Someone's Old Friend

[another pake]

The recent thread on "What's Your Favorite Shotgun?" reminded me of a situation last week.

Four friends and I were on our annual grouse hunting/walleye and lake trout fishing/say goodbye to summer canoe trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Northern Minnesota. Mid October in the BWCAW leaves the place pretty much deserted, except for a few of us old die hards not many people frequent the place at this time of the year. We only saw 2 other groups in 8 days after covering over 50 miles. For those not familiar with the place it is a motor less wilderness area. Whatever you need, you take in on your back or in a canoe.

On the way out last Saturday I found an old model 12 shotgun leaning against a big rock at one end of a long portage between 2 lakes. It was un cased but also unloaded. I doubt that it had been there more than a few weeks, if that. We had had rain and even some snow but the gun was not rusted. It was dinged up from years of use and even had a rather crude repair to a crack in the stock. I cycled the action a few times as I pondered my good luck.

Upon "finding" it, I got a few back slaps and "atta boys" from my friends and for a minute I actually felt like I had done something noteworthy to deserve their admiration. After thinking about it while I made my second trip across the portage I decided that I would leave it right there where I found it. So I slipped a zip lock sandwich bag over the barrel, opened the action and leaned back against the rock. My only practical choices were to leave it there or to pack it out with me. If I left it, the owner might eventually realize that it was missing and backtrack to find it. If I took it, I could keep it, or drive 30 miles to town and drop it off at the Forrest Service office or the local PD or the radio station or???

So for you, two questions.

1. What do you think you might have done?

2. How far would you backtrack at Great Effort to look for and hopefully retrieve
An Old Favorite? Especially one that had been around?

I dunno....

 

[rcmodel]

If I was 35 again?
200+ miles!

Since I am almost 70 now?
Not very far.

You should have packed it out, cleaned it, contacted the Ranger station to see if anyone had reported it missing, and if not?

Ran some adds in the local papers, like.
(Found shotgun at such & such portage, Owner positively I.D. it and get it back free.)

No results in a few weeks?
You got yourself a free shotgun.

As you left it?
Somebody else less honest then you will get themselves a free shotgun.

rc

 

[Liberty1776]

You definitely should have taken it, then let the DNR know, and the Outdoor News would have published a letter about it for you and would most likely have highlighted the story as well. I really doubt the guy who left it could remember where he left it...

 

[7.62 Nato]

I'll bet it's still out there, lonely.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

I would not have left it...I would have toted it out and did my best to either locate the owner or post enough information by various means to possibly attract the owner's attention.

 

[BigBore44]

No way would I have left it. I completely agree with RC. More than likely that gun with be ruined this winter. You could have saved it. IF, someone else finds it, odds are they will keep it and never make any effort to find the owner. You could have at least made an effort to find the owner and made his year and possibly a good friend.

 

[another pake]

Minority Report

Well, I asked for your opinions and you gave them. Thank You.

As far as Question 1 goes I have to say, I can see where you are coming from. I was close to making the same choice. I understood what I could have done when I did it and I thought about why. I was really interested in what you would have done but that can be deduced.

Question 2 is where my real interest lies but only one answered. Thanks RC. I asked how far You would backtrack at great effort to find and hopefully retrieve your old friend. Whether that be a shotgun, fly rod, favorite piece of gear etc is immaterial. The personal connection is what I'm talking about. And I do understand what advancing in years does to one's abilities, if not their desires. I'm not 70 yet, but I'm walking in your close shadow at 65. We talked about it in camp that night and had a lively discussion. In this group of 5 friends I am the oldest. The others trail me by from 3 - 12 years. I can't do what I once could but twice a year we go out and do the same kind of thing. 2 of the younger guys with high end guns said they would definitely backtrack, but it seemed more of a financial decision. 2 of us in our 60's struggled a bit more, but we both thought that we would go back if at all possible. Finally one guy said, "Of course you'd go back. It's not like you'd be going alone. We'd all go together.

Those are real friends.

Thanks

 

[SwampWolf]

Well, I am seventy and have made several trips into the Boundary Waters over the past few decades-mostly two week fishing expeditions. As to how far I would trek to retrieve a forgotten firearm would probably depend on which gun I'd left behind (I did leave a Charles Daly 20 ga. o/u against a tree in upper Michigan once while grouse hunting. Fortunately, I wasn't too far from where I left it when I realized its absence and was able to drive back and get it). If the forgotten gun was my little Merkel twenty gauge s/s, well, I'd hike a long way to get it back. However, I'd tramp just as far to retrieve a little .22, single-shot Winchester Model 67 rifle my dad gave me on Christmas day in 1957, when I was fourteen years old. Like many, I'm sure, I own a couple of guns that don't mean that much to me and wouldn't warrant many portages to recover them.
There is one caveat to this discussion though: if I knew that the gun left behind was loaded, a return trip, no matter which gun and no matter how far, would have to be taken.
In terms of your first question, I agree with those who opined that you probably should have packed it out and tried to find the owner afterwards.

 

[Jason_W]

I'd never put my fingerprints on a gun I found.

I'm not sure what I would of done. It's easy to second guess after the fact, but you did what you thought was right at the time and your decision came from an ethical place.

 

[Fred Fuller]

I'd have used the ziplock bag to protect the note I'd leave at the spot where the shotgun was found to inform the owner where he could retrieve his shotgun. I would not leave a functional firearm in a place where any random person could retrieve it...