Guns from house fire

Lantz Dahlke

Hey guys,
I have a bunch of guns that were in a house fire. They got hot and the stocks were smoked bad and slightly charred, however the plastic parts inside the weapons did not melt. Can these guns be refinished and safely used?
Thanks![8D]

Frozen Chosen

Jake_S-83

not an easy thing to judge without seeing them. i would take them to a gunsmith to find out

Rafter-S

Corrosion from the smoke is a huge problem for guns that have been in a house fire. You need to get them soaked in oil immediately, then cleaned thoroughly.

My humble suggestion,
Rafter-S

"What is truth? No wonder jesting Pilate turned away. The truth, it has a thousand faces -- show only one of them, and the whole truth flies away! But how to show the whole? That is the question."
--Thomas Wolfe, "You Can't Go Home Again" (1934)

grizzclaw

I have a friend that had his house burn down, he refuses to fire the guns that went through the fire.

Thanks, Grizztribefans@sssnet.com

Contender Man

If the heat from the fire was not high enough to melt plastic then odds are that the metal should be fine unless corrosion is setting in from their not being cleaned. Take immediate action to preserve them by disassembling, cleaning and oiling, then let a gunsmith give them a once over and be sure to take the stocks/grips with you to illustrate the surrounding heat that they were exposed to. In fact you may want your gunsmith to handle the restoration if they feel that there was no damage to the metal.

Temperatures in a normal structure fire typically reach/exceed 1600 degrees (F) so light charring and unmelted plastic are good signs that the guns were apparently shielded from a lot of the heat.

Don't just clean 'em up and go fire 'em ... get them checked over.



If you only have time to do two things so-so, or one thing well ... do the one thing!

Xracer

I agree with Rafter and Contender man.....take immediate steps to thoroughly disassemble and clean and oil the guns.

IMO, if the wood didn't burn and the plastic didn't melt, chances are that the guns are fine. You may have to do some refinishing....and perhaps replace some of the plastic parts (they may have changed shape a little), but all of the metal parts should be fine.

But, to be on the safe side, definitly have a gunsmith check 'em over.

warcrob

The only problem will be the blued parts. Due to the wetting agent that firefighters use in the water to help fight the fire. It is very hard on blueing. My inlaws house burnt in Sept.2001, one of the fire deptartments opened the gun cabinet and hosed down the guns. As soon as the fire marshall would let us remove items from the house, we went straight for the guns. I ran oiled patches down the bores and did what i could to clean them up some. the next day I took them all to a local gunshop for a thurogh going over. out of 12 guns ther were only 2 that had minor charring on the stocks. They all shoot fine.

The gun that looks the worst was a Ruger model 10, 44 magnum. there was no blueing left on the barrel. Kind of made me sick, it had a 5 digit serial number with no prefix.

If you ain't got a sense of humor you got no business bein here!

MIKE WISKEY

SPEAKING FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, IF THE SPRINGS ARE NOT SOFT AND THE WOOD INSIDE THE STOCK ISN'T CHARRED THEY 'SHOULD' BE OK TO REFINISH AND FIRE AGAIN. I HAD MY HOUSE/SHOP BURN ABOUT SEVEN YEARS AGO. MOST GUNS WERE JUNK BUT I WAS ABLE TO SALVAGE SEVERAL THAT STILL HAD MOST OF THE WOOD LEFT. THE WORST ONE I KEPT WAS A S&W 624, S.S. .44 SPECIAL, SPRINGS WERE SO/SO, WOOD STOCKS WERE BURNED OFF. CLEANED EVERY THING UP AND REPLACED THE SPRINGS AND THE GUN SHOOTS ALMOST AS GOOD NOW AS IT DID BEFORE. AS SOME OF THE ABOVE POSTERS SAID, GET THE GUNS CLEANED NOW, TO PREVENT FURTHER DAMAGE.