Rusted, 132-year-old Winchester rifle found against tree in Nevada national park

Foxnews.com ^ | 1-15-2015 | Fox News

[servo1969]

The story of how it got there may never be known, but a rusting 132-year-old Winchester rifle -- known in U.S. lore as "the gun that won the West" -- was recently found resting against a juniper tree in a Nevada national park.

The gun, its stock split, gray and faded like driftwood, and its steel barrel rusted brown, blended in perfectly against the tree in a remote part of the Great Basin National Park until a National Parks Service employee spotted it.

“The rifle, exposed for all those years to sun, wind, snow and rain, was found leaning against a tree in the park,” said Nichole Andler, chief of interpretation at Great Basin National Park.

An engraving on the gun marks it as a "Model 1873," and Andler said further research showed the serial number on the lower tang, or portion of the grip, matched up with records held at the Center for the West at the Cody Firearms Museum in Cody, Wyo. with a manufacture and shipping date of 1882, Andler said.

[servo1969]

[VideoDoctor]

Probably the result of a time warp bleed through.

[C210N]

Perhaps there is a broken boat nearby.

[subterfuge]

You can’t take guns into a national park!

[VideoDoctor]

Perhaps there is a broken boat nearby.

Anything is possible.

[Blood of Tyrants]

That is the third one they found just today. :)

[Paladin2]

This was covered in an episode of The Twilight Zone.

[Regulator]

Somebody found mah rifle and didn't return it?!

[cuban leaf]

Probably the result of a time warp bleed through.

---

Precisely. Do NOT stick your hand in that tree. I believe the gun was owned by a blacksmith named Emmet Brown.

[Paladin2]

100 Yards over the Rim

[mylife]

Very cool.
A friend of mine found a pistol of that era and some barbed wire in a barrel in the middle of the anza borrego desert.

[VideoDoctor]

Somebody channel Rod Serling and get the facts directly on how and why this occurred.

[Boundless]

They will need to remove the cartridges in order to make it safe to display or even examine further, and they need to assume they are loaded with black powder and use mercury fulminate primers, which aren’t necessarily stable after what is clearly a very long time.

The headstamps on the cases will provide a clearer picture of just how long.

[cuban leaf]

[Beagle8U]

The question is...how long was it resting against the tree?

Just because it is 132 years old doesn’t mean it was out there that long. Might have only been there for 80-100 years.

[easternsky]

One last night also. lol

[b4its2late]

Rip Van Winkles?

[VideoDoctor]

The question is...how long was it resting against the tree?

I say, turn this over to Obama and his clown court. Maybe they can find a way to turn it into a Government funded program we can all bitch about.

[ASA Vet]

I've been watching two or three episodes every day. In a recently watched episode he kissed Milly Scott. If I were still a kid that would have been a “yuck” moment. She must not have tasted good because a few episodes later she was gone, and Lou Mallory took over as the squeeze for Lucas.

[Beagle8U]

I vote we shove it up his a$$ and see if it still fires.