My AR got super hot on a long car trip. You think there's any damage?

[Kali]

Ok so I was driving home from the mountains, about an 8 hour drive. I put my new Daniel Defense DDM4 rifle, in its factory case, on the floor of the rear space in my Tahoe, pushed up against the back seats and then piled a bunch of luggage and what not ontop of it.

When we got home I parked the car and then 20 minutes later started to unpack. I noticed the rifle case was super hot and so I opened it and found the rifle to be hot to the touch. It was hot enough that I could only hold the metal for about 3 seconds before it started to burn and I had to pull my hand off. There must have been a heat source somewhere channeling all that heat straight to the gun somehow.

It's a brand new gun and I'm wondering if there are any parts that could be affected by this heat. I am a little worried if I messed up the accuracy of the new unfired barrel or anything I should check before firing.

Thanks

 

[MEHavey]

You ever left an M4 out in the Sandbox 120· Sun?

It's a battle rifle.
Don't sweat it.
(pun intended)

 

[herrwalther]

Nope. I have never seen a rifle get hot enough to do any damage. And I have seen rifles laid out in the desert in Kuwait in mid July. I am a little concerned with how it go hot though.

 

[Bang!]

I'm sure it's fine. They take a lot of heat during rapid fire.

 

[Kali]

Awesome that was my first thought too, thanks.

 

[Kali]

Nope. I have never seen a rifle get hot enough to do any damage. And I have seen rifles laid out in the desert in Kuwait in mid July. I am a little concerned with how it go hot though.

It's a 15 year old truck so I'm thinking I either left a rear heater on and didn't notice or some kind of heat from the engine which would be strange but I'm not a car guy.

 

[JohnKSa]

My AR got super hot on a long car trip. You think there's any damage?

There is NO damage. Find something else to worry about, this is a total non-issue.

 

[redbullitt]

You might have some exhaust issues if the heater wasnt responsible lol. Bad catalytic converter can really heat up the floor right above it! Rifle is fine unless you melted the grip off and bound up the trigger group lol.

 

[Stevenvalleyky]

Agree with redbullitt. Might have your mechanic take a temp gun to your exhaust. It SHOULD actually be hotter on the down stream side of the converter as the catalytic reaction creates heat. If its hotter on the engine side or upstream side of the converter, its clogged and needs to be replaced. Please take this serious as I have personally seen a car catch fire from a clogged converter.
As for the rifle, like others have said, it will be fine.

 

[Deaf Smith]

Get your rifle, fire five mags as fast as you can. Grab barrel..NOT! You will see it gets far hotter than anything done just sitting it out in the sun.

Your rifle is fine.

Deaf

 

[BrocLuno]

Only downside is maybe some plastic furniture got a little soft ...

I'd be more worried about the car/truck ...

 

[Theohazard]

Like others have said, your rifle is fine. That rifle can handle multiple full-auto mag dumps until the barrel turns grey and starts smoking. If the plastic case and the plastic ejection port cover didn't melt, then the rifle couldn't have gotten all that hot.

I'm with BrocLuno; I'm worried more about the vehicle.

 

[hdwhit]

Kali wrote:
It's a brand new gun and I'm wondering if there are any parts that could be affected by this heat.

No.

The point at which your AR would suffer permanent dimensional changes as a result of the heat would occur above 500 degress Celcisus. If you touched the rifle and your fingers did not dissolve, then you are fine.

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Re-zero your EOTech

Mike

 

[Gordon]

I left an 80s Olympic (SGW) CAR 15 in an under compartment of a rough housed 4 wheel drive ranch truck. I kept it clean and oiled for the seven years I had it there , the last three years were in a trusted foremans care , when I got the Truck and the gun back the thing was BEAT the finish had rubbed against the aluminum box it road in to the point of wearing the stock almost thru. Gun had a stainless match barrel which was ok ! The pistol grip was melted round that looked very pirate because it rested against muffler on a gen set all night. I cleaned the gun up and replace what was necessary and it was my back up for the trick Colts when I was a training junkie in the first decade of this millenium and never missed a beat unlike the Colts the first couple years of training

 

[DeepSouth]

I have to leave my carry gun on my vehicle when I'm at work, in the summertime it's to hot to touch everyday at the end of my work day. Inside a vehicle in the summer, in the south, it gets very, very hot.

Personally, I'd be more worried about my vehicle.

 

[Acera]

Just to add before you ask. Your ammo is fine also.





.

 

[SwampWolf]

Sell the car. Keep the gun.

 

[clearcut]

I shot the heck out of a SS mini 14 set it on the seat of a van and it melted right through it ...fire arms can take a lot of heat.

CC

 

[ilbob]

My expertise in the area of overheated firearms leads me to believe it is damaged beyond repair and extremely dangerous to shoot. Please do not attempt to shoot it. Because I am a nice guy, if you send it to me, I will dispose of it in an appropriate way so you will not be injured. I will not even charge you for this service. Please do this for your children's sake. You would not want them to grow up fatherless.

 

[doubleh]

If you don't want to send it to Bob, send it to me. Seriously, if the case was still in one piece there is nothing damaged on your rifle.

 

[Vonderek]

Unless it is made out of chocolate, no.

 

[Jackal]

Guns get hot, it's K.

 

[Sunray]

If the inside of your car ever got hot enough to do anything to steel (Al or any metal for that matter), you wouldn't be alive to ask about it. hdwhit's 500 CELSIUS equals 932F. 131F causes second-degree burns on exposed skin. You'd be 'rare' but cooked starting at 120F.
"...in the Sandbox..." Doesn't have to be exotic foreign locations. snicker.
"...fire five mags as fast as you can..." Doesn't take 5 mags. Two is plenty. Used to get our wooden forestocked FN's smouldering with 2 20 round mags rapid.

 

[Tirod]

Car temps in the sun get above 140 F in the summer. Cars - and gun cases - are tested to have no issues with that.

The gun itself? One video Colt made firing their AR15 continuously showed the handguard will catch fire from the barrel and gas tube heat about the seventh or eighth mag thru. You could already see them glowing, which for steel is about a red heat, or over 800 F.

Guns don't use much in the way of special alloys or special heat treatment as it will start to temper and change crystal structure over 450 F. Two mags could easily achieve that - belt fed guns will definitely do it - and if the gun lost strength by overheating it would also then lose the added strength from the tempering process and then become substantially weaker. For that reason a lot of barrels, receivers, and bolts are dead soft on shipment, the alloy specifically chosen and machined to final dimensions for strength.

At no time should any part of the interior of the car get so hot that it could materially affect how a gun operates - for that matter the carpeting and upholstery would be more prone to catching fire, not the gun. "Too hot to hold" is a relative temperature given how much skin surface is affected but for the most part it's also why hot water heaters are set lower than 140 F - to prevent scalding.

The gun was likely in that range of temp - about 140. Why is important, if buried under other cases near the floor it wasn't from ambient interior temps, you'd already be talking about the death trap it turned into driving in it. So it does go to - what was heating it up? Broken tailpipe, converter proximity, rear heater on?

Something isn't right. Guns ok tho.