HELP !!! I was flooded

Yes , I too was one of the unfortunate soles to have suffered from flooding here in the Baton Rouge area. I am fortunate in that I did not lose near as much as many others or my friends.

Fortunately and unfortunately is my situation. The majority of my revolvers I had stored offsite in a bank vault while I am transitioning to / building myself a small cabin on a lake north of here. I had sold and moved out of my previous house that I shared with my Dad after he passed last year.
The bulk of my personal posessions and some of my guns I had stored in a secure facility and it got water that has never been seen in that location in my 60 years here. So now I have some problems to deal with.

Primarily I have about 4 S&W and 3 Ruger revolvers that suffered the worst and I need to decided what to do.

TheM-24's and the M-25 suffered the worst. We were unable to recover everything until a few days after the water went down. There is a fair amount of water damage to them. I need to decide what to do. I think the damage is enough that something has to be done although as a 35 year hobbyist accumulator and long time member of this chat forum, I do understand about the originality aspect. Their value as original is now gone, 2 were unfired, do I have them refinished somewhere, perhaps a change of finish is better than going back blue. Nickel, hard chrome ?????

What to do ??? please all of your thoughts are welcome - what would you do ?????

I guess I should send the Rugers back to the factory. Are there any opinions about other places to consider

Additionally I had a bunch of grips get wet to the guns held in the bank vault. They have been drying slowly on a towel here in the house and appear to not be as bad as I expected but the finish on them all needs attention.

Please, all your suggestions are appreciated, what would you do considering the damage keeping in mind that value is now lost, want to preserve them somehow, possibly continue to enjoy them once fixed, sell off now and replace sometime later.

HELP !!!!!!!!!!

Thanks
Steve

Have they started to rust yet? You do need to take them all completely apart and clean them with brake free or similar and oil and then go from there. In Christmas of 1960 My dad dropped his car through the ice on a deep lake in Wisconsin. It was a week before we got the car and his shotgun out. Dad took it apart cleaned it with hot water and its still okay.

If they havent started pitting i would soak em in oil for a while until you decide. Personally i would have one of the 24's customized with action job and case hardened frame and a 5" barrel.

Contact Fords Firearms Refinishing in Florida for advice for current treatment then send them to Fords for refinishing.

Hmmm - Although Fords is reputable, I find the work they do is beyond or more than factory would do and therefore does not look to be of original type to me. If I were to blue in this case I would want to find one of those shops that quietly does work in a manner that matches the factory. Now that may be impossible since even the factory no longer able to match older finishes and there is such a short fall of people to do this type of work overall. I have seen a few of the custom pistolsmiths finish work and thats very nice, may be a consideration. Dont know if they want to deal with just a finish job but maybe.

Like yall said, maybe a little custom work to go along with it -- maybe cut down the 6" to 5".

Dont know - what to do, what to do

I would contact the manufacturer of each gun. Both Ruger and S&W have GREAT service. They can both refresh those guns back to their factory glory. Not sure they will do this free, but it's definitely one of your better options, IMHO.

Perhaps RoninPa will chime in. He has done a bang up job refinishing some guns.
gramps

I find it hard to believe that being underwater for a few days has damaged the revolvers more than possible grip damage. I think a good cleaning and oiling would bring them back to where they were before. I don't understand the inquiry about refinishing. Could you post a picture?

Jimbo357mag said:

I find it hard to believe that being underwater for a few days has damaged the revolvers more than possible grip damage. I think a good cleaning and oiling would bring them back to where they were before. I don't understand the inquiry about refinishing. Could you post a picture?

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I think it was the time spent between when the waters receded and the revolvers could be attended to. Wet, possibly muddy and covered with heaven only knows what for just a short time can do some serious damage to blued steel. Worse if it's steel that's been left in the white.

Heck just normal humidity can take a serious toll on firearms left in a safe. Worse if you are around salt water. Even "stainless" can be adversely effected by being around salt water.

I'm a trucker. When I was living in Las Vegas in about 1980, My wife put my underwear in my bag that hadn't quite dried with my Old Model Flatop 357. When I got to LA about 6 hours later, i started making up my bed and the gun had water spots on it that were still wet. I took an oily rag and wiped it off and where the spots were the blue came off. I bought the gun new in 1959 when I was in High School. I had a nice custom reblue done to it, but I found out later If I had sent it back to Ruger it would be worth more. It's probably the last gun I will ever sell and it sure looks nice. I'll probably give it to one of my Grand Sons. After that I bought a stainless S&W 67. So far she hasn"t been able to do any damage to it
Ron

If needed, there ARE guys who can refinish those guns and you will never know it from factory. One of them is a member here

Not sure what you mean by a "secure facility" but is there any possibility of insurance coverage on these guns?

Get them stabilized as soon as you can. Broken down, soaked, oiled, wood off to dry slowy. Then you can take your time and do what you want in terms of finishing or refinishing. I sorta like the idea of S&W and Ruger doing it. Ruger did one for me and did a good job. But the shipping for a handgun is so expensive it might pay to find a more local place. I had a friend who had a house fire and after the fire and the couple of days it took for the insurance company to let him back in a whole safe full of guns was rusted badly. Colt SAA's and expensive shotguns. He drove the whole lot to Art's gunshop in Missouri since several were Brownings. Art refinished the whole batch fairly inexpensively and did a good job.

gtxmonte said:

If needed, there ARE guys who can refinish those guns and you will never know it from factory. One of them is a member here

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TALK WITH BOBBY TYLER, TYLER GUN WORKS, FRIONA, TEXAS . HE IS A MEMBER HERE AND I WILL VOUCH FOR HIS INTEGRITY AND WORKS. :!: HE HAS DONE WORK FOR ME. 8)

HAWKEYE#28 said:

gtxmonte said:

If needed, there ARE guys who can refinish those guns and you will never know it from factory. One of them is a member here

Click to expand...

TALK WITH BOBBY TYLER, TYLER GUN WORKS, FRIONA, TEXAS . HE IS A MEMBER HERE AND I WILL VOUCH FOR HIS INTEGRITY AND WORKS. :!: HE HAS DONE WORK FOR ME. 8)

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Yes Bobby does excellent work. I'm a VERY happy customer.
Eric

I would decontaminate my firearm by removing the grips and dropping them in fresh water. Remove from the water and blow dry. Put them in a water displacing oil/lube and then call the manufactures for advice and scheduling of factory redo. Do not clean in Simple Green as it attacks aluminum parts and may be hard on your bluing.