Restoring and rebuilding a Model 10GXP50

This poor rifle went through a shed fire. The wood stock is trash, the scope is trash. The rifle had only been shot on 2 occasions. It was stored in a nylon case which melted. The bluing came up and off it in places where there was rust speckling.

Long story short, my plans for it are this. I have stripped it down, cleaned it up, the bolt cocking pin was a loss, but everything else seems ok. The stock is a lost cause. The bolt handle was broken when the firefighters threw it out of the shed into the driveway.

I am thinking of shortening the barrel to 18" the nylon and foam melted into the end of the barrel, and although I have cleaned it out and it looks clean and clear, and a shot or two down range would get anything I missed. I thought it would be nice to have the shorter barrel. Overall I have about 6 hours into just getting the rifle apart and cleaning it up. Much of the wood's finish melted as it burned and glued many parts together. Essentially if it was plastic or had a meltable finish on it, it melted. Combine that with a melted nylon Blackhawk Drag Bag, and it's been a chore to restore.

The stock I am replacing with a Synthetic factory stock in place of the wood. I just have to find one that is set for the standard barrel and the 4.27 spacing.

Scope is going to be a small light affair, perhaps a Weaver or Tasco. Or if that all doesn't work I have a BSA MilDot 6-24 in my scope drawer also.

The Goal is a lightweight short rifle, reasonably accurate to 200yds. I already have a 24" Ruger M77 and Rem 700 Custom tactical rifle good to 1000yds.

Finish wise, I am not all that sure, it isn't horrendous, but it could be refinished, if so I would probablly go professionally on the with Burnt Bronze on the metal with small part done in Matte Armorers Black.

You may want to think twice about it. A fire that was hot enough to melt all that may have altered the strength of the steel.

Yeah, if the fire was hot enough to alter the bluing then it was hot enough to alter the metalurgy. From some limited experience that once you heat a piece of blued steel enough to remove the blue it has been annealed and is soft. A good indicator is the springs, if they are flat then the gun got too hot.

It might be fine initially but over time the gun can be beaten out of spec and eventually fail.

Nylon burns easily, but not too hot; and I would not take that as an indication of a problem. The case could have actually provided insulation against the heat of the fire But the other conditions of the fire are unknown, and I would see if a gunsmith could check the hardness at various suspect locations vs spec; that should be fast and relatively inexpensive.

Wouldnt your home owners insurance replae it if it was only one gun that got damaged? If the fire annealed the reciever it is junk and catastrophic failure could occur.

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Originally Posted by jonbearman

Wouldnt your home owners insurance replae it if it was only one gun that got damaged? If the fire annealed the reciever it is junk and catastrophic failure could occur.

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Homeowners insurance only covers things like guns up to a point. Depending on your policy, you might need to get a rider to cover guns, computers, jewelry and art.

Most homeowners will not cover guns, antiques or collectables. They want to sell you a separate policy.

And this is why we all belong to the NRA. Insurance comes with membership.

Well it wasn't my shed fire, but a friends, the insurance wrote a check for the guns that were affected and left them with him.

The came up when i took off the melted foam from the case. The original stock was burned on the butt area and the finsh on the wood bubbled bleach and charred. Nothing on the rifled action was burned or got real hot. The foam from the case did melt and stick all over the place and ran in and around the action. kinda like melted 550 cord.