I've recently come accross some rifle actions that went through a fire. According to the fire guys the area where they were stored got hot but "it didn't get all that hot". Well, it got hot enough to soften all the springs in the actions, so I'm assuming that the actions themselves were annealed to some degree. Question is, can they be heat treated and brought back "to spec"? The bolts of course would be stripped and all the internal parts and pieces replaced. I normally wouldn't bother with something like this, but these will probably be scrapped otherwise. They are Springfields, some desireable Mausers, and I think maybe a M70. Thanks for your input.

question..

send them to a heat treater and then do a destructive test on the cheapest one?

yes, springs COULD loose their temper at a lower temp than the actions... but about as likely as a scratch off lottery ticket, found the ground, already scratched, is a winner

jeffe

Not only can the steels become softened in a fire they can also become decarburized to an extent.

Personally, I'd let someone else have them. It's not worth the risk to salvage them.

Just one man's opinion!

The softening of the springs would be the first to happen .I doubt there would be a problem of decarburization . That would only occur at 1500 F for some time. I would look at the guns and if there was and scale on the guns that would indicate 1100 F or more and I would consider them scrap !Soft springs but no scale ? they might be salvageble but I would send them to a gun experienced heat treater to check hardness and evaluate need to re heat treat.