Winchester 73 found in National Park

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That is cool. Think of all that happened while that rifle sat there all that time...
 
A friend of mine found a Rem 700 7mm Mag barreled action in a Colorado mountain stream back about 1971 while elk hunting.

It had been there long enough the wood stock was completely gone.
Very little red rust, and he cleaned it up & restocked it.

We always wondered about the story behind that one too.

rc
 
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Something about this isn't right. If it was there any long amoint of time, wouldn't the tree have grown around the gun?
 
What caliber was it? I didn't see that. 1882 was a long time ago, he could've shot a grizzly, leaned it up against the tree to pull out his skinning knife, and realized that a 38/40 didn't quite kill the griz!
 
I sure hope they work the area over real good with metal detectors.

May find a hunting knife, boot eyelets, collar buttons, and some bones too!

BTW: The rifle was made in 1882, but it could have been lost there in 1938.

rc
 
rromeo said:
Something about this isn't right. If it was there any long amoint of time, wouldn't the tree have grown around the gun?
Click to expand...

I was just about to post that...I can't imagine it leaned against a tree for much time...not even 10 years
 
That is pretty good life for wood outdoors for 10 years much less 100.
 
It's high arid desert country.

Very little rain, and heat & low humidity, or freezing cold one season or the other.

I could see it if the ground squirrels didn't eat it.

rc
 
rcmodel said:
It was found leaning against the tree.

http://www.ksl.com/?sid=33093460

The tree would have just pushed it out of the way while it grew bigger.
Besides, I doubt trees grow very fast in the Great Basin.

It is mostly mountainous & arid.


rc
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It says that it was leaning against a juniper, but it could easily be a bristlecone pine, just looking at the trunk. (I haven't seen a good picture of the foliage, just the trunk.) Either way, they both grow very slowly. If it is a bristlecone, it could have been over 1000 years old before the gun was left there. Juniper can live for several hundred years also and grows very slowly.

Everything in the desert mountains out here does grow really slow.

Matt
 
Well lets test it. One of you guys donate a vintage 1873 rifle and we will lean it in a tree and come back once a year to see if it has blown over or has been consumed by the tree. Wouldnt a wildfire have gone through?
 
dvdcrr said:
Well lets test it. One of you guys donate a vintage 1873 rifle and we will lean it in a tree and come back once a year to see if it has blown over or has been consumed by the tree. Wouldnt a wildfire have gone through?
Click to expand...


Yeah right, vintage. Can't you make do with a Uberti-made repro?:scrutiny:
 
I believe it, I've seen some mining gear left up in country like that, in pretty good shape for being over a century old.
I've never found a gun, but my first rifle was obtained by my father in a trade for his Ruger blackhawk he had found in a holster in the middle of a river. He thinks it was there for at least a few years.
 
A new Uberti wouldn't be a fair test.

They use modern steel, modern finish on the wood, and modern rust preventative oil.

They could last indefinitely, or at least 500 years in the dry high desert air! :D

rc
 
That's very cool.

Perhaps it's odd but I find myself hoping they never learn a single thing about the rifle or why or how or when it got there, and if it were up to me I'd put it back and just let it be, a small mystery of history. I know, I know, somebody'd steal it asap!
 
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I wouldn't be surprised if they find a very old (and empty) bottle of whiskey nearby. Some hunter or trapper years ago thought a little drink would warm him up and a couple dozen nips later he woke up on the other side of the mountain!

Id imagine there are a decent number of old rifles and pistols that somehow got lost. Life without a flashlight must have been rough :D

HB
 
gbw said:
Perhaps it's odd but I find myself hoping they never learn a single thing about the rifle or why or how or when it got there,
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Yes- very odd:scrutiny:

I find it fascinating and hope an interesting story comes out of it:)


BTW those asking why it didn't decay or rust away- I looked into it and that area only averages 13" of rain a YEAR!
 
HB said:
I wouldn't be surprised if they find a very old (and empty) bottle of whiskey nearby. Some hunter or trapper years ago thought a little drink would warm him up and a couple dozen nips later he woke up on the other side of the mountain!

Id imagine there are a decent number of old rifles and pistols that somehow got lost. Life without a flashlight must have been rough :D

HB
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Or he never woke having frozen to death!

On survivalistboards.com there is a fascinating thread about stuff found in the woods. Some of it is quite puzzling. One that sticks in my mind is someone found like 50 lbs of stainless flatware miles from anywhere...
 
What caliber was it? I didn't see that. 1882 was a long time ago, he could've shot a grizzly, leaned it up against the tree to pull out his skinning knife, and realized that a 38/40 didn't quite kill the griz!
Click to expand...

The article says it's a 44/40...
 
Oh snap.

NRA posted a link to this article this morning on Facebook.

The #1 comment (with over 2,000 "likes") posted by "Abraham R Jackson" was:

"You mean to tell me, that that rifle Sat there all these years and didn't kill anybody this whole time?"

HAHAH!!!!

I'm sorry but I HAD to share that here. That is solid gold.
 
One can gather that part of Nevada has not changed in literally hundreds of years. I gather that part of Nevada gets little rain and has really low humidity.

If that rifle could talk!!!

Wonder what kind of lube he used:
Rem Oil
M-Pro 7
Militec
Frog Lube
Hoppe's
 
Something about this isn't right. If it was there any long amoint of time, wouldn't the tree have grown around the gun?
Click to expand...

I lived in that state for several decades. The junipers grow VERY slowly and live a long time. A friend and I were out deer hunting one day and in a draw WAY off the beaten path was a car from the 20's. Still had the wooden floor boards intact along with the upholstery - granted nothing was in showroom condition, but stuff manages to to not rot away too quickly (unlike FL where everything is consumed by Nature)
 
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