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The mystery of the 132-year-old Winchester rifle found propped against a national park tree
Post ^ | 1/14/15 | Elahe Izadi

Posted on 01/15/2015 6:23:25 AM PST by NowApproachingMidnight

Archaeologists conducting surveys in Nevada’s Great Basin National Park came upon a gun frozen in time: a .44-40 Winchester rifle manufactured in 1882. It was propped up against a juniper tree.


(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: History; Outdoors
KEYWORDS: 1873; 1882; banglist; godsgravesglyphs; greatbasin; greatbasinnp; guns; history; model1873; nationalpark; nevada; park; rifle; rifles; treasure; winchester; winchester73; winchesterrifle
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To: CrazyIvan

Love it!!


61 posted on 01/15/2015 9:56:05 AM PST by Osage Orange (I have strong feelings about gun control. If there's a gun around, I want to be controlling it.)
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To: Mr. Lucky
Exactamundo.

Upon further review, the Utah Juniper can be quite a small tree. This particular one could be quite old.

62 posted on 01/15/2015 1:05:18 PM PST by al_c (Obama's standing in the world has fallen so much that Kenya now claims he was born in America.)
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63 posted on 01/15/2015 1:29:44 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: wbarmy
The original article said it was found leaning against a Tree.

“The 132 year-old rifle, exposed to sun, wind, snow, and rain was found
leaning against a tree in the park.


What do you mean, "I don't Think So"? I didn't pull that out of my ass.
The Pic in #16 is exactly how they found the weapon!

Good Freaking Grief.

64 posted on 01/15/2015 1:36:06 PM PST by MaxMax (Pay Attention and you'll be pissed off too! FIRE BOEHNER, NOW!)
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To: MaxMax

First, I did not mean that as a personal attack on you. It was just a friendly remark. I apologize for doubting your exact knowledge of what went on there since you were obviously there when they found it.

How else would you KNOW that pic#16 is EXACTLY how they found it? I look at the picture and I see the brush pushed down where the stock went onto the ground, which IMHO would not be that way if the rifle had been there awhile.

IMHO they picked up the rifle, then realized they should have taken a picture, tried to replace it, then took a picture.

You were there and I am wrong. Sorry.


65 posted on 01/15/2015 2:22:51 PM PST by wbarmy (I chose to be a sheepdog once I saw what happens to the sheep.)
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To: NowApproachingMidnight

It is anyone’s guess when it was placed there - any time between 1883 up to 20 or so years ago. My wild can’t-prove-a-thing says after WWII. There could be clues if the gun was loaded - the head stamps, bullet composition (lead/jacketed) and/or type of powder (blackpowder/smokeless)
would narrow the date range.

If it shows up on a 4473, that brings it into modern times.


66 posted on 01/15/2015 2:40:44 PM PST by Oatka (This is America. Assimilate or evaporate.)
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To: Oatka
On anther note, what is that to the upper right of the trigger.?
It appears to be a metal bar with a ring in the end,with maybe a strip of leather attached, and if you enlarge , there seems to be two holes in the middle, with the far right embedded in the tree.
It sure looks like a bridal bit.
I have heard of skeletons of horses still tied to trees/bushes, the horse just stood there til it died, kind of a ghastly thought.
67 posted on 01/15/2015 2:55:14 PM PST by Robe (Rome did not create a great empire by talking, they did it by killing all those who opposed them)
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To: july4thfreedomfoundation

When we lived in Yorktown Virginia in 1960 I bought a pistol that had been found on the Yorktown Battlefield. It was at a yard sale and I paid $10. The barrel was missing but the carved stock and brass side plates still look good, weathered but good. I took it to an antique gun dealer and he said it had been made between 1730 and 1760 in France. It was found in a very remote part of the battlefield I guess that it had laid there since the Revolutionary War, possibly beside the body of a soldier.


68 posted on 01/15/2015 3:11:20 PM PST by Ditter
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To: al_c

Yeah, the tree would grow really slowly, but not so much that there would have been no measurable growth in the last 132 years.


69 posted on 01/15/2015 4:28:42 PM PST by Mr. Lucky
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To: Paladin2
Deluxe checkering...

Probably a Model 71 and the owner could no longer buy ammo so he just left it there.

70 posted on 10/06/2015 2:02:45 PM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: Tijeras_Slim
It’s a model 1873.

If it were a Model 71 it was probably left becuase the owner couldn't find any ammo, like me.

71 posted on 10/06/2015 2:03:47 PM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: 1Old Pro

44-40 ain’t hard to find.


72 posted on 10/06/2015 2:15:05 PM PDT by MileHi (Liberalism is an ideology of parasites, hypocrites, grievance mongers, victims, and control freaks.)
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To: MileHi

Model 71 is 348win, try find in that. If you do let me know.


73 posted on 10/06/2015 3:09:34 PM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: 1Old Pro
The rifle in question is a 44-40.

Model 71 is 348win, try find in that. If you do let me know.

A quick search finds this:

http://www.ammunitiontogo.com/index.php/cName/rifle-ammo-348-winchester

There is also brass for reloading. So don't leave your rifle leaning against a tree in the desert! {:0)

74 posted on 10/06/2015 3:20:20 PM PDT by MileHi (Liberalism is an ideology of parasites, hypocrites, grievance mongers, victims, and control freaks.)
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To: NowApproachingMidnight
Very cool!

We lived in Yorktown Virginia in ‘60 & ‘61. . I bought a pistol at a yard sale for $10 that someone had found on the Yorktown battlefield. I had an expert look at it and he said it had been made in the early 1700’s in France.
It probably was used in the Revolutionary War and someone probably died right where it was found.

I spent a lot of time walking on the York River bank and I found some cannonball fragments but they were probably Civil War.

The pistol is missing the barrel but the etched brass and carved wooden handle are intact. It is one of my favorite artifact. I would loved to have found it myself.

75 posted on 10/06/2015 3:34:51 PM PDT by Ditter (God Bless Texas!)
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To: Ditter

That is very cool.


76 posted on 10/06/2015 3:36:54 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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A bit of an update (with the usual YT production values; at least mixup98 is a gun guy).
Winchester 1873 Rifle Found In Nevada - What Happened To It?" [YouTube posted by mixup98]

Winchester 1873 Rifle Found In Nevada - What Happened To It?

77 posted on 07/22/2018 1:16:31 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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To: NowApproachingMidnight

A man was teaching his son to hunt. He wanted his young 13-year-old son to set up his shots carefully, not just pop off a bunch and hope for the best; so the father removed the rifle’s lifter so that the boy could only discharge one cartridge at a time. And so the man and his son went hunting, leaving the lifter back in the man’s one-room house to be put back into the rifle when the boy matured a bit and learned to hunt the right way.

One day, while out on a hunt with his father, the young man, being easily distracted as youth are wont to become, put his gun up against the tree and went exploring around. When his dad finally caught up with him, he asked him, “Where’s your rifle, son?” The boy said, “Oh, it’s over there up against the tree, Dad.” His father said, “Which tree? Where?” “Over there, Dad!” “I don’t see it, son. Let’s go get it.”

So they looked, but the boy forgot where exactly it was, and the trees all looked dauntingly similar. And the boy forgot how far and in which direction he had traveled. So the boy and his father looked all afternoon, but they eventually had to go home because Mama had a pot roast in the stove for supper.

They tried over the next few months to find that rifle, but they never did find it. Then, 132 years later, the rifle was found by a society that hates guns, loves sodomy and frowns upon fatherhood. The gun was happy to be found but went into a major depressive episode later because the free and wild society that offered so much promise of Liberty to Americans and the world was turned into a sniveling little European nanny state. The rifle pined for the day when he could finally go hunting with a free child and his loving father again, but he found that, like the Constitution that protected the boy’s freedom, he was put under glass and consigned to a slow spiritual death by cultural malaise and general apathy.


78 posted on 01/11/2023 11:05:33 AM PST by WKTimpco
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