Does this wear look normal to you?

[Watchful]

Hello all,

I am a newbie here, been lurking and learning for a while. Thanks.
I have a question about some wear marks I found on the barrel of my Colt Government Model 380 Pocketlite. I purchased this gun about 10 years ago and used it infrequently. I have put at most 500 rounds thru it. I later purchased a different pistol and just put this one away. A while back, I dug it out and started using it again. I gave it a good cleaning and thats when I first noticed the wear. I never really noticed it before. There are fairly deep semi-circular gouges in the left hand side if the barrel base. I took it to a local gun shop and they told me it was just "normal wear", not to worry. I would like to get a second opinion just for safety's sake. I would appreciate some opinions on what you think.

Thanks again!

[gfmun]

I am not an expert on anything, but that does not look normal to me.

George

[Wodathunkit]

Hmmmm, that is a lot of "wear" for 5 boxes of ammo, I'd take it to another gunsmith. Those scratches look to be shallow but it shouldn't be doing that.

[packa45]

Looks like tooling marks in combination with normal wear marks to me but I am not an expert... I have similar marks on several pistols. But I have many more rounds than you claim to have through this barrel.

[carlson1]

I am sure not a gunsmith, but there is too much wear. I wouldn't buy something that looked like that.

[MoJo]

Your pictures aren't very high quality but, from what I see it looks like most of those marks are tool marks from manufacturing with a couple of spots shiny from use.

[03Lightningrocks]

When I saw the title of the thread, I thought it was going to be another thread inquiring as to whether or not we could tell you had a concealed carry under your shirt.

I agree with mojo and think it is nothing to worry about.

[AlfaBrewer]

Tooling marks. If this was wear, you'd find corresponding wear on the slide. I'm surprised this was passed by a QC group.

[Watchful]

Tooling marks. If this was wear, you'd find corresponding wear on the slide. I'm surprised this was passed by a QC group.

Thanks for everyone's input. I did check the slide closely and could find no cooresponding wear that would have caused this. I am tending to agree that this was just sloppy tooling from the factory. I am just puzzeled that I never noticed this before when I cleaned the pistol. I guess I just overlooked it.