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 ...
Love it!!
Upon further review, the Utah Juniper can be quite a small tree. This particular one could be quite old.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
Yeah, the tree would grow really slowly, but not so much that there would have been no measurable growth in the last 132 years.
Probably a Model 71 and the owner could no longer buy ammo so he just left it there.
If it were a Model 71 it was probably left becuase the owner couldn't find any ammo, like me.
44-40 ain’t hard to find.
Model 71 is 348win, try find in that. If you do let me know.
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)
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.
That is very cool.
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]
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.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
