What's up with guns hidden/stashed in walls?

[jrdolall]

A few years ago we were working on an old house in GA and I, being the young-un in the group(merely 50), was allowed to crawl to the far side of the house to look at the foundation and timbers for problems. A friend and I bought this house to resell (before "Flippers" and other shows took off we made good money doing that). When I started crawling back out I was surprised to see a rifle hanging on two nails. It was on the back side of the joist pretty close to the side of the house. Why did they put it there? Used in a crime? Confiscation worries? Thieving relative worries?
Winchester Model 67 22. No serial number. My partner had it completely redone and it is a beauty.

 

[MechAg94]

I seem to remember that gun registration and confiscation was popular in Europe prior to WWII. I imagine there were people talking up that issue here also even if they weren't getting much traction.

 

[royal barnes]

Old guns found in southern locations could have been hidden in the walls to keep federal troops from confiscating them. Some firearms coming back from WWII may have been hidden in walls or attics because of the belief that they were stolen. Some were there just because.

 

[shiftyer1]

I've often thought of creating a hiding spot in the house, I don't think i'd completely seal it without some way to access it.

A friend once found a bottle of apple jack brandy sealed in the wall of his house, I remember another that found a revolver behind his furnace. My father had an uncle that was supposedly loaded but upon his death there was no money.....it's always been rumored that it's in the house somewhere.

I recently saw a post with pictures of a small smoking room someone built that was completely hidden except for an exhaust fan on the outside wall. Complete with fake fireplace and leather chairs.

There was also a man recently in Germany? His family stashed some things in a crawl space before they fled....it's now a school house and....from the article I read "he tapped around on the wall for maybe an hour" then he found the spot and opened it. There was nothing special there except to him but still pretty cool. It looked like some clothes and toys things like that.

I love old houses and the mysteries they may contain.

 

[mstreddy]

My brother was remodeling a house some years ago and called me to tell me he had found a shotgun in the corner of one closet. He knew nothing of guns and asked me to look it over and offered it to me.
It wasn't a shotgun it was an .303 Enfield. It was missing the mag and the upper handguard, had some rust, and the bore was full of dust and cobwebs. It cleaned up fairly well. I've replaced the mag, but not the handguard yet.