How "clean" is typical for a breechface on a used pistol?

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Fatman

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Bit of a newbie question (from a bit of a newbie), but how "clean" looking is the breachface on a pistol that has had say, 1000-2000 rounds through it? Is it gonna look brand new, or is it normal to have some scratches/lines and a ring where the round would sit?

For a gun with that many rounds through it, what constitutes a "clean" breechface?
 
Most of my guns show some sort of wear, although minor, on the breech face after way fewer rounds than you indicate. As long as there is no erosion or similar damage around the firing pin/striker hole, it should be ok. Minor scratches and brass marks shouldn't be of concern. Of course knowing what kind of gun and any photos would be helpful.
 
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With 1000-2000 rounds, there shouldn't be any actual "wear" on the metal surface of the breech face. The "ring" wear you see may just be the finish wear and not actual wear of the metal surface. Brass is much softer than steel used for the slide and is not able to cause scratches or wear marks on the breech face. If you see scratches on breech face, it was done by something other than brass case.

My various Glock/M&P/Sig pistols have 7,500 - 30,000+ rounds through them and the breech faces look slightly less black with the finish wear but the metal surfaces are flat without scratches or "ring" type wear.

Before I consider buying any used firearm, I always closely inspect the inside/outside for wear and parts breakage and insist on range test for proper function and accuracy verification.

I would have someone else more familiar with firearms take a look at the breech face and range test the pistol. If that's not doable, at the very least, feed couple magazines of rounds to ensure the rounds feed and the case base slide up without hanging on the breech face. Ask the seller how the scratches got on the breech face and if the pistol functioned and shot well, would negotiate a lower price insisting that 1000-2000 rounds should not have caused such "damage" to the breech face and must have been something else. If the pistol did not function or shoot well, I would not buy the pistol even at a very low price.

Be careful. There are several reasons why people sell guns and you won't like most of them.
 
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Most used guns I run across haven't even been cleaned, (pawn shops)
so actually SEEING the breech is a bonus ;)

If you see scratches, it usually means a lot of jams that some dunce has picked out with a pocketknife...
so either someone didn't know NOT to leave oil in the chamber after cleaning...
or they used cheap crappy reloads...or both...
or its got a bad extractor...or a burred chamber, both of those are easy fixes...
or its a SNS/junk gun like a Lorcin/Raven/etc which is probably well documented on the boards..

A lot depends on what kinda gun it is...
 
It's a Springfield XDM full-size in 9mm. I will see if I can get a picture this evening and upload. The function check seemed to work well. We did not live-fire, but snapcaps move through just fine, so I'm not thinking there's any feed or ejection issues.
 
I've had a few that had dings and scuffs after a few hundred rounds. It is metal slapping around metal, so some wear will happen. Good thing most ammo is brass instead of steel.

Clean is all powder residue removed for me. Rings and marks are fine, but any caked on buildup can affect operation.
 
As requested here's the pics he sent me tonight. They look better now than I recall. Maybe he cleaned it lol

Anyway, what you all think?
 

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From what I can see, I would be OK with that.

I would still try to range test the pistol for proper feeding/chambering and extraction/ejection along with accuracy verification, especially with JHP ammunition.
 
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