M1919 Machine Gun found in creek

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Construction crew finds old machine gun in Alabama creek
The Associated Press • April 5, 2010

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Buzz up!Twitter FarkIt Type Size A A A FLORENCE — A contractor working on a bridge project in Lauderdale County came across an unusual find in a creek — an old machine gun.


Paul Haralson, owner of Shotcrete of America, says he and his crew were cleaning out debris when a bucket scooped up the weapon.


Haralson says what he'd found was a Browning M1919 air-cooled machine gun. The weapon was developed at the end of World War I and was used in World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars.


Haralson drove to the sheriff's department and turned the weapon over to Sheriff Ronnie Willis.


Willis said his office has been in touch with federal agents about the weapon. He says no one has any idea how it wound up in the creek.
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I hate when that happens
 
Didn't a guy get arrested in England for taking an unregistered gun to the sheriff's office in order to turn it over?
 
I wonder if it was registered at some point? Any opinions as to its fate?
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If someone dumped it in a creek it was probably either unregistered or stolen. The PD will run the serial number through their stolen database and ask ATF to run it too I'm sure.
It'll probably be chopped up. It would be nice to at least see it go to a museum but I don't think the 1919s are particularly rare.
 
I hope it was registered, then stolen and that it gets returned to its rightful owner. I'm sure they'd be happy to have it back.

Sure it'd take some serious repair, but it'd be worth it if it could be salvaged.
 
I bet some National Guard Armory was missing a machinegun back about WWII or Korea or so.
 
If it were in a creek for any length of time it is probably useless for anything except a boat anchor. I would be surprised if they can even read the serial number on it. Guns don't hold up too well in water.
 
First the product of Mr Browning's genius ends up in a creek then turned over to the hands of benevolent government patronage. When I think of the barbaric areas of the world where that weapon could have prevented slaughter of the innocent I have to feel saddened by the waste. Such an atrocity may not be a sin but it's certainly a shame.
 
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bilde


Toss some Perma-Blue on it and its good to go!
 
If there was an active military base near the area in the past ,it could have been some grunt was tired of packing the thing around on manuvers and tossed it into the creek.

I grew up hunting and fishing the backwoods areas of Ft. Knox KY, public acess was allowed with a permit, we would always find half full 30 and 50 cal linked belts, ammo cans, feild phones, etc. never any weapons, but my ex father in law did purchase a M14, from a solider he picked up hitching a ride down the Dixie Highway. I would like to see the list of stuff that has WALKED away from these installations.
 
Soak it in WD 40 for a week or so, and it should free up and fire just fine.
 
That's a cool discovery. Shame if it gets destroyed.
Kind of makes you want to go out and buy a metal detector, don't it?:D


I mean seriously.....who knows what kind of "treasures" lay buried in and around creeks and rivers across the land.
I can't even imagine what might be found just off the lake Erie coast up the road from me!

Russ
 
Toss it into a vat of diesel fuel for a week or two then a fine wire brush on a side grinder should polish it right up. Doubt it would ever be reliable but would look great on display. The handles are still available through Sarko and maybe enough parts to make it functional--that is if the barrel is not eroded enough to make it unsafe.
 
After december 7 1941 most of the army in the US was spending all its time in rivers putting in demo bunkers and stockpiling MGs in bunkers around every bridge 300 miles from the coasts. My guess is one hell of a lot of 1919s got lost during drills in the spring floods doing a stop them at the bridge drill. May sound silly now but my guess is there was a bridge up the river a bit that was a defence point with a demo and gun storage bunker and probably in the feild of fire from several bunkers up on the hill above there too. On the legal end I would have found a way to have lost the left side plate of the thing as thats the legal receiver on one of them,lose the sideplate and its just parts.
 
A few years ago, a work crew at the Richmond Army Depot found some mortar rounds buried there. When I was in England back in the 1970's, they were still finding unexploded German bombs. IIRC,a couple of years ago, the Brits found an engine from a Me-109 burried in the middle of a street in downtown London.
 
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