doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Gun smells of smoke What to do

[quote=GRF]I once bought a gun that was buried with the owners body. Some time later the son dug up the body and removed the rifle. I bought it but it smelled so bad I had to leave out on the porch. I tried every thing to remove the dead body smell, moth balls, lemon oil everthing. A year later it was still there and I was just about ready to burn the stock. I put it in a box with rags soked with Hoppe's Number 9. In one month the smell was gone. [/quote

yea...that's just sick all the way around.....

I've read that salvaged articles and documents from the fire after the 1906 San Francisco earthquakes still smell of smoke. There are a slew of volatile chemicals including tars given off with incomplete combustion in a fire that can get embedded into every pore of wood items, and adhere to metal surfaces. These tar laden gasses can and do get into the interior of fire-resistant gun safes during a house fire, and are acidic, so should be addressed promptly.

The metal is easy because it is non-porous. A solvent wash and re-oil should clean it. Unless there is a pressing need to re-finish anyway, I would want to preserve the original finish of the stock if possible. I'd start wish a wash of all wood surfaces with a household ammonia solution which will remove any old accumulated skin or gun oils, followed by a water rinse. These oils, which will hold the smoke odors, will be turned into a water soluble soap by the ammonia. Most of the smoke particles will be removed along with the oils with this cleaning. Dry with old towels and place it into a sealed plastic bag or air tight container with a couple boxes of baking soda covering the surfaces as much as possible. Leave it in a warm place with the baking soda for a couple weeks, moving the baking soda around every couple days. Afterward, brush it off and wipe away any powder residue with a damp cloth. Repeat with a fresh box of baking soda if necessary. The newspapers or charcoal briquets mentioned by ClapperZapper will also work, but I have found baking soda to be faster, and inexpensive. Ozone generators are sometimes used to eliminate odors, but ozone is a strong oxidizer and will deteriorate organic items and cause micro-pitting of metals.

[quote=ClapperZappe......Choice B
Pack it in a box of charcoal briquettes (fresh bag) and set it in the sun for the afternoon. Same deal.[/quote]

Don't use self lighting charcoal!...Geo

Guys, you are just trying to volatilize the offensive odor molecules, and have them get stuck to the surface of the carbon crystals.
Fresh charcoal will adsorb more odor molecules, more quickly. Warmth just gets them into the air in higher concentrations for faster removal from their source.

And it's essentially harmless.

Newsprint works wonders on musty refrigerator cabinets.

I would be concerned about creating a 'salt' wood using baking soda, but I have no experience with it.

Spray a clean soft cloth with Lemon Pledge,
Wipe the gun with the semi=damp cloth.
Buff the gun with a new dry soft clean cloth
Report back on satisfaction
Mike

Yes, very sick, the most repulsive thing I have read online in recent memory

That must of been some rifle!

I can't imagine someone digging up Pop to get his Iver Johnson singleshot 22 so he could sell it.

What kind of rifle was it?

Sell it or give it to Cracker barrel...

Lay it out in broad sun light until the smell is gone. Nature's sanitizer.
JR