As soon as you’re able, you need to get your firearms in a bath to get the soot and ash off and prevent rust damage. Either use a bathtub or create one from 4 x 8 sheets of plywood and plastic sheeting. Then add ½ cup Tide detergent and 3 pounds baking soda to about 5 gallons of warm water. You can add more baking soda if you need it; you really can’t overdo it with the baking soda. Put the whole firearm in—including the wood and scope—and use a cloth to wipe the soot and particulate off. They don’t need to soak in the bath, just get a good wipe down to make sure all of the acid from the soot and smoke has been neutralized. Remove them from the bath and rinse. Then dry and oil your firearms. This process will keep the smoke and soot from rusting your firearm, as well as removing the smoke smell. NOTE: We want to thank Turnbull Restoration for this information.
AFTER YOU DO THAT: Email info@camdondefense.com so we can start the process.
Let's be realistic. Guns that have gone through a fire cannot all be saved. We will evaluate each gun and determine if it is safe to restore. If it is, we will do our best to make it look new again. All restored firearms will be test fired here at the Camdon Ranch. If the firearm cannot be safely restored, we will give you a choice. If the firearm has sentimental value, we can restore it but only for display purposes. Keep in mind, some firearms will even be beyond that. At that point if you chose, we would make a report, destroy the serialized portion and bury them in our cemetery on the ranch. Before we do that, we will reach out to the manufacturer to see if there is any chance, they will replace it. I would not get your hopes up for that. We will also check to see if we can get you a replacement at wholesale cost. Just some options.
Nothing. Not a dime. You are going through enough. We are currently working with a retailer in the LA County area to try to have a drop off point for you. We will personally deliver all your guns back to you. You do not need to go through an FFL again, these are your guns. We will reach out to suppliers to try to get replacement parts. To our surprise and a testament to the great gun owners of California, we have had an incredible outpouring of support. I am confident all expenses will be covered.
A couple of reasons. First when I was 15 my house burned down on New Years Eve. Right when the jets dropped the napalm in Apocalypse Now. It was my fault. My mother had told me to get rid of the Christmas Tree that was completely dead and dry when she was leaving, and I did not. I ordered a pizza and rode my bike to The Warehouse (a VHF rental store) and rented a few movies. I was sitting in a chair next to the tree and smoking a cigarette. It went up like a Roman Candle. Within a few minutes everything was gone. The next morning all I had was a pair of Billabong shorts and a Billabong T-Shirt. It was my fault my mother and I had just lost everything. As an adult, I know live in Ranchita, CA. Fire country. Even today we have no power because SDG&E turns it off to protect against wildfires. I can't imagine my house burning down today. Besides my many collections there are my guns, I do love my gun collection, and I would be devastated to lose it.
Second, last year, right after we moved here, we got hit with a flood. I didn't have flood insurance like many of you won't have fire insurance. There had not been a flood here for 100 years. We had just moved Camdon Defense to this ranch. The flood destroyed half of our house and devastated Camdon Defense. FEMA is a joke. We have been fighting with SBA Disaster for months. We still don't have Camdon Defense back up 100% and half our house is just a shell. We keep fighting along though and many of you are going to have to do the same thing. I figure I have some down time, the shop is now pretty much set up for work. We don't have guns to build right now so we could focus our time to help out. It's a small thing but it might be important to someone. If we have the ability to help it is our duty to do so. Besides, California gun owners are a small community, we need to watch out for each other.
To be honest it never occurred to us people would want to help. I think it is a great testament to the character of the gun owners of California. You are very fine people.
Many people suggested we sell T-Shirts or something to raise money to cover costs and expenses. We have used Threadless to make and sell the merchandise. If you click on the LA Fire Firearms Info page at the top you will see a link to the Threadless page under Merchandise. They pay us about $5 per shirt, all that money will go to this effort.
I also put up some of my personal firearms on Gun Broker to raise money. On that same page is a link to the auctions.
Go Fund me was suggested but we all know there is no way they will let us raise money for anything firearm related.
FYI, the designs currently on Threadless are old, Camille is finishing up new designs and we should have them up tomorrow. We will of course announce it.
Lots of people asked about donating parts. We are all the same, I have boxes of unused parts. If you have parts you would like to donate to the effort you can ship them to:
Camdon Defense
35976 Old Saddle Rd.
Ranchita, CA 92066
If it is a lot of stuff and too expensive to ship reach out to us. We may be able to send you a shipping label or come and pick it up from you.
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