What Would I Be Gettin' Into?

My neighbor's cabin burned a couple weeks back. In the fire were a Remington 700, Remington 870 and a 22 lever of unknown make. He had insurance so the arms are being replaced, but I've had the idea of trying my hand at rebuilding them. I know the metal could have undergone some change due to the heat, but I'm mostly thinking of using the 700 as a cast gun. I have access to set up mic's for lathes and mills and surface stones so I can measure the locking surfaces for setback and such.

Does anyone have experience with a project like this? Is it worth the effort?

the bolt and action will have to be reheat treated if they havn't been warped by the heat your going to have as much into them as buy new. thats my look at it. steve k

cast or jackted bullets,you'll use the same "pressure".

I'd not mess with them, as metal fatigue could be very dangerous, even in "mild" loads.

The problem with guns that were in a house fire is that the heat of the fire burns the carbon out of the steel by overheating it, as well as possibly warping the metal.

Saw a 30-40 Krag at a flea market one time, no wood just the metal.

The metal was an odd black color like it had been overheated, it just didn't look right.

After the guy selling it told me that there were no springs with it, I asked him if it was in a house fire.

He told me it was, I said no thanks and walked away.

Best to steer clear of guns that have been through a house fire where the stock has burned away.

had one guy bring in a 98 mauser wanted it to be rebarreld had been in a fire i refused to do it said it wasn't safe. he stormed out and had a few choice words about my parentage. about a month later he was found at a range with the 98 bolt through his head with the bolt lugs sheared off. it's just not worth it. steve k

Fishhawk's story speaks volumes!
Besides,IF it held for cast,if it were in another's hands who did not know the story and then used with jacketed,there would be liability issues-you COULD be sued!

Bought a Colt Police Positive once. Took it to the range and blew the top of the cylinder off on the 3rd round fired. This was a load that I had been using for many K rounds in several other guns, very mild and accurate load, with no ill effects. When I took the pieces back I was told I must have triple charged the shell, That is what chances you take when you reload. Some time later I heard the same person bragging about having sold the pistol he had recovered from his dads house fire. The gun now resides on top of my loading bench as a reminder to me to be careful who I buy from.

I'm going to suggest you go a step further and ask your neighbor how these will be disposed of?

Seems to me the possibility of them being passed around until someone forgets to mention where and how they got to be like that is extremely likely!

This is one time I will say that dumping these in salt water is a real good idea!

Take a band saw to them. We all want to be frugal and pick useable stuff from the ashes. This is not a good one for that. You could kill yourself or worse yet spend the rest of your life knowing you hurt/killed/maimed someone else. Cut the mess into unrecognizeable/unuseable pieces and bury them a piece at time in your garbage or in your back 40. If you do not someone else will find the mess and make a very bad trap of sorts. Remington may actually take the rifle and shotgun of your hands if they were made aware of the situation, it would save all involved a big headache.


I disposed of a similar mess about 12 years ago I slowly cut the oil barrel O' mess into pieces and threw a piece at a time into the dumpster at work..took a long time that way...but I knew no one could reassemble it into a death trap that way.

Michael,
Good man! As Bad Water Bill points out, this sort of responsible behavior is not as common as it should be.

Bob K

I have built and rebuilt rifles for a long time, haven't done it in a few years since my good friend who taught me all I know died but I will one day build more rifles. The one thing my friend never did nor would he allow me to do was mess with a gun that had been in a fire. I have seen him strip the guts out of them, weld the barrel to the receiver, after welding the locking lugs on the bold to the receiver, before he would cut a new stock and polish and blue it for someone. This was done on rare occasions when someone wanted grandpa's old gun for a wall hanger after it had gone through a fire. The gun was always made so that it could never be altered to fire again, period.

Stay away from rebuilding guns that have been in fires. It is a good way to get your self or someone else killed or worse yet seriously and permanently injured. With the money you would have invested in such a death trap, not counting your time, you could buy a good action and barrel and build a new rifle that would be safe for you and anyone else around you.

Best wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

This is a no option deal the guns are just NO GOOD now. You have NO way of knowing what changes the heat and the CHEMICAL in a house fire might have caused. They are NOT worth fixing.