Alphecca

Restoring Flood Damaged Guns

With all the focus in New Orleans about gun confiscations and gun rights, lost in the swirl of news was the damage that flooding could do to firearms left behind. From the Times-Picayune:

Among the things Bellant neglected to raise to higher levels before the storm were the 18 long guns and shotguns he has collected during his decades of hunting. There was his grandfather's Model 94 Winchester, which dates to 1913; his father's Remington 35 deer gun, a side-by-side of his grandfather's, and a Czech-made Mauser that was manufactured before World War II. The pair of Remington 1187s he uses for duck hunting were also soaked in storm water as was the brand new Beretta Extrema he won at a Ducks Unlimited sponsor's banquet last year.

The guns were stored in protective socks, but that did little to stop the ravaging effects water has on metal. Had he known what was to become of his collection, he would have taken them with him or at least stashed them on higher ground.

"Hindsight is beautiful, ain't it," Bellant said.

But it was Bellant's quick action after he recouped his cache of guns that saved them.

He rescued the guns six days after Katrina passed and took them to Alexandria. After dousing the guns in WD-40, Bellant began calling DU buddies there who referred him to a gunsmith in nearby Pineville. Thirty minutes after he made contact with the gunsmith, the guns were being disassembled and cleaned. Bellant's friends at a California gun club picked up the repair charges, which Bellant estimated cost $50 a gun.

It's a price he would have willingly paid the gunsmith himself.

"He saved them," Bellant said.

Though Katrina blew through nearly seven weeks ago, many gun repair specialists say it's not too late to restore your favorite bird gun or deer-hunting rifle. But time is running short.

"The longer the guns stay out, the worse it is," said David Reynerson of Reynerson's Gunsmith Service in Baton Rouge.