Browning Auto 5 Fire Damaged Rusty Whippet Gun

Red Sky said:

The plastic follower for the action spring in the receiver was intact as per the last video. While I agree with you on the solder, I'm fairly certain that polymer would be done for long before the steel was damaged. I'm sure he will be careful, either way - there are plenty of ways to go about this safely without discounting it out of hand.

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Only way I know of would be to get the barrel hardness tested. But based on the amount of half-burned logs I've seen laying around campfires the morning after, fire can be wildly different temperatures in just a few inches. The barrel might have been baked hard while the back end was not.

There's two ways to know for sure.. Doing hardness testing is the only for-sure way to know exactly what it's at, but it'd need to be done all the way up the barrel and you'd either need to know (from the factory) exactly what alloy was being used and what the hardness should be.

If it were me, I'd bolt that bad boy down to a bench when it's finished, tie a string around the trigger, hide behind the truck, and yell "HEY Y'ALL WATCH THIS!" as I pull the string a few times.

But I'm a reckless type who likes to blow things up "just because", and don't mind patching a leaky truck radiator with bubblegum to drive back home. So I'd probably do the latter. But that's just me.

In for updates

Trent said:

Only way I know of would be to get the barrel hardness tested. But based on the amount of half-burned logs I've seen laying around campfires the morning after, fire can be wildly different temperatures in just a few inches. The barrel might have been baked hard while the back end was not.

There's two ways to know for sure.. Doing hardness testing is the only for-sure way to know exactly what it's at, but it'd need to be done all the way up the barrel and you'd either need to know (from the factory) exactly what alloy was being used and what the hardness should be.

If it were me, I'd bolt that bad boy down to a bench when it's finished, tie a string around the trigger, hide behind the truck, and yell "HEY Y'ALL WATCH THIS!" as I pull the string a few times.

But I'm a reckless type who likes to blow things up "just because", and don't mind patching a leaky truck radiator with bubblegum to drive back home. So I'd probably do the latter. But that's just me.

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That's the mental image I was getting from the idea of "testing" as well, though I guess hardness testing should be possible enough with a known good barrel around that you don't mind making a small dent in. Besides, worst case is you get a nice explosion and a non-boring day.

Will be watching for progress on this one for sure. I just finished setting up my Auto-5 (only 12ga) for 3 gun - haven't once thought about using anything else.

Like I said above.. I really miss my old A5.

They were on Clearance at Brownell's last month... Got one for mine.

very cool

I admire your tenacity.

But what you are doing still worrys me.

rc

Impressive

AJAX seems to have a challenging hobby. Good for him. Thanks for sharing.

salty

The flashpoint of wood is 300C. Certainly hot enough to anneal steel. Perhaps when this is done a few (slightly overcharged) rounds should be shot off with a deadrest then the barel should be magna fluxed.

A family member had a fire 8 or so yrs back. I took some of his guns to go over. None looked as bad as this one though. That acidic water run-off, smoke & ash really does a number on the metal.

Don't hit any metal components of this gun with wire wool or any other abrasive, and i personalty would not use the electrolysis method on this gun either.
The best way to remove all rust and blue from everything completely is to use Molasses and water, this method is chemical free removes only rust and blue no metal at all, is virtually free of labor or additional commodities once you have purchased your molasses.
Get a plastic storage container with a lid, and a 4 ft length of 4 inch bore plastic drain pipe and two blank ends with seals.
Get normal equestrian/ livestock molasses in say a gallon or 5 gallon container if you can get it.
Measure 9 parts water to 1 part molasses in to the storage box, mix in thoroughly, then lay your frame and all other components in the mixture, if you can lay the barrel diagonally in the container you are good to go, put the lid on and leave the parts to stew for a week.
If by any chance you can not fit the barrel in diagonally, you will need the drain pipe, just put the lower blank end on fill with the 9 parts water 1 part molasses mixture suspend the barrel in the pipe and leave that 1 week as well.
When you lift out your parts they will be covered in a brony orange film wash this off with a hose pipe or preferably a pressure washer nothing super high pressure needed a simple hobby type model will suffice, wash off the parts look and see how clean they are, if any stubbon rust is still present repeat the proses until the parts are all as new. Any deep pitting will be the only areas you will need to put any form of abrasives near the gun at all.
I have used this method for years any re blue jobs are made totally labor free until you get to the blacking proses itself, no more wire wool and oil ever.

The nice thing about the molasses treatment is that the stuff is biodegradable.

Small engine rebulders use the stuff on portable engine blocks.

I think it would look awesome with the Tommy gun foregrip attached to a modified walnut forend.

Clyde Barrow would have been proud to use a gun like this.

This is a great project, and I enjoy following your progress. It seems that every time I look for a "project gun," I find something too nice for my marauding hands to ruin, so I will enjoy your project vicariously.

But please tell me you ain't fixin' to drill those holes in the grip as outlined on the blue tape. My eye says keep in in the Bonnie and Clyde tradition to some degree.