I'm not sure where to post this, but how common is rust on new tikka rifles, including stainless versions?  I bought my son a t3 stainless (just before t3x started).  I didn't notice it at time of purchase, but he found rust spots on the barrel, and several months later I saw a tikka at the same shop with rust on stainless barrel.  Tikka cleaned up the rust and returned it.  Prior to buying, I'd seen online reviews mentioning rust on stainless tikkas, and I just saw another review mentioning rust.  I've never seen so much evidence of rust on any other brand.  Does tikka have a problem with their manufacturing process or distribution/storage system?  I know stainless is not rustproof.  I really want a ctr, but is there a problem with rust?

I don't know about Tikka's rusting but  it seems like the stainless they make guns out of less corrosion resistant than what you might see in a marine application. If money was no object, all my guns would be stainless and then painted. Quality paint seems like the only true protection albeit temporary. Any issues I have had have cleaned up with steel wool and oxphoblue on the blue / black guns.

I own 4, 3 stainless one blued.  Never had any rust on them at all.

Is the shop doing anything to stop the rust from forming? I've had 4 and none had any rust issues.

I'm not sure it's the shop.  It was Scheels, which is a medium Midwestern chain.  I would suspect the shop if I hadn't seen more internet mentions of tikka rust than I would expect.  We didn't notice the rust on my son's gun until a week or so after purchase; was in the factory box the whole time.  And then I saw the other tikka at the same shop with similar rust.  Tikka fixed my son's rifle's rust.

Good to know Tikka fixed you up, I've had mine for a few months without issues until I went and shot in the rain. I have slight rust on the mag and a few small spots on the barrel. I'm. It concerned with it as I keep the inside oiled when it sits and this rifle gets used regardless of weather.

Oil and a good silicone cloth or steel wool will handle it.

Most gun barrels are a 400 series stainless (410/416) I believe, and those are martensitic stainless steel grades. They're lower chromium and higher carbon content and will have much less corrosion resistance than 304/316 stainless steels. If you really want to get a good corrosion resistance, find a local facility that does passivation for stainless steels; it'll take ~0.0001" off to remove the iron and leave an enriched chromium surface layer that'll be more corrosion resistant than your base material. You could probably do it easy yourself with hardware store chemicals but you'd want to take the barrel off and clean the snot out of it after you're done. It won't get the inside of the barrel well at all unless you get the electrode in there or it's an electroless process.

The last thing you want to do is hit it with steel wool; that'll make it pit/rust much worse.

How humid is Wisconsin?  I've got a t3x lite I ordered from a website, haven't had any issues, with only occasional wipes with a silicone cloth.  It just lives in my closet.

But then I'm in a desert, so most of my cleaning involves a futile battle against dust.

Some neighbors recently pulled out a couple early 1900's .22 rifles that were sitting in storage for the better part of 20 years, just in their house, nothing special.  It's been too long since I lived somewhere humid, won't be pretty if it's humid at my next location.

I own 2 tikkas, one stainless and one blued action.

We had one of the wettest winter's ever in Seattle. No rust in the 2.5 years I've had them. I have had minor rust on screws (on my bipod and random ar parts, nothing on the tikkas) due to my apartment flooding and humidity levels being 60% or higher for a couple weeks.

I've also did a magpul core class when it would piss rain every morning and still no rust