Hi Jonty, I black and brown barrels and the biggest nightmare for me is barrels that leak as it makes rust blacking hard, sometimes alot of these guns are finished with caustic style solutions this can get in under the ribs and will leak out in the way you describe, another possibility is, I refinished a purdey recently and they put a resin in between the barrels and ribs thats fine if the ribs are sound but if they are not it gets all over the barrels, I would think it is most likely the first option and I would return the gun and ask for a rust finish instead, regards Paul
