Bill,
It's not just a little rust, in my opinion. It's pitted. Since that affects the integrity of steel in general, I was curious and a little concerned. I wish I could get the pictures to load. I'll have to take some more later.
I know, resuscitating the Dead...
But I'm hoping he kept it in the back of his safe
My slide, also, was slightly pitted with rust.
Not that big of an issue, as pitting on one side isn't really a problem,
unless it goes all the way thru. Wouldn't even be worried that much if it
went over halfway thru...because it's a slide, not a gas impingement device.
As long as the area over/around the slide stops are pretty solid, it's fine.
So you should be able to take it out & shoot it,
or do like I did and clean it, sandblast it,
and Cerakoted in Satin Black...then take it out and shoot it
after the Cerakote cures for at least 4 weeks