[keederdag]

Have you ever found a gun? What did you do with it? I think technically/legally you are supposed to turn it in to the police. Would you? What if it was a murder weapon? I know for a fact, that most police departments differ in treatment of turned in gun's. Some simply store them, like other lost propert, without even running the serial numbers let alone any kind of balistics I.D. work. But What would/have you done?:eek:

[Spieler]

A few years ago my uncle who lived in upstate NY died and my aunt found a gun in a desk drawer while packing away his belongings. She was (and is) deathly afraid of guns and wouldn't touch it, so she asked me to check it out while I was visiting from out of state. It was an old Taurus M85 revolver that my uncle carried when he would winter in Florida. I couldn't take it with me as I was flying out so the last I heard my aunt called the state police and turned the gun over to them.:(

[Alan Fud]

My wife's sister's former boyfriend found a gun in front of his house in Miami and turned it into the police. Was informed a few days later that the gun was claimed by the owner.

I was surprised that the police would actually return a gun to someone who was careless enough to lose it unless there were some other circumstances that my wife's sister's former boyfriend wasn't made aware of.

[CleverNickname]

(nevermind, misread the OP)

[CasualShooter]

Now that you have included yourself in its chain of ownership/custody, you would probably be wise to turn it into Law Enforcement with an explanation as to how you acquired it.

In todays world, if in the future, it should be found to have been used in a crime and found in your possession or linked to you it could mean serious trouble. :(

[Bill Hook]

My father found one, I believe at a bar, but it was a RG 10, so they probably ditched it after knocking off a liquor store.

[Devonai]

Is there any reason why you couldn't turn it over to law enforcement and then get it back if there's no record of a crime? Finders keepers is still alive and well in this country, AFAIK. Why not put in a claim to keep it if no other owner is found?

[boing]

A couple years ago I found the remains of some kind of .22 revolver, sans cylinder, while working under the place I'm renting. A hunk of rust, mostly. I put it in the trash.

I found the cylinder and some ammo in a sandwich bag down there a few weeks ago. Trash.

[jimpeel]

This same question came up at TFL at What happens if you FIND a gun? (http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=98884)

This is what I posted at that time.

When I was about eight years old (1955), I found a broomhandle Mauser in the crawlspace of an apartment house in Burbank, CA. I didn't know it was one when I found it but the magazine was forward of the trigger guard so it is obvious what it was now. I actually found the canvas belt and holster at first and thought "Cool" until I moved it and found the holster was occupied. The firearm was falling out of the holster so I pushed it back in using my thumb and forefinger. I then picked the whole mess up and, holding it at arms length and pointing at the ground, I walked about 200 feet home. Here's where it gets a bit strange and my sister still talks about this.

I went into my apartment, a duplex we lived in the back, and told my mom "Look what I found." Now my mom always talked about "Aunt Helen" who, preparing to go hunting one morning, placed a shotgun in the back of her station wagon with the muzzle facing her. It went off, shooting her in the stomach, and killing her nearly instantly. My mom was afraid of guns of all types and wanted nothing to do with them. AND HOW!

Her reply to my find was "Get it out of here! Go find who it belongs to but get it out of here!"

Sooooo, off I go, with a firearm of unknown parentage (likely a war souvenier) and unknown condition. After all, I had not handled the thing other than to push it back in the holster for transportation home.

I saw a guy named Russ Sargent who, at the time, was about eighteen-years-old in his garage so I simply walked up and said "Is this yours? I found it under a house."

"Hey, I've been looking for that." was the reply, and he took it from me and to this day I have no knowledge of what happened to it or to Russ Sargent.

For those who want to say how stupid my mom was, it's okay. It was a stupid move on her part. My sister still tells that story with the "Can you imagine -- she sends this eight-year-old out on the street with a loaded gun!". In her mind it was loaded although no one really knows except Russ Sargent.

About ten years ago, I came wide awake one night and had been dreaming about that incident. I don't know why. I have had people tell me "Maybe something happened to Russ or the gun was used for a bad thing." I don't believe in such things but I also don't know why I dreamt of it after ~37 years.

[zahc]

My grandpa has a house he rents, renters didn't pay bill, left with no warning. When cleaning the very messed up house months later finds nice T/C muzzleloader. Gives it to me for graduation.

How should I take some roughness out of the bore that I assume is corrosion? There is one tight spot near the muzzle where fouling builds up.

[Langenator]

A buddy of mine reeled in what looked like a Raven Arms .25 while fishing. It was pretty corroded, but we made sure to turn it in to the sheriff anyway.

[Dorrin79]

I found the corroded remnants of a crossbow (intact stock with bow still attached, everything else missing) floating in a bayou in Dickerson, Texas while canoeing. Being 8 yrs old, I said "huh, neat" and threw it back in.

Looking back, I'm not concerned - not too many crossbows used in crimes.

[rick_reno]

Yes, I was in Oakland one night (near the Kaiser building) and found a revolver in the gutter. There were lots of cops driving around - I flagged one down and he carefully picked the gun up. All he wanted to know is if I'd seen who tossed it there (I hadn't) and if I'd touched it (I hadn't).

[jsalcedo]

I bought a 60 year old home in 1995 and the converted utility room was unfinished and had a crude workbench with lots of different kinds of wood stuffed between the 2x4 studs in the wall.

We finally got around to pulling the scrap wood pieces and one of them was a Springfield J Stevens .410 shotgun.

We had a written agreement that anything left in the house was part of the sale so I cleaned up the shotgun and still shoot it to this day.

[Joe Demko]

Well, one time I found a crate of M-4's with attached M-203's...

[lee n. field]

We moved into a new place in 1985. I found a FIE .38 derringer with nice Bianchi leather holster in the junk dryer that the previous owners left.

I kept it until I traded it off 2 or 3 years ago. Unreliable POS. That was my very first handgun, predating the first one I bought by 3 or 4 years.

[Atticus]

Not me..but my brother bought an old Jukebox a few years ago, which contained a hidden box with cash and a Spanish pocket pistol inside.

I had a friend (when I was twelve or so) who "found" them all the time...in glove boxes, closets, etc.

[Mark Tyson]

My friend found a .22 automatic handgun in a cabin he purchased. He kept it.

[Spieler]

Well, one time I found a crate of M-4's with attached M-203's...

Golgo-13,

care to elaborate on that! :what:

[Ed Straker]

In the town where I grew up, people put their trash in piles at the end of the driveway to be picked up. When I was about 14 or 15, a friend and I were riding around on our bikes and found an old single shot 12 gauge on one of those trash piles. This was about 1980. We took it into the woods and tried to fire it (supplied our own shells), and it didn't work, which must be why it was trashed. So we tore it apart trying to find out what was wrong with it, and buried the pieces.

[Glockster35]

Years ago while I was pitting for a local jalopy (SP?) dirt track racer, we had just went to the junk yard and picked up a new (1972 buick) race car. We got it to his house, and strated stripping the interior out of it, inside the drivers door panel was a revolver, rusted and corroded. Couldn't even get the cylinder open.

One of the guys on the team went home with it, and a few weeks later brought it back to show us what we found. He cleaned the mess up, and while it wasn't the prettiest handgun I had ever seen, it was pretty nice once cleaned up. Turned out to be a an old style .22 with break open cylinder.

Year slater my wife's grandpa showed me one similar in excellent condition. He said it was mine once he departed the earth. Wish I knew more about these guns, but honestly it's been a long time since I saw them.

[Ala Dan]

Greeting's All-

No sir, I've never found a lost or stolen weapon; but
I have found some that I misplaced and totally forgot
about.:uhoh: :D

Best Wishes,
Ala Dan, N.R.A. Life Member

[sm]

Have you ever found a gun?
Yeah but many times didn't have the money to purchase.

[standingbear]

i wish.nobody throws their guns in my yard and have never seen one just lying around anywhere(like along a road).have found just about everything else though,including a bunch of cash scattered on a back road(which i gleefully kept and enjoyed),4 or 5 wallets(i drove to the persons house on their d.l and gave them back)credit cards(turned them in)everything BUT guns.

[El Tejon]

You would think it would be more common, afterall I keep reading the boohooing of the blissninnies about "guns in the street." [Looking out office window]. Nope, still no guns out there.

I'll tell you what, Sally Soccermommie, if I see any "guns on the street" I pull over and pick them all up and put them somewhere safe, like one of my safes!:D

[curt]

When i was a kid i had a habit of checking out the trash of any house i happend to be going by. One day i spotted 2 percussion cap civil war era rifle actions and barrels with a couple of stocks for some other gun and the action of a pistol, all stolen by the guy my uncle gave them to who was going to restor e them for me.

A buddy stationed in diego garcia was doing inventory at the comm center and found an odd crate amongst crates of antenna spart parts, it was a Ma Deuce. Thereafter the ETs would set it up during drills on the roof and show imaginary bad guys that you don't mess with the tweakers!

[Ryder]

I was in Oakland one night (near the Kaiser building) and found a revolver in the gutter.

The last time I stood in that spot I could have used a good gun. There sure weren't any cops out that night.

A buddy of mine found a manlicher carbine on a grassy 2 track trail once. We figured it fell off somebody's pickup truck bumper as they were leaving the woods. It wasn't in the best of shape but he repaired it.

[Radagast]

Yep, I found a sawn off baikal single shot .22, sans bolt on a roof I was working on. As it was a shed backing onto a lane I figured it had been used to rob the Pub up the road sometime in the past couple of years (it was heavily rusted). I gave it to a Highway patrol officer who was working a radar out the front of the property.

Radagast

[Kharn]

A buddy stationed in diego garcia was doing inventory at the comm center and found an odd crate amongst crates of antenna spart parts, it was a Ma Deuce.

Oh, that's where I left it. I visited Diego Garcia on a pleasure cruise a few years back and I wondered why my seabag was over a hundred pounds lighter when I got home. Please ship it to the location listed on my C&R.

On a more serious note, I've never found a gun, but I've lead my parents to believe that new guns just appear out of no-where when they find my latest acquisition lying in pieces in the workshop or sitting on the desk in my room. (with the help of the Brownells catalog, an FFL discount and a milling machine, they practically do appear out of no-where. :D )

Kharn