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Who has stumbled on a gun while in woods?

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42 comments

  • Kodiakk
    I only dream of finding one. [:(]
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  • Ba Sardo
    Mrdropcloth,

    You're a class act offering to return the gun to the rightful owner. A lot of folks wouldn't do that. In fact, if I'm completely honest with myself, I may be one of those folks.

    Hats off, dude.
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  • oldemagics
    old 12 ga single, in what used to be a woodpile by a long rotted away hunting camp
    action rusted shut and a wasp nest in the muzzle kept the bore clean, still hunting for a hammer spring for it and make some new wood...after 30+ yrs of lookin at it!
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  • drsck
    Found a Browning A-5 in a garbage can once. Saw it sticking out of the can as I was driving by. Turned around and stopped. Went to the house and explained that I had seen this "thing" in their trash and that it had some value. Then asked if I could buy it from them. They said, no, but you can have it. Another time I went with a fellow to check out some property that he'd inherited. It had come to him several years earlier, but he hadn't been there to see it since he was a boy, 20 years earlier. Well, there hadn't been anyone living there in at least 15 years and it was at least 100 years old, so the house was in pretty bad shape. There were holes in the roof and floors with trees growing through some of them. There was no way to save the house, but the fellow decided to look around to see if there was anything worth rescuing. We found some pots and pans, a old chair or two and a few other things like that. But then we opened a closet in what would have been a bedroom. There were still some clothes, but there were also things standing in the corner. Turned out to be a bunch of old curtin rods, a old projector screen and an iron framed Henry rifle. It thought I was gonna die! He had no idea what it was worth, he just thought it was neat that he had a gun from one of his old relatives. I explained the situation to him and then I thought he was gonna die. Another time, a friend of a friend bought a house to flip and when they were cleaning it out, they found over 50 guns and 2 dozen Randal knives. That was pretty neat too. There were a couple of others but these were amomg the best guns I ever "found."
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  • DancesWithSheep
    An old Remington Rolling Block, octagonal barrel, crescent butt plate, .32 caliber....while picking berries near Nyack, NY, 1957. Still have it.
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  • spasmcreek
    not in woods but many years ago had a fellow from dodge city out & he said he bought a small frame house & single car garage for a rental at auction ..when it was all over he was locking up to leave, walked into the garage turned around & looked up on a roof support & found an old winchester rifle in a dry dark spot that still showed the pattern on the support when wiped off & gun removed....after careful quizzing, guide books, & phone calls back to dodge, it was identified as first model 1876 sporting rifle in 45-60...still in decent condition, dirty & some rust, but workable when cleaned ....got a cheap house...& a great story
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  • dcinffxva
    I was fixing a friends furnace one time, and spotted a barrelled receiver for a 98K mauser, and an artillery shell stashed between the wall studs. I asked about them, and the answer was "they were here when we moved in, take them if you want". Still have the mauser, and started to clean the crud off the artillery shell. As I did, I noticed under the green slime on the nose was a brass dial with a large screw. After unscrewing the screw, springs and gears were visible. At this point I decided to stop screwing with it until I found out what it was. The story ended with the bomb squad from Fort McNair at my house, along with some curious guys asking questions. Turns out it was a live 105mm [:I]
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  • SCorvers
    Dc, you is a VERY lucky fellow.[:0] If'n I was you I would be having some serious nightmares. Silly boy, messing with a fuse on a live round. The image in my head makes me shudder.
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  • wundudnee
    When I was a kid, a friend and I were playing under a creek bridge. We saw what we thought were some bed rails sticking out of a burlap sack in a pile of dumped trash. It was two lever action Winchester shotguns and two Winchester 1906 .22 pumps. There were also a lot of personal papers in the sack. It was an old gunsmiths stuff that had been robbed from him. Being we were good kids, we took it all to him. He was so thankful, he gave us each 1/2 box of .410 shells.

    I've often thought about those four Winchesters.[}:)]
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  • Permanently deleted user
    Email me some detailed pictuers includeing some of the serial# and I'll tell you if it is mine.[;)][:o)][;)][:o)][;)][:o)][:D]
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  • tobefree
    No but I found a wallet with enough money in it to buy a gun... I had morals back then and returned it!!! Haven't found anything of real value since to test whether or not those morals are still intact! I suspect they are but, I really don't wish to test them all that much!!!
    I do know that if I found a gun in the woods today I'd pull out my cell phone and direct the police to it... I don't need another gun bad enough to contaminate a potential crime scene!!!!
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  • slipgate
    I found an old model A Ford in a barn - opened the rumble seat and found 5 Thompson 1928's still wrapped in cosmoline! Wait ...nevermind, that was a dream.
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  • allen griggs
    I was deer hunting in the Oconee River Swamps in central Georgia, twenty years ago. This swamp goes on and on for miles, one acre of it looks just like the next acre.
    I sat down on a log for a while. Bored, I pulled out my Puma folding hunting knife. This was a German made beauty, very expensive. At the time, the Puma cost $110 and a Buck cost $15.
    So I sat there admiring my beautiful knife for a while, and I set it down on the log.
    When I got back to my truck two hours later, I realized I had left my knife on the log. No sense in even trying to go back and find it in that trackless swamp.

    I went to the gun store that day and bought a Buck knife.
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  • nord
    A L.C. Smith. When I was fifteen or sixteen. A lot of years ago.

    Totally rebuilt by the original Ithaca Gun in the mid-80's, so she's as-new. Not a single round out of her since the work was done as she's earned her retirement many times over.
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  • tobefree
    quote:Originally posted by slipgate
    I found an old model A Ford in a barn - opened the rumble seat and found 5 Thompson 1928's still wrapped in cosmoline! Wait ...nevermind, that was a dream.

    A damn good one too!!
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  • AHansen
    Haven't found one yet, but i keep dreaming
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  • iwannausername
    Found most of an AR-15 - upper, but no handguards, collapsing stock, pistol grip, no reciever, etc.
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  • Old-Colts
    I've always wanted to find a "left behind" gun and all of the possible scenarios that would come with it as to why it was there.

    I've posted this before, but the "found gun" that still haunts me today is a Colt Single Action in 32-20 that I saw at a gun show in the Hill Country of Texas in the late 70's. The gun had been found on the Rio Grande, it was rusted in the full cock position, and the last two chambers that had been under the hammer had been fired. The next chambers were loaded and you presume the one under the hammer was also. You have to presume that the individual that dropped the cocked and ready Colt did not fair well in what ever he was engaged in at that time. If only that Colt could talk! It wasn't for sale; otherwise I would own it today!
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  • Cubslover
    I found a CZ 52 when I was like 10. My parents had some acreage in a wooded valley behind their house. My buddy and I were hiking through and I found it.
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  • tapwater
    ...A buddy's dad had spoken of having a couple old Colts somewhere, but not being a gun guy, he never paid much attention. His dad died several years ago. Last summer, they knocked down the old pump house on the farm, and while picking through the debris, his wife tugs on a "pipe" sticking out of the ground. Colt single action army, rusted badly. I haven't seen it yet, but he says the serial no. is still readable.
    ...Yesterday, the same buddy tells me that he has a "sack" of old guns that his dad had left in the attic. "There's a German Luger, and I don't know what the rest are", he said. He's driving me nuts.
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  • Colt Super
    At about 10, I found an old revolver while traipsing through the woods next to my house. I was pretty thrilled, but didn't tell anyone about it. It was chrome or nickel, break top, small caliber with hard plastic grips. I don't think it had a manufacturer's name or S/N on it.

    I carried it to school in my pocket for two or three months, and then a teacher saw it, confiscated it, called my folks. They told her to throw it away, so she just tossed it in her trash can.

    I've always wondered about it.

    Doug
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  • bigtire
    When I was 12 I found my deceased grandfather's Browning A-5 shotgun in the attic of my grandmother's house. My grandmother thought he had gotten rid of it years before. My brother still has it.
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  • Kodiakk
    quote:Originally posted by Doug Wilson
    At about 10, I found an old revolver while traipsing through the woods next to my house. I was pretty thrilled, but didn't tell anyone about it. It was chrome or nickel, break top, small caliber with hard plastic grips. I don't think it had a manufacturer's name or S/N on it.

    I carried it to school in my pocket for two or three months, and then a teacher saw it, confiscated it, called my folks. They told her to throw it away, so she just tossed it in her trash can.

    I've always wondered about it.

    Doug


    How things change.
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  • TrinityScrimshaw
    No, but I know someone found my Nylon 66, because eit was not there when I went back to get it.[:(]

    Trinity +++
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  • tapwater
    quote:Originally posted by TrinityScrimshaw
    No, but I know someone found my Nylon 66, because eit was not there when I went back to get it.[:(]

    Trinity +++


    ...What a coincidence. Not 5 minutes ago, I was out on the deck shooting one of my Nylon 66's. Oh, yea, it's pre '68, so you can't prove nothin'......[:D]
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  • TrinityScrimshaw
    tapwater,

    My 66 was black, with a cracked stock. It was loaded also, and I left it along a dirt road in Moss Hill Texas back in 1973. Where did you find your 66?[:D]

    Trinity +++
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  • Championhilz
    I was relic hunting in Vicksburg at a Union campsite when I got a very large signal with my metal detector. I dug down and found what I thought was a piece of pipe. I pulled it out of the ground and was about to toss it when I noticed that the piece of pipe had a sight on the end of it. Turns out it was in fact a P1853 Enfield Musket. I kept digging and found the brass butt plate, trigger guard, trigger, and nose cap. The lockplate and ramrod were missing. Apparently the Yankees stripped the gun and then tossed it. The neat thing was it still had some of the wood remaining under the barrel bands.
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  • tapwater
    quote:Originally posted by TrinityScrimshaw
    tapwater,

    My 66 was black, with a cracked stock. It was loaded also, and I left it along a dirt road in Moss Hill Texas back in 1973. Where did you find your 66?[:D]

    Trinity +++


    ...Our Mom & Pop hardware store, about 1968-9. $49.00 brand new. Picked up another one, almost cherry, here on GB about 3 years ago for $110. Plain Jane, brown and blues.
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  • v35
    Found a 1911 on a trail just outside our company area overseas.
    It was in perfect unweathered shape.
    Probably one of our ROK soldiers or houseboys was trying to slip it out.
    It wasn't reported by any of our officers so I kept it as trading goods.
    Off the books 1911s, 6x30 B&L binoculars and Army wrisWar on Terrorches (forgot the brand)were in demand then.
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  • spanielsells
    quote:Originally posted by Ba Sardo
    Mrdropcloth,

    You're a class act offering to return the gun to the rightful owner. A lot of folks wouldn't do that. In fact, if I'm completely honest with myself, I may be one of those folks.

    Hats off, dude.


    I gotta admit. I might not do it either. But, a prudent person would have taken a photo of the gun in the "before" stage just in case this little baby turned out to be stolen, and I wanted some evidence to back up my story.
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