Home Forums Lever Action Central Lever Actions - General winchester 1886 "casting marks"?

i just bought a rifle on the net to make a cutom when it arrived the receiver has scratches that run lengthwise some deep enough that you can feel them with your thumb nail when i brought this to his attention i was told these were casting marks. i have since taken the gun to a couple of local smiths and was told they haven't seen anything like it one just said they were scratches.
my question is have any of you guys ever seen this? did winchester really let something like that leave the factory?
thanks chris

Casting marks? FERTILIZER! Get a price reduction unless you are happy with it as is. RZ

Those marks are common on old Winchesters, especially the 86's, 92's and early 95's. I believe they are a product of the forging process and for some reason a bit of wear and tear and exposure to use and weather causes them show up usually in slightly curving lines parallel to the bore. They appear to be shallow pitting but why they occur when the rest of the surface just shows normal use I don't know. Possibly the forging process created folds or traces left from the movement of metal that may have had inclusions of scale or loss of carbon or some other reason. I have seen them on a lot of well used but not necessarily abused rifles some of which still had excellent bores and shot very well.