Firearms that have been through a fire?

W

Wannabegunsmith

New member
I have a good buddy of mine that has had a gun that went through a fire. He's not sure what type of fire or how hot (House fire, camp fire, etc..) and he's wanting me to make it firable again. Im not sure what type of gun it is but it made me think that possibly parts could be weakened but I'm focused on the barrel.. couldn't that barrel be weakened to the point where it'd be dangerous to shoot? I dont know anything about guns that have gone through fires. Never ran across it till now.
 
If the firearm has sentimental value, go ahead and refinish it. But I would not fire it unless I had a gunsmith check it out.

If he is planning on firing it, I would have a gunsmith check it out before hand and see if they could determine whether the metal had changed. Sometimes heat can be your friend, sometimes it can cause problems.

Like Spats said above, weakened, warped, brittle, it could be a very dangerous gun to fire.
 
Denny Hansen, editor of SWAT Magazine, had a bad house fire a few years ago and several of his sentimental guns were in his safe at the time. He wrote an excellent article for SWAT that detailed what he did to rescue or restore the ones that were salvageable. You can probaby find the article on the SWAT Magazing website.

pax
 
Pax....

Pax beat me to the punch! :D
I recall the same article in SWAT. I read part of it & went by a local bookstore to buy my own copy(mainly for research & reference material).
The "new & improved" guns looked great. :)
I think Robar of AZ was one of the major custom shops involved; www.Robarguns.com .
 
The gun safe would have protected them from the intense heat of a typical fire. If the gun was exposed to a hot fire, I don't think it would be worth salvaging. You don't know what might have fallen on it and bent the barrel or how hot the fire was.
 
Most gun actions, barrels, bolts, etc are made of a steel pretty much equivalent to 4140. If it got hotter than a few hundred degrees fahrenheit then it probably lost some strength.

For example, 4140 tempered at 400 degrees (400F) has a tensile strength of about 300,000 PSI. Tempered at 600F it's 225,000 PSI, about a 25% reduction in strength.

700F is 210,000 PSI, 1,000F is about 145,000 PSI.

If it got hot at all and the gun is worth it, it would probably be a REAL good idea to get it tested if you intend to use it. I wouldn't want it.
 
Also besides the receiver/frame, and barrel, there are the springs to consider.

It is possible that the temper of the critical pressure bearing parts might be ok, and the springs be toast. You can get the hardness checked, and compare it against the factory specs. Springs, well, they either work, or they don't. Even if the springs seem ok, they should be replaced, because they might work fine a bit, then die.

All the guns I've seen that burned were (basically) solid rust shortly afterwards. If the one(s) you got aren't there is hope, but no guarantee.

Get it checked by someone who can do it right, before you try anything else.
 
I have an AK74 clone that was in a house fire. The fire was pretty well controlled and limited to one room, the room adjacent to my rifle. The finish was pretty well destroyed but the rifle came back from the gunsmith in perfect working order, it has yet to jam.

I suppose what I'm getting at is that it depends on how hot the gun got. Will the action manually cycle properly? If so take it to a gun smith and have him give you his verdict and try to bring the gun back to life. If not I'd say its a long shot (and a dangerous one).
 
You have to make a careful inspection [and know your stuff] .It may range from smoke damage to total destruction [wood burned away] . Get it to a gunsmith or metallurgist to check.
 
Mostly I would think that if the springs got hot enough to lose their tensile strength (their "spring" in other words), I would be wary of the other parts of the gun. If the springs are still good, then chances are that the receiver and barrel are still good.

Still a good idea to have it checked out by someone familiar with the effects of heat on steel.
 
My daughter had a house fire last summer and while the fire was contained to one room the whole house was heavily smoke damaged.
I took all the guns home and none of them showed any signs of being in a fire but they were all stripped down and cleaned.
Noxious/Toxic element in smoke and add water to that can cause rust, so be aggressive and clean them up (RIGHT AWAY) even if they look OK.
 
I am no expert on the subject but this is what I do know...
Metals are tempered for strength and if exposed to high heat will lose
the temper and can become brittle.

An actual experience with this...
We had a fire in an electrical sub-station. Our personal tools were locked up
in a metal shipping container.
The container got very hot but the tools inside did not melt or burn up.
The investigation revealed that the tools (box wrenches, pliers, cable cutters, etc.) lost temper and we all had them replaced by the company.

A little off topic but what I found amusing was that my tools were Craftsman and were replaced with Craftsman at my request.
We had a couple fellas that had accumulated cheap Harbor Freight quality tools and they requested Snap-On replacements. They got their Snap-Ons.
More power to them.
 
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