ship to them, went to FedEx but they wanted to charge me $78, was going to cancel the RMA for now but Ruger told me they would hook me up with overnight shipping for $30. And it was only $80 for a new barrel installed. Pretty sure it would have shot perfectly fine before but I just wanted it taken care of especially if I decide to sell it later. Thanks again everyone. Now to take it shooting, I'm excited it's my first revolver. And I confirmed with previous owner he always stored on one of those racks with a rod in the barrel.

[ZombieLivesMatter]

Took the Ruger revolver shooting for the first time and all I can say is wow, I love revolvers now. Everything I've read about people shooting Magnum loads and how crazy the recoil is and how it hurts the wrist or how people develop flinching or how the gun can flyback towards your head or how they only shoot a few rounds before being fatigued..... well none of that was true. Sure it had a little more kick than a 9mm but it wasn't excessively more. It was very easy to shoot, honestly just as easy as the Glock I brought along. I shot 150 rounds of 240gr Magnum.

Only thing that is turning me off is I paid $40 for each box of 44mag with 50 rounds each box! To me that's a lot because I'm use to 9mm box of 50 for $10. I've already stocked thousands of rounds of 9mm but am starting completely from scratch with 44, and I don't reload, that has me considering whether to keep it.

[FeuerFrei]

44 Special is your plan B target ammo now. [emoji6]

Sent using a long string and 2 Dixie cups

[MarkInFolsom]

44 Special is your plan B target ammo now. [emoji6]

Not much cheaper and harder to find now that we can't internet order. Time to start reloading.

[003]

Re-crowning is a very simple bread and butter job for a gunsmith. Takes no more than a few minutes and will be as good as new. As to the cause, looks like someone used a steel or other heavy duty cleaning rod and banged it into the muzzle. No way the most heavy duty load could cause that damage.

Sadly, improper cleaning has damaged more guns than benign neglect.