New pistol....clean before 1st use?

Improper machining that slipped past QC, perhaps a chipped feed ramp on an auto, metal chips inside, voids in cast parts that also slipped past QC, and so on.

Globs of grease in the wrong places can cause malfunctions, even possible ADs.

It can and has happened.

It's common sense to clean a gun before you first shoot it.
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Sorry, but to call it "common sense" is not right, only in my opinion. Do what you want with your new pistols but to be worried about "Globs of grease" is goofy. Again, to be so concerned with these major problems from a new pistol, in my experience after buying and/or shooting hundreds of new ones, it's not a huge concern. We don't have to agree on this and if you have experienced these major flaws from the factory I would like to hear which ones.
 
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I would say clean it. It can't hurt anything and might have some benefit. I wouldn't go any further in field stripping than I was sure I could get back together properly. And some lube just to make sure it is lubed.
 
I think the decision on whether you need to clean a new gun depends on the gun. Some do and some don't. My RIA 1911 was packed in something that looked like grease and it had to be cleaned. My Henry rifle, Rough Rider revolver as well as my SD9VE were spotless when I got them. They had clearly been cleaned by the LGS before I bought them and did not get cleaned again. My Ruger 22/45 was marginal when I got it out of the box and I did clean it.
 
Hard for me to figure what harm it does to make it a policy to clean any gun before you fire it.
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It can't do any harm at all and it probably is a good practice. Just not as important as some people think.
 
Hard for me to figure what harm it does to make it a policy to clean any gun before you fire it.
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You can't see how someone unfamiliar with a designcould reassemble it impropery?

If it is your 20th 1911, then of course that is no concern. If it is your third pistol and first of the model then I think the chances of reassembling incorrectly greatly exceed the chances a glob of rust preventative is going to stop the weapon from cycling. Great idea to clean the bore and other things that don't require disassembly, but for many new shooters I don't think they should disassemble before trying it out.
 
If field stripping is part of normal maintenance, and will be done anyway, I would think it was a good idea to do so prior to shooting, just to be familiar with the gun and how it works. Giving it a quick clean and relube at the same time only makes sense.
 
For me, I would never shoot a gun before breaking it down and cleaning it. For those times when the design was new to me, I followed the instruction booklet and never had a problem...and today there is YouTube.

Many moons ago I went to work for a Government Agency. I was in a class of 60. We were issued brand new HK USP .40's. It freaked me out when they would not let us clean or lube the gun before shooting. To make a long story short, each of us shot about 5000 rounds out of our guns before we were allowed to break them down to clean and lube them. This speaks very highly of the gun but I still much prefer to break it down and clean it before I ever shoot a new gun.
 
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