Thanks, this is very interesting. I too wonder what happened to the owner. And how the gun remained there untouched for so long.
I once was hunting so deep in the Eglin AFB reservation that I was wondering to myself if anyone else had ever been there. I had only moved a few steps when I saw an empty cigarette pack on the ground.
No one would just leave a rifle and not go back, unless they’d arrived by air, or died nearby, IMHO.