Heat Treat Fire Damage

chollagardens

Just recently the Witch Creek fire went over my property. I stayed and saved my house and most of my property. Unfortunately I had some firearms in a cargo container (very well secured) and the flames touched the side of the container causing some charing inside the container and close to the firearms. All except one of the firearms were in guncases from T-Z Case International. All guncases showed smoke damage and the wheels on the caes are melted. Inside there is no visable damage in four of the cases. One case shows the foam discolored for almost one inch and that foam is brittle. I called T-Z Case and they were unable to give me the specs on the foam.

I figure that if I am able to determine the max temp the firearms can be exposed to with out heat treat damage and also the temp the foam melts and/or turns color and gets brittle then I would be able to determine their condition.

My questions are:

1. What is the max temp the firearms can be exposed to with out heat treat damage?

2. What would be the temp range for the foam to melt?

3. What would be the temp range for the foam to become brittle?

4. If no one knows the answers then does anyone know where I might find the answer?

brecht

With an old toaster oven and a piece of new foam you could estimate the temperature it take for the foam to change its appearance.

Hawk Carse

Never mind the cases, if the guns themselves do not have visible fire damage to wood or synthetic stocks and nonferrous parts, the steel has not likely been annealed. That takes many hundreds of degrees, depending on the alloy.

The old rule of thumb was that if a fire damaged gun still had spring tension, the other parts were still sound. If the springs had been heated enough to lose temper and collapse, then the action was doubtful.

thunderbolt

When I have rifles that need to be fired for a safety check, I usually brace them in an old tire (use sandbags and rope) and fire them with a long string. If a handgun, try to find someone with a Ransom Rest.

dcs shooters

Hawk hit it right[8D] I had a fire some years ago and had everything in a gun cabinet. The fire got hot enough to break the glass, but got put down before the heat got to the guns. Only had some smoke damage to take care of[;)]

bpost

4140 steel takes near 1,000 degrees to do much with and it must stay there for a time to change it. If the guns were not on fire or the stocks and scopes are Ok there is nothing to worry about.

ghotie_thumper

If the foam showed only discoloration it is highly unlikely that any damage occurred to the firearms themselves. I would get some new gun cases and consider myself lucky. My son was one of many firefighters who worked on those blazes. He is on a hotshot crew out of San Diego.

chollagardens

THANK YOU ALL! Your responses helped me out more than you know. Thanks again.