Cleaning my new baby and a couple other questions!

[newb101]

Hey all, new poster here and new to the handgun world. After a lot of searching I found my XD40 Service at gander mountain, they had just gotten it in and it hadn't made its way to the display case. $479.99. I just saw another post about GM and wasn't aware they price match.. so I have 30 days to get a quote and they'll refund a bit of that back, just need to find someone with one in stock. Anyway the shell casing in my case was dated 9/29/04 .. I was under the impression "Just got it in" meant fresh from SA. Should this be something I should worry about or is that normal? The gun had no wear from what I could tell, but I honestly wouldn't have known if it was fired and cleaned or not.

Now onto the cleaning .. I just picked up an el-cheapo kit from wal-mart for $6.50 .. all-in-one .. will this suffice for regular cleanings? I want to take excellent care (I'd rather clean it too much than not enough) of her so I will explain what I do and please give me any advice. Basically I just take it down .. brush only outward through the barrel with the nitro cleaner untill the gunk it out, then run a patch through with more cleaner untill it comes out white and put some of it on a patch and wipe out all the exposed metal. I then wipe off all the cleaner on the metal and take an oil soaked patch and wipe it all down, exterior of the slide included and run one through the barrel with oil also. I then put it back together and with a silicone rag wipe off the exterior of the slide well and store it . Am I doing anything wrong or missing anything? Thanks so much!

[Nickle1]

Sounds good.

Suggestion: Go back to gander and pick up some armadillo wax. Take the wax out of the cup and rub your slide down with it. Then take a hair dryer and heat the slide up until the wax starts to melt. Take a soft cloth and rub the melted wax right in. Water tight!