Pulled my Krieghoff out of the safe to clean it along with other toys and found my rifle stuck to the safe bottom. The butt pad was stuck to the carpet like it had melted to it. I usually don’t wipe the pad off so I can’t figure out why this happened. Any ideas would be appreciated. P.S. the pad is now a dry crumbling hunk of plastic.

Rubber pads from the ancient past used to do that, but a Krieghoff is not that old. I suspect some sort of exotic cleaning agent got on it and melted it.
Don't know what you use, but I use nothing harsh on my double rifles. The are not needed; I mean the aggressive solvents and copper removing chemicals, etc. People tend to over clean all guns, often with bad outcomes.
We do not have potassium chlorate or mercuric primers any more. And you don't need to remove a light copper wash from the bores.
By you, I mean everyone; don't know what happened in your case.

Factory or kick-eez replacement? Ive heard the latter had issues.


I store all my guns upside down.

All the rifles I have still have the original pads. The only thing that has ever touched them is maybe a silicone cloth, no gun cleaning oil’s. I seriously hope this does not happen to the more pricey doubles and singles. Only gun in the safe that this has happened to. Just crumbles every time I touch it.

Cheap German Rubber....
I'll check mine; I have a K 9.3 that is fairly old.

Pad brand...??
I replaced an original Blaser pad on one of my rifles with an aftermarket Limbsaver. It hasn't got to the stage of your yet but is breaking down. The outer surface is very sticky with fine cracks and edged have broken off a bit.
Of course, afterwards, I heard of an issue with some Limbsaver models.

Pachmayr way to go. Never seen one yet broken down or gone soft. Have a Miroku branded ventilated Pachmayr pad on my Miroku O/U shotgun which has done at least a decade of trap shooting and near 4 decades hunting and shows no adverse effects (has Pachmayr brand under the pad).
Had a red Old English Pachmayr on my Mauser 404 now for a few years and it is still like new.

Was thinking the easiest fix would be to buy a limb saver and just slip it on. Replace the original at a later time.

I had one do that a few years ago.

It was an Answer Products (no longer in business) pad. It spontaneously melted into a black, gooey tar!

Bad polymer was my guess.

I store mine muzzle down, solves many problems. Muzzles are placed in chair cups.

Dave

Definitely poor material affected by oil / solvent.

Just put a new pad on. It will not affect the value of the rifle.

quote:

Originally posted by nopride2:
I store mine muzzle down, solves many problems. Muzzles are placed in chair cups.

Dave

This solves a whole host of problems.

Ever inspected an internal magazine box? Amazing how solvent and oil can migrate there.

Plus you can get more rifles inside a safe with half of the rifles muzzle down.

quote:

Plus you can get more rifles inside a safe with half of the rifles muzzle down.

Yep. I increased the number of guns in each of my safes by that method. All of my guns are in silicone impregnated gun socks and marked. The socks cut down in large part on the typical safe mars and scratches, and keeps moisture at bay.

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:

quote:

Plus you can get more rifles inside a safe with half of the rifles muzzle down.

Yep. I increased the number of guns in each of my safes by that method. All of my guns are in silicone impregnated gun socks and marked. The socks cut down in large part on the typical safe mars and scratches, and keeps moisture at bay.

Yes, and take out the damn bolts.

Bolts and iron sights are the likeliest offenders when it comes to safe queen mars and scratches.

I've heard of that happening like the others have mentioned here. I wouldn't say it's "crappy quality" or anything like that, but rubber is a natural product and breaks down over time. Like you mention, some kind of solvent or reactant got on it and ate it up. I'd replace it and move on.

Now, there's the matter of WHY that was allowed to happen - you didn't shoot the rifle enough! Shame on you, sir!