Posted on 07/20/2015 11:02:11 AM PDT by Kartographer
A 130-year-old rifle found in the Nevada desert last year is fully loaded with mystery—and some of the questions surrounding it might never be answered.
The Winchester 1873 rifle was discovered in the Great Basin National Park leaning against a juniper tree in November. But the strange discovery has triggered more questions than answers.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
That's out in the desert and actually the barrel is in pretty good shape, but I've seen stuff near mining camps dating back to 1900-1930 with pretty much the same patina, leaning up against the tree trunk. Tho I did find an model-t axle embedded in the crotch of a tree once. It was about as rusty as an anchor chain left out on the waterfront for a few decades, ie almost completely converted to rust. But I've found stuff part buried by accumulated detritus with negligible patina, obviously untouched for decades. Just depends on the locale and particularly precipitation.
When we went camping out west in the 60s-70s we also found a lot of tin cans high up in the trees. My mom said it was once the custom was to use tin cans to boil water and just set the cans in the tree for the next camper to use. If the tree didn't get much water or sun the cans would still be at eye level after 30-60 years, but if it was relatively wet you might spot the remains of the can in the treetops.
...nor Yosemite Sam
Probably take a bit more than one...see The Guns of the South, for a good treatment of the idea.
Rod Steiger was a great character actor
... Rod Serling
on the other hand, was way ahead of his time.
Ah yeah! Harry Turtledove. Good stuff there!
In Nevada it mostly depends on the orientation of the piece. If it is on a North slope it will rust faster than one on a Southern slope. A guy I work with found a similar Winchester in the far Northern part of Nevada about 15 years ago. It was on an East facing slope and not in as good a shape as the one in the OP.
OMG ROFL ROFL My Ribs. ROFL Thanks for correcting me. I mean Rod Serling ROFL ROFL
6) Hunter.
X-ray revealed there actually is a round in the stock’s storage cavity.
Rod Stieger
Rod Serling
Rod Storage
Which one of these does not go with the other?
So, depended on how it was leaning against what. Doesn't look like a position that necessarily the tree, growing slowly under rough conditions, would engulf the rifle.
Not everything is a big mystery with a fascinating untold story. I have found old guns and know others who have also found them. One guy found a shotgun that had been leaning against a tree for many years. Somebody probably placed it there to do something else and couldn’t find it again.
Yeah, really. In 130 years, wouldn’t the tree have grown around the rifle?
500 hundred more years and a bunch of rain.
Or what if the Aircraft Carrier Nimitz went back in time just before the Germans attacked Pearl Harbor ?
Obsolete Man is very troubling.
I thought I was pretty clear. Go hiking in hilly, rocky terrain like this. You'll see rocks leaning against trees and they leave a distinct impression on the bark. Most of those rocks have only been there a season or two after rolling downhill. Occasionally you'll see a rock totally embedded in the side of the tree, those have been there much longer. Don't you think the bark immediately adjacent to the rifle would have grown or expanded over 100+ seasons? Don't you think the bark under the steel barrel would behave even the slightest bit differently? The result would have been an impression or distortion of that part of the trunk. There is nothing visible. I suspect it had been there no more than one or two years.
As I said above. I think someone found it nearby and then leaned it against that tree.
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