Free: Contests & Raffles.
Probably a little rust would be my guess.
I agree clean it.Is this brand new out of the box,or used rifle.If that's brand new out of box , that not very good quality control.
one of my two tikkas came that way from the factory a few years ago. some kind of packing goo. Cleaned easily and shot 1/2 groups right away. Love it
fairly simple explanation. Tikka test fires their rifles before shipping like many other rifle company's. As is the case with a new rifle but not a must. Depends on the opinion of the purchaser. A new rifle barrel should get a proper cleaning before it's first bench session. Then it's up to whatever works for the monkey on the trigger for barrel break in.What your seeing is copper on the lands.