A good friends house caught on fire last week and was basically a total loss. He had stored in the house 2 Savage model 99's that were given to him by his grandfather. One was a M99 300savage and the other a 1899 .250-3000. They were toasted as you can see in the pictures. Wood burned completely off. After the insurance work was done he was going to throw the guns away so I offered to take them. Is there anything that can be done to save any part of the guns? The barrels are badly warped and many of the springs are weak or broken but both actions still "function". As in the lever and bolt move freely. Just wondering if it is worth having a gunsmith remove the barrels and clean the actions up?

Wood burned up, springs soft, barrel warped ? No those are scrap sadly .Nothing can be saved .

The wood burned, the barrels warped and from the picture, the scope got hot enough to to melt the lens into an interesting shape. That all takes quite a bit of heat to do. The actions are a total loss, too.

Maybe I'll cut the barrels off just forward of the markings, take the scope bases off and clean them up. Throw them in a box in the shop. I just can't stand the thought of throwing them away.

Someone sold me a pre 64 model 70 Winchester that had been in fire, but he had cleaned it up and lied to me. We made it good, he admitted and refunded my money and said I could keep the action. I inquired on this forum about getting it re-heated and there are a few places that do that. Just off the top of my head one was called something like Pacific Northwest something. Well I decided I didn't want to put the work in and a member here bought it only after I made him sign a statement that it was ruined in a fire. So what I'm saying it's possible you could have the action and necessary parts re-heated but it's probably not going to be worth the expense.

quote:

Originally posted by jawheeler:
Maybe I'll cut the barrels off just forward of the markings, take the scope bases off and clean them up. Throw them in a box in the shop. I just can't stand the thought of throwing them away.

Yeah, don't throw them away, take 'em fishing. They make great weights when using a downrigger.

Seriously though, don't place them somewhere where they could accidentally get put back into service. I would cut them in half and be done with them rather than at some point toying with the idea of possibly trying to rehabilitate them.

The thing with re heat treating is that every little piece needs to be done and at different hardnesses. Not worth the effort or expense. and darn sure not worth the risk. You have no idea how hot they got and for how long. That makes all the difference in the world when you are reheat treating a part.
wal hanger or make a lamp or cigar lighter out of them. Door handles, toilet paper hanger etc but their life as a true firearm died in the fire.

Can you get the barrels straight again?

If it were me I'd straighten the barrels, or make a replacement from a steel rod, clean up the actions and re-stock them with a cheap reproduction stock set.

Then I'd stick them on the wall after drilling the breech block so that they could never again be fired.

Other than that, convert them into non-firing (so that no one can load them and injure themselves) wall hangers, they are scrap.

I would be interested in them if the price is right, and you want to get rid of them.
let me know

Scrap steel is $0.12 a pound so I'd weigh them and sell them off to seely on the condition that he is fully aware of what has happened.

as guns, these are DANGEROUS scrap --
if you want to do something with them, pull the barrels and weld the chambers plugged.. then restock as wallhangers

Not to worry I know very well what i'm getting into, and would hold no one responsible for what I do.

You say that they belong to a Good friend and that they were His grandfathers.

I would fill the action with epoxy to make it totally unserviceable. Then go buy a used stock off ebay. Put it all together and encase them in a nice shadow box with a glass front. Present it back to your friend.

I bet he would really like that. I would.

I think the lamp or wallhanger idea is a good one. Use a mallet and a block of wood to hammer the barrel straight and spray the gun with a black lacquer. Blob of weld in the chamber and maybe a tack weld somewhere to keep the barrel on, and then under the new stock use a pen engraver and write "fire damaged, do not use". Personally, I'd like the action to still be able to cycle so in another 110 years someone can still see how the action actually worked.