New Here, But man I have a neat story!

[hboy35]

dreams

your find is what my dreams are made of.....I am a huge Winchester fan--or any gun for that matter.

I too bought an old house this year, and have been in most of the crawl spaces--but not all of them. You have inspired me to go a'huntin'.

Welcome to THR. Hope you feel welcome here. I have enjoyed and benefitted from the community here for the past 8 years.

 

[saenzrich]

good find neat story but its really unfortunate about all the DEBBIE DOWNERS that responded if you have nothing positive to say than shhhhhhh

 

[shiftyer1]

I was always told that after my dad's uncle died his family went thru the house looking for hidey holes as he was rumored to have cash stashed in the walls. Nothing was ever found but it makes you wonder what may be stashed in walls, floorboards or ceiling tiles in some of these old houses.

I wish I had your luck

 

[Sebastian the Ibis]

If you were to pawn the guns and buy them back the next day, you might lose $50.00, but you would have a 4473 filled out with your name on it, recording you as the owner.

 

[NavyLCDR]

If you were to pawn the guns and buy them back the next day, you might lose $50.00, but you would have a 4473 filled out with your name on it, recording you as the owner.

He could sell the guns to his best friend for $50, buy them back for $51, have a bill of sale that only cost him $1 that would list him as owner and be just as official.

Why did this even come up?

 

[Buckeye]

Check the S/Ns of the 03, if it is a Springfield, don't fire it if it is below 800,000 or 285,507 if it is a Rock Island. They had questionable heat treat and could break at the reciever, especially with comercial ammo. It would be bad karma, a find could be a bad thing.

 

[Cards81fan]

NICS is only for FFLs to verify purchasers are not prohibited persons. NICS cannot be used by non-FFLs and NICS has absolutely nothing to do with the gun's history, only the buyer's history.

I suspect he meant NCIC, but typed NICS.

 

[Baba Louie]

Check the S/Ns of the 03, if it is a Springfield, don't fire it if it is below 800,000 or 285,507...

An 03-A3 made during WWII won't have this issue, but it's good advice to heed for the original '03 models.

 

[NavyLCDR]

I suspect he meant NCIC, but typed NICS.

Or maybe NCIS?!?

 

[CeilingCat]

The 1903 is a 1391xxx range serial#. I checked and it is not one of the suspect bolts. I'm going to try to get to the range this weekend so I'll let you know if I'm missing any body parts.

I did put up one for consignment then changed my mine. So I had to fill out the 4473. At least now I know that there are no outstanding warrants or problems that I was unaware of!

 

[grisy11]

what if the guns are stolen?I think if they where mine i would like to have my guns back.

 

[1KPerDay]

Lucky dog. Congrats.

 

[leadcounsel]

That is an amazing find, and several thousand dollars in value. Unbelievable luck!!!!

I think you have the legal right to them based on common property sales contracts.

While it would be hard to part with the guns, You *might* consider the approach of asking the heirs if there was anything "missing" from the estate that they had expected but couldn't find.

If they specifically identified the guns, you may *may* offer to sell them. The risk is a lawsuit and as someone identified you may spend a lot on the lawsuit.

If they say no then you've got a 100% clean conscience. I would agree that it's likely they didn't know or care about the guns or they would have looked harder for them. So I would guess this is the answer you'll get. Or maybe they'll mention something else you can look for!

Just food for thought.

But what an amazing find.

I'd rent a metal detector and go over the walls and floors! If he liked to hide guns, I bet he hid ammo or money or something!

 

[wrs840]

You bought the property. Next week if you learn the original owner had a drum of tri-cloroethane in a shed that leaked into the ground water, you own that problem also.

That's a fact.

Leave it to the downers on THR...

No lack of truth there either. The credo to "do the right thing" turns some into reflexive and interminable nags.


Great find CeilingCat! It's a way better outcome than one we had locally where the Volunteer Fire Dept burned a house down for training before they found all the charred remnants of the guns that the dear-departed had hidden!

Les