Housefire Vs. Firearms... Anything Salvageable?
- Thread starter B
- Start date
All the info about the incident is in the link I posted. It sucked, My insurance didn't cover it all because I forgot to increase it. As of now life is good however. I have everything sitting in the garage of my new home and came across it today. I am going to refinish the gun and throw it in a cheap stock. At the least it will make a nice decoration.
My condolences.
Those rifles are completely destroyed. Hot enough fire to completely burn the stock is hot enough to de-temper. They are not salvageable. 700 C is 1292 F. Well over de-tempering heat for steel.
Fire resistant doesn't mean fire proof. Even fire proof is only for a specific amount of time.
Those rifles are completely destroyed. Hot enough fire to completely burn the stock is hot enough to de-temper. They are not salvageable. 700 C is 1292 F. Well over de-tempering heat for steel.
Fire resistant doesn't mean fire proof. Even fire proof is only for a specific amount of time.
- Location
- Calgary, AB
Pretty good idea - never know what's going to happen with it in the distant future and that receiver/those parts could be either very soft or very hard, or both depending on whether they cooled slowly or quickly - one blast from a hose in there and metal could've hardened to the point of stress cracking, or could be soft as heck if it cooled slowly in the ashes. Maybe a rod hammered into the chamber and a cut into the bottom of the receiver ring - stops the barrel from chambering and the receiver from functioning but is invisible without disassembly.
If you wanted to dump a ton of money into the gun it might be salvageable. I'm really not an expert but to my mind you'd need to:
- Get it thoroughly cleaned and de-scaled, and you'd lose metal doing that, so bore and most surfaces would end up out of spec. Scale forms whenever metal is heated and oxidized. it's the flaky black, hard crumbly stuff that comes off like scales from the metal. Probably also a lot of rust pitting by now too.
- Next get it tested. No idea what would be appropriate but non-destructive testing of some kind. Probably also have to check for warping while you're at it.
- If anything's excessively worn/reduced/damaged/cracked and reparable it would need to be cut away, straightened, welded/filled and then refinished. Depending on whether the metal was hard or soft it might need to be annealed to be worked or to reduce stress. I'm guessing after a fire the gun would at least to be annealed to make sure the metal was of the right hardness to work with.
- Finally everything would have to be properly heat treated and rehardened to whatever hardness it was supposed to be.
That's how I'd approach it if I were to try to take it on at least... but hey, you're getting advice from the internet so it's probably not totally correct
Last edited:
Pure Energy
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- A river runs through it.
That sucks man, I always feel bad for victims of a house fire, all your belongings, pictures, memories, gone. Best of luck to you B. I would not try to salvage any of those, they are finished, maybe find some cheap stocks and make wall hangers?
ninepointer
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Central Ontario
^^^THIS^^^
The steel has been annealed. If you fix it you will wonder with each pull of the trigger if this is the one that will take away your hand or your eyesight.
Turkinator
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Onterrible
would you be able to claim them under house insurance?
I so very sorry for your loss as well. It makes me heartsick seeing it. I was wondering what brand/make/model of gunsafe you were using when the fire happened. Also, was the safe a fire proof or fire resistant type, and what was the fire temperature rated for and for how long on the safe considering all the damage it did?
Rebuild the gal and hang her on the wall.
A subtle reminder of how fragile life is.
Glad you're still sunny side.
Mom got burned out years ago and the devastation, plus the
heart stomping she received..........well, it wasn't very nice.
Build the gal and hang'r up when you rebuild.
A subtle reminder of how fragile life is.
Glad you're still sunny side.
Mom got burned out years ago and the devastation, plus the
heart stomping she received..........well, it wasn't very nice.
Build the gal and hang'r up when you rebuild.
Lee Enfield
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Republic of Alberta
Out of all the guns we could recover out of the remains I have an M-305 that may be salvageable with some work. First off it needs to be cleaned up, it covered in soot and carbon from the plastic bits in the safe melting. Beyond a simple refinish I figure the springs will definitely need to be swapped and maybe a whole new trigger group and bolt internals. Is it even worth it? The fire in the safe was hot enough to vaporize the aluminum receivers of some of the other guns. Is it beyond any repair? This is a matter of sentiment so I am more than willing to spend a good chunk of money to get it up and running again. I'd spent a lot of time and money swapping parts and getting it tuned and never even got to fire the damn thing!
I'm sorry for your loss, as several other people have already said your guns are destroyed.
I work in the heat treatment field and as an example when the temper is taken out of your springs the hardening of your bolt (most important) barrel and receiver is also affected.
If the varnish on the stocks was merely smoke damaged, or maybe bubbled a little then you would be reasonably safe.
I would consider salvaging some of the guns on an individual basis if the springs were damaged (temper reduced) by the heat.
Each alloy is heat treated differently so if you intended to re heat treat a specific firearm, you would have to do each barrel, receiver and bolt individually, and know the exact alloy they were constructed from and the hardened properties that the manufacture used.
The best recommendation that I can make is to deactivated them and sell/donate them to a PAL course instructor as they are always in need of un fire able course guns.
Last edited:
