What's Wrong with my Barrel

Remington finish sucks. I have seen other guns with similar coloration.

My stevens from 1913 has the browned look. If the brown look bothers you. Have it re-blued.

My Stoeger M3020 bluing on the barrel was very thin. When wiped down after getting home the rag actually had a brown tint. Disappointing for a new gun.

It wont harm the barrel. A good oil to put on it is Burchwood Casey barricade. I use it on my restores and my muzzle loaders.
https://www.amazon.com/Birchwood-Casey-Barricade-Rust-Protection/dp/B01CQ26UG2?th=1

Bluing changes color over time if not applied exactly right. Some turn brownish some purplish.

You can improve the appearance by applying a cold blue. If it's lightly rusted the cold blue will remove it too!

Smiles,

Iosso brand called "Gun Brite" will be your new best friend. Works rather well at stopping rust, preventing rust, and leaves a super light coating on metal that you will not notice.

Keep it oiled and don't worry about it.

"What is wrong with my barrel?"

Nothing that I can see. The mag tube and the barrel may be made of different steel and were finished at different times. And with a different degree of polishing.

Ah, the Express patina. The blueing on those economy models is almost more of a phosphate or parkerizing treatment. It will absorb oil, it will take the brownish patina you note. Very common on SP, Express models that have seen some use in humid climates.

Just keep a thin film of JB-80 or Liquid Wrench on it, all will be fine except the color.

famous high quality remington finish. use eezox or breakfree clp to coat it and you will be rust free, maybe.. I speak from experience.

There is a stickied article in the general section at shotgunworld where an intrepid soul tried about 50 compounds for rust prevention. He discusses his methodology & has about 11 pages of comments as others discuss his study. He decreased steel plates, treated each plate with a different product, dipped each in salt water, hung them in his back yard and monitored when they showed the first sign of rust. There were 3 near ties at about 60 days. I bought the first of these I came across. Very satisfied- Hornady One Shot.

Often a brownish color on Remington shotguns is a protective coating like Cosmoline to prevent rust during shipping.

One experiment is to remove the barrel and liberally apply some CLP Breakfree, dripping wet. Let soak 30 minutes and wipe off the excess.
The CLP will dissolve and remove the factory protective lube, and if it's rust, will begin removing it.
If it's the factory protective lube coating it may look better. In any event the CLP will go a long way to prevent rust, will help remove any light rusting.

Most new guns have some sort of protective coating applied to protect it until the buyer begins to use it.
All owner's manuals advise cleaning the gun before first use, too many people ignore that.
Point is, protective shipping coatings stop protecting very well when the gun begins to be handled and used. You need to remove the factory coating and apply a using lube to protect and lubricate it.

This was a major cause of failures to extract with the later Express models. The combination of a rougher chamber and not removing the factory protective lube from the chamber combined to cause failure to extract, especially with bulk pack cheap ammo.

Typical Express barrel doing its own version of browning, i. e. Rusting. Steel wool, oil, light handed removal. I used to use Johnson’s paste wax on my expresses when I hunted ducks. I’m a Rem870 fan but their idea of finishes for the Express purely sucks. I’ve got a sixty year old Wingmaster that looks better than the “Fieldmaster” on my dealers rack.