Out in the middle of no where - leaning up against a tree,sitting on a rock,lost in the snow, covered up by leaves - abandoned?

Only one; hauled it out of a creek. But then I was the one who put it there, after missing my second buck with it in as many trigger pulls.

Know of a couple pulled out of creeks. Both worked fine after cleanup !!

My dad found a Old revolver while hunting mushrooms. I sold to a buddy of mine and he gave it to his dad to clean it up.
When his dad gave it back to him he had welded the hammer the cylinder and the barrel shut. LMAO Mike

We found a revolver in the creek when we were kids. That was in Moose Jaw Sask. so it was quite a big story to the cops. I was at the gun show here a couple years ago and a fellow has an old winchester that he found in a creek along with a horses skeleton, saddle and various things. That story is a bit chilling because if someone lost a horse I'm sure they would track it down and retreive their equipment.....unless the rider got hurt or killed.

the chef

Me and a friend found a real nice savage 270 a couple of years ago leaning against a tree. We both seen it at the same time and the race was on. I with all the grace I could manage tripped on a rock and swan dived into the duff and my buddy ended up with a ss savage and I got a few scrapes and bruises. It was two miles from a road we looked around for a gut pile or some other sign of the owner and found nothing. It was a mystery, why would someone leave a rifle leaning against a tree in the middle of nowhere?

friend and I were out grouse hunting on foot one day,and spied a gun case under a tree.It had a semi auto 22,in it,I think it was a marlin , missing the follower from the tube magazine under the barrel.Called a deputy I know,and he ran the serial number,sure enough,it was stolen.
Turned out someone had robbed an old girl friend of mine and her husbands house,taken all of his guns and some other stuff.
It was the only thing of theirs that was recovered.

I've dug several barrels and many parts to civil war guns here in TN with a metal detector. My favorite is an Enfield barrel from the battle of Nashville (TN). After the second day of fighting, the Confederate lines broke and all hell broke loose. The next day the Union set out to destroy and bury all ordinance found on the battlefield. I discoved this particular barrel behind the stone fence where one of the CS batteries was located. It appeared to have been bent around a tree and an axe was used to spay open the muzzle with two cuts, leaving the muzzle with an Barnes X mushroom effect. The breech had been struck with one deep blow and broken away, most likely from being beat against a tree or the rock/stone fence. The rear sight was missing as well. It was a rough time to be a part of Hood's Army of Tennessee.
LDK

I and a friend found a Winchester 30-30 at a livestock watering tank one deer season. Put an ad in the paper, contacted the fish and game and gave them a contact, but no one ever called on the rifle. My friend gave it to one of his sons, who still uses it.

My brothers were scuba diving under a bridge where Interstate 94 crosses the narrows of a lake here in MN and came up with a very corroded Browning A5. Before the interstate was put in, this narrows was supposedly very good duck hunting. I'm guessing someone tipped over a duck boat and lost it...or shot someone with it and dumped it over the bridge!

My Son found 6 pistols and rifles in the woods behind his school. We called the police in Smyrna TN. and they told my son that if no one claimed them they were his.
After many months we went to the police and they said they didn't know what we were talking about. I guess they went into some cops collection.

found a rugar single six in 41 mag,horn hunting about 7-8 yrs ago belt loop on the holster had rotted and fallen off someones hip.
ran the serial w/ the sheriff,not reported lost or stolen.
found a 300 weatherby laying beside a horse trail and started to take it w/me but the main trail supplied many drainages and had no idea which one the owner had taken.
4 hrs later as its breaking daylite here comes a fella riding the wrong way looking for a lost rifle,told him where i left it.
strangest was the "bolt" out of a remington found beside a guardrail while walking and glassing the canyon below for black bear????

I found a shotgun and Turkey call on a friends property several years ago.I called him up and asked if someone else was hunting there also.He said that no one except me had permission to hunt there.No one came forward too ask about it either.

A friend found a shotgun, stuck barrel down, in the mud east of Harris Co., Texas area. He was out in his air boat. Only had a little pitting at the mud/water line.

It was a Mossberg w/ camo finish if I remember correctly.

Found an 8 3/8" S&W .44 Mag. Only the red front site insert was sticking out of the dirt on the trail I was crawling through thick brush while trailing a wounded boar for a client. It just happened to be the very same .44 that had fallen out of my shoulder holster about 30 minutes before that.

BTW - no feeling quite like crawling up on wounded boar and realizing your holster is empty!

A good friend found a small semi-auto .22 pistol while guiding - never claimed. And several years later found a really nice S&W .357 - also never claimed.

We've had to go back and find a few guns right after clients have dropped them and I've found WAY too many arrows, knife sheaths, etc. lost by poachers, but no guns.

BUT I'm still looking...

quote:

Originally posted by kaprota:
Out in the middle of no where - leaning up against a tree,sitting on a rock,lost in the snow, covered up by leaves - abandoned?

I lost a .22 rifle just north of San Antonio years ago. I got to walking and realized I had crossed the property line so I set the gun aside and continued my walk. When I returned, the rifle was gone.

Had a buddy find a original Shilo Sharps (Carbine Model, I think) while hiking near Central Idaho. Stock was rotted out, but the gun wasn't in great condition, but still a cool mantel piece.

yes a new marlin 444 about 150yds up the trail form the drunk and his crying son(i think my dads dead!)got them out of the wood. later found the rifle. when i went to there house the wife said to keep it the drunk S$b did not need to have guns! sold it years ago Clint

Had a coworker that found a semi auto shotgun a few years ago while squirrel hunting. Unfortunately it was lying next to a guy that had shot himself with it the day before. Not a great saturday morning.

There are many ways to leave a rifle behind: i had a coonhound bitten by a rattler once, i had a shotgun with no sling with me, already carrying a 50 lb backpack. i picked him up and left the shotgun behind, it was about 4 miles to the truck, dog got the help he needed. never found the shotgun.

L.David Keith:

"It was a rough time to be a part of Hood's Army of the Tennessee".
Was there ever a time that the valor of Confederate infantry wasn't wasted in Hood's command? The fine Southern born historian,Shelby Foote, quotes Hood as having once called his troops "a mob". Still, this man has one of the most prominent posts in the US Army named after him. Why is there no US Army post named after General Albert Sidney Johnston -who died of wounds at Shiloh? (Shelby Foote narrates how Johnston ordered a Confederate Army physician to treat wounded Union soldiers -just shortly before he,himself was mortally wounded -and over objections of an aide, insisted that the physician should treat Union wounded. The War was a tragedy where 600,000 Americans died. Why isn't General Johnston, at least honored with an Army post named after him? It seems to this "damyankee" that Albert Sidney Johnston personified an American - he was simply on the other side of a family fight -and, like most family fights particularly vicious. I would like to honor him,however belatedly,today.

Dear Kaprota:

I found most of a firearm under 18 inches of muck and dead coral in 20 feet of water just off Port Royal, Jamaica. It was almost 300 years old.

Does that count?

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

quote:

Originally posted by Gerrypeters375:
L.David Keith:

"It was a rough time to be a part of Hood's Army of the Tennessee".
Was there ever a time that the valor of Confederate infantry wasn't wasted in Hood's command? The fine Southern born historian,Shelby Foote, quotes Hood as having once called his troops "a mob". Still, this man has one of the most prominent posts in the US Army named after him. Why is there no US Army post named after General Albert Sidney Johnston -who died of wounds at Shiloh? (Shelby Foote narrates how Johnston ordered a Confederate Army physician to treat wounded Union soldiers -just shortly before he,himself was mortally wounded -and over objections of an aide, insisted that the physician should treat Union wounded. The War was a tragedy where 600,000 Americans died. Why isn't General Johnston, at least honored with an Army post named after him? It seems to this "damyankee" that Albert Sidney Johnston personified an American - he was simply on the other side of a family fight -and, like most family fights particularly vicious. I would like to honor him,however belatedly,today.

Not in the woods, but I did find a Marlin 22 LR along the edge of a county road several years back. Reported it to the Sheriff, in which he kept for 60 days, after which I took posession. Still have it too.

My brother-in-law found a Ruger Mark I .22 pistol at the edge of the woods in his yard in Pelham, NH. Being real close to wonderful towns like Lowell and Lawrence, MA he called the police who took it away. Never heard another thing about it.

Having been in the military for almost 25 years and having short 2 week or less stays in both Africa the sand and a number of places,I found quit a few weapons but the one that sticks in my mind was a 1911 found in the phil is. still in it's US army holster.

I grew up in So Kalif. and worked in a weed abatement program during the summer when I was 16-17 what we did was clear empty lots in Socentral L.A I found several Handguns and sawed off's.

A friend of mine was taking a diver training course at a local trade school in So KA. they used a local lake for training in murky water and he found a 50 cal browning compleat someone has dumped.

A local sport shop had a set of Parker 12ga barrels that had a tree grown around them. the barrels were twisted from the growth

I found a Remington Rand 45 Auto under a bridge in 2003. It had been under water for years and was useless, but still loaded. Six years later, at the other end of the same bridge, was a single barrel shotgun minus the buttstock, and the length of the barrel had been modified. I can picture some one tossing both over the bridge from a moving car as they approached town. I turned the 45 into the sherrif, and got it back in a few weeks. I still have the scattergun, but will turn it in someday.

graybird:

If that Marlin 22 was a Marlin lever action (the dream gun of my youth - Model 39A as I remember)then I think your sheriff should have issued an APB to capture a contemptible criminal who would commit such a heinous offense!

Mauser 98, Schmeiser, land mine, mortar mine, magazines, ammo - all WWII vintage and all rusted beyond use.

Yes, my father still tells how in 1945 they found all kind of that stuff in the woods, his dad took everything away immediately, especially the hand granades. I am still upset that they did not keep at least a single Luger 08...

I once brought up a rusted handgun digging for clams in about 10' of water on LI's GSB.

GP, I have stood near the tree where AS Johnston died. By now, that old monument is gone. It was not much more than a home for termites, wood borers, beetles and carpenter ant's back in 1985. There was a chain link fence around it at the time but I'd be surprised if it still stands today. Albert didn't realize his wound was mortal. Struck just below his knee by a minie ball, his officer's knee boot filled with his life blood and didn't spill on the ground. Within minutes, he slumped in his saddle and fell from his horse; dead from the loss of blood. Yes, our beloved Government has odd ways to honor its dead. I'm surprised that any US Fort today carries the name of deceased Confederate Generals. Regards, David
CS "Breckenridge" solid cast belt plate

A few relics I recovered from a Union battery position in TN

David:

Shelby Foote has described in detail how General Johnston died. I felt a lump in my throat about it. As to your other remark about naming forts after Confederate generals - there is Fort Bragg - and once again I quote Shelby Foote - He says that a Confederate soldier writing years after the War said that there was not a single soldier in Bragg's army who either liked or respected him. (How the heck did these forts get named?) BTW, if you're interested - my grandfather was born in 1830 in Ireland - He came to the US after the awful "Potato famine". He served in the Union Army and apparently fought at Antietam,Gettysberg, Chancellorsville,the Wilderness and at Cold Harbor. My father was born in 1880 and I was born in 1930. Hence my grandfather was a veteran of the War. He died in 1915. He told my father (who told me)that the War was the greatest tragedy that ever befell Americans - because it was a family fight -and like all family fights was particularly vicious. Periodically, I reread Shelby Foote and Bruce Catton (a Northern born historian) and it's always nice to realize as I read that neither writes in a sense of "beating the enemy" -because the "enemy" is us. (BTW, since we are on the subject, a favorite story of mine - US General Joseph Wheeler at San Juan Hill, commanding US Infantry in action against a common foreign enemy (he had been "Fighting Joe Wheeler" in the Confederate service and also as a general)The Spaniards put up one hell of a fight and it was no comic opera battle - but, at last, the Spaniards started to pull back. Joe Wheeler shouted (according to the story)"After them,boys, we have the damyankees on the run!". Joe Wheeler denied that story to the day he died -but the whole country,Northerners, Southerners and Westerners laughed. It was simply a good story and pulled Americans together. Our War ended like no other "Civil War" in history. THere was no sniping by guerillas as from ridgetops or murdering of soldiers from back alley stabbings or shootings. The Confederacy had fought an honorable war as soldiers -and lost because they were outgunned and out manned -but never outfought. The whole country respected that when General Lee surendered at Appomattox. Both sides wanted us to come together again. (Yes, I agree that "Reconstruction" was an awful thing - carried out by politicians who had not been in battle against fellow Americans. Fact) 600,000 Americans died -but we are a united country today and all Americans have gone into action against foreign enemies side by side ever since.

Gerry, I guess you could say I have relived that war many times, having served in the Confederate Marines before joining the 1st Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, rising from a private to Lt General in the Confederate High Command. Re-enacting mind you but it's the closest thing to being there one can ever experience.

It will get your attention when your charging 15,000 Federals behind a stone wall with artillery booming all around you. Smoke so thick you taste sulfur with every breath. I've walked over many battlefields and most weren't in Nat'l Parks. Very few American's care about preserving Civil War history anymore. I've scoured the ground with my metal detector while dodging the bulldozer. We rush to save history before each new Target, Walmart and parking lot gets laid.

As for snipers, you should read about sharp shooters on both sides. I live very near Ike Shaw homeplace, one of General Cleburne's CS sharp shooters. His description of the Battle of Franklin is remarkable. He had a .45 Whitworth target rifle, one of 20 that made it through the blockade. He took high toll on the Federal Artillerist's that day before his unit was recalled; before Hood's bad choice of a frontal charge over 2 miles of open ground. By Nashville they were reduced to only 16. I have been fortunate enough to dig 5 Whitworth bullets from the Confederate Sharp Shooter positions at Nashville (3 dropped cylindrical and 2 fired hexagonal). They are the longest small arms projectile of the war: 1.41" long and 525 grains in weight. The war cost over 650,000 lives, but most died of illness.
LDK

Don't be afraid of paragraphs, guys. They would make your posts readable.

I have a good friend who found a .308 leaning up against a tree in Colorado while elk hunting. He brought it out with him, put a new scope on it and his son hunted with it for years. Eventually the numbers were run on the rifle when his son went through a traffic stop, the guy had reported it stolen and collected on his homeowners insurance. The rifle was confiscated along with the new scope that he purchased.

US installations named after Confederate officers were chosen carefully and with a purpose. Bragg, Polk, Hood, etc. There is a common thread here.......

One of my great uncles dumped a #5 washtub full of "old rocks" into a creek when he was cleaning out barns. The old rocks were actually arrowheads and spear points that had been collected from local fields for the last 50 years......No one in the family has ever found where he dumped them.

David:

Your mention of "snipers" reminds me how often they are mentioned in the histories (Shelby and Catton) but never any mention of just what was the range or what model rifle or caliber was used. Sounds to me, David, like you could write a book to fill in some gaps for us buffs! I even promise to buy the first copy.
P.S. I just have finished reading Shelby Foote's account of the battle at Murfreesboro. (I had forgotten the story) The casualties in close to two days of fighting amounted to nearly 25,000 - almost exactly equal to Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing) and Antietam (Sharpsburg). Ever notice how the war in the West never got the same treatment from historians ? (except Shelby Foote)

True Gerry, when I graduated HS, we had only touched briefly on the eastern theatre. Nothing much was said of the west. There were many long guns used as sniper rifles; Whitworth, Kerr, Enfield, Sharp's to name a few. Many foreign rifles used a wide assortment of projectiles, mostly in the .40 caliber range. Ironically, "California Joe" one of the North's most deadly sharpshooters used a Springfield of .57 caliber.

At Fort Donelson, just before N. B. Forrest evacuated and headed for Nashville, a pesky Union sharpshooter was hammering the Confederate lines. Forrest silenced him from quite a distance with a breech loading Maynard carbine of unknown caliber. We can only assume it was either a .37 or .51 bore. He mentioned he preferred the two band Enfield for it's accuracy.

Yeah, the battle of Murfreesboro was a 3 day blood bath. "Hell's half acre" and the two fords on Stone's river left the dead piled in heaps. At McFadden's ford, several of us have dug minie balls that had met in mid air and bonded. One US and one CS bullet together. The lead was so thick few of Breckenridge's men left the field unscathed.

I've published 3 small books but they are relic logs for collectors. One day I hope to publish a book on the relics from middle Tennessee.
Regards,
David