House fire rifle risks

[Jpoe88]

Picked up a rifle that had been in a house fire. Really really cheap.

I took it apart when I got home and a fair bit was water logged. Pulled the BCG, thoroughly inspected blew dry with compressed air, lubricated lightly, set it aside. PSA Chrome Lined. Cleaned the charging Handle, PRI M84 gas buster. It's not the prettiest, but cleaned up well. Pulled the receiver extension, everything appeared normal, cleaned, reassembled LMT Sopmod stock has scarring on the lower corner by the recoil pad. What kind of temp exposure would it take to scorch that?

The magpul polymer trigger guard sustained no damage. Lower parts appear fine. The mbus was untouched. The lower also had a urethane insert for receiver rocking and it was in touched.

The guy took the rail off for whatever reason but the rail is obviously a DD.

So at his point everything looks sound. No cracking or discoloration, bolt cycles smoothly by hand.

The barrel, has a little discoloration. It's a mid length PSA c/l 5.56 pencil middy. Gas block looks the same as the barrel. The tube is untouched. The bore was flawless after a pass thru with a bore snake and hops no 9.

I feel as i have been thorough. Anything else? Should I just count the barrel as a loss? Appears to have sustained more heat but how much? Dunno. Opinions? By the way, I didn't steal it but it was a good deal. Very good deal.

[Inkslinger]

If the polymer bits aren't melted, I doubt the barrel is damaged.

[Feline]

Only one way to find out....

[lysander]

If the polymer bits aren't melted, I doubt the barrel is damaged.

The barrel is the least of the worries... They sometimes see 1000 F degrees in service.

The bolt and barrel extension are the places to worry. Several hundred degrees will change the temper, and thus the hardness and strength of the steel.

However, if, like you said, the plastic bits aren't melted, the rifle didn't see much more than 200 to 300 degrees, not great, but probably not fatal.

Heat discoloration of the bolt, carrier or barrel extension would be signs of problems

[Jpoe88]

Guess I need to make a range trip!

[locknload223]

How can you NOT post pics???

[Mr. Goodtimes]

Temperatures in a house fire can exceed 1800 degrees, so if it was a really bad fire all the polymer parts would have evaporated. It's likely the rifle in question wasn't in a room or area of the home directly affected by heat/flames. I would be more concerned with it being a PSA.


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[Kdubya]

Just to play devils advocate, are you certain the owner didn't replace some of those polymer parts? He removed the rail for some reason, so are you confident that other parts weren't removed and/or swapped?

[Inkslinger]

Just to play devils advocate, are you certain the owner didn't replace some of those polymer parts? He removed the rail for some reason, so are you confident that other parts weren't removed and/or swapped?

At that rate, why even tell the guy it was in a fire?

[Jpoe88]

Just to play devils advocate, are you certain the owner didn't replace some of those polymer parts? He removed the rail for some reason, so are you confident that other parts weren't removed and/or swapped?

The LMT stock has a scorched corner. Since I got a good deal on it, he probably snatched the rail off to sell for more $$