For all you anti stainless/ fiberglass types- you know who you are- this one is for you.

Last summer my house was robbed, presumably by punk kids because of what they took. (Beer. whiskey, CD's and a few other easy to sell odds and ends) They also took the only rifle that was out of the safe, a Ruger 77 MkII, stainless with a fiberglass stock.

I was sure the punks wouldn't know what to do with the rifle and stash it somewhere in the woods or something nearby. By this time, I had given up hope for it.

Well, as I was wandering around my property today, what did I see sticking out of the snow? There it was, and I must have walked by it a hundred times before, except this time I wasn't on the trail, and I was on the other side of a little knoll. It was "hidden" beside a fallen, rotten log.

Here's when I started to be pretty pleased it was stainless. The only rust on it was rust stains from the non stainless parts, such as the magazine box, some screws, a couple of pins for the trigger and sear, and there was a fair amount of rust on the Timney trigger.

After a couple of hours with super fine steel wool and gun oil, everything is pretty much rust free. I stripped the bolt and there wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

After a little cleaning patchescome out clean form the bore. There wasn't any trace of rust in the bore, only a little copper fouling from when it was shot last.

Te fiberglass stock I took to the sink and scrubbed with hot soapy water.

When I found the rifle, it was covered in mud and it had been sitting in rain and snow for almost a year. After the cleaning, I chambered a round, pulled the trigger, and was rewarded with a satisfying BOOM.

It's nice to have such an old good friend back. We've been to alot of different places together!

Gates

I threw a Ruger away once and it came back too. I was just glad it didn't have puppies.

It doesn't say much for stainless/synthetic when folks don't even want it for free.

Just kidding, that was too easy to pass up. Glad you got your rifle back.

Right on Gatehouse. Glad you got your rifle back.

Did it have a scope on it? If so how did it hold up?

I noticed that the screws on my stainless Leupold rings are starting to rust.

Mark

Cheap shots guys...very cheap.

Congrats on getting your old friend back.

Years ago when I wore my country's uniform, a fellow Marine's off-base apartment was robbed, and his Ruger Security Six was taken. He reported the theft to the police (Orange County, Calif.), including the gun's serial number.

To his amazement, a year and some months later, he got a call from a P.D. in Los Angeles County. "Are you so-and-so?" "Do you live at..." "Did you report a Ruger Security Six stolen?" Long story short, the gun had made its way through the black market to a "gentleman" who, well under the influence, decided to have a rootin', shootin' time outside his favorite watering hole.

The police ran the serial number, found the theft report, and he got his gun back more than a year following its departure.

BigIron

Bigiron ...Thats amazing . Im supprised a California police agency would return a stolin gun to the owner . I thought they would just destroy it.
I had several guns stolin about 16 years ago in a house burglery in Calif. and I never heard a word about any of them being recovered.

I'm glad you found your rifle. I would have had the police check for finger prints before touching it. I hate theives.

We need more good news stories like this. Glad you got your rifle back!

Pete

I have a good one for you guys. My stepfather's friend had all his rifle collection stolen, this was in the 80's I think. One of the rifles was a Mauser sniper rifle, very unique. A few years after it was taken my stepfather saw it at a gunshow on a guys table, after taking a look to make sure he had his brother watch it while he called the friend. Sure enough, it was his rifle, after some police involvement it was returned. The cool thing, my stepfather hadn't seen the gun in 17 years and was still able to remember what it looked like!

Red

I believe Craig Boddington found, in a pawn shop, a 375 H&H of his that had been stolen several years earlier from his home.

Chuck

Gatehouse,

Don't forget to notify the police department you reported the stolen gun to so they can remove it from the stolen guns databases.

If this isn't done, and you try to leave or re-enter the country with it, Customs may arrest you or confiscate the gun.

George

Thanks George

I paln on stopping by the RCMP detachment when I get into town next week and letting them know.

I bet they are as surprised as I am.

I keep looking in the used gun racks when I go to Vancouver, hoping to find a .270 that was stolen from my truck a few years ago while I was visiting Van.

Congrats on finding your rifle in good condition.
I gotta tell this story: In the late fifties, my Dad was the Commonweath's Attorney ("DA")in what was then Warwick County, Virginia. There had been a murder and the murder weapon - a rifle - was believed to have been hidden in a certain patch of woods. My Dad, wanting to supervise the handling of the evidence, accompanied a couple of veteran police detectives in their search for the weapon. After hours and hours of searching, the police found nothing. Dad began to kid them about not being very good detectives, how they obviously didn't watch enough GUNSMOKE, that Marshal Dillon would certainly have found the weapon by now and so forth ... The Detectives, of course, could dish it out too and they challenged Dad to show them just exactly how Marshall Dillon would have done it. So Dad said, "Well first you look for things that seem out of the ordinary. Like ... " and he looked around "... like this pile of leaves right here. And then you give the leaves a mighty KICK!" ... Which he did ... and up flew the rifle ! It turned out to be the murder weapon! Dad was probably more surprised than the detectives! Of course, Dad was luckier than lucky ... but he milked that story for all it was worth and then some for years.
Regards --
-- Doc

Make sure to let the insurance company know so they can ask for their money back

Dago Red---

November 21st, 1988 three scumbags broke into my shop in Colorado and stole all the pistols and rifles from my partner's retail portion of the shop.......and one custom rifle that was to be zeroed and delivered to the customer that very day. It put me out of business for twelve years.

You don't think I'd recognize that rifle if I saw it on a gunshow table?? Oh yeah......

And I still have the buttstock slab that I cut off in the first stage of shaping, too. I can prove it's the same gun.

Jack,

That's really horrible. I was enjoying the stories till then. I am glad that you have recovered. Hopefully some day you will find that custom rifle.

I just gave my future father in law a little Marlin model 60 .22lr, with a Weaver K4 on it. One week later a couple guys broke into his house and stole it. Bastards.

Red

This thread is making large heavy gun safes look like a good investment.

Chuck

JBelk

It is possible to do DNA testing on wood.

It is a process used by the Canadian forest service to catch timber theives. Their is no reason it should not work on Rifle wood either.

Marcus--

Thanks! I didn't know that. I can only hope someday I get a chance, but I doubt it.

18 months ago, some lost soul (my theory anyway) drove up our long driveway 25 miles out in the National Forest. I believe they were probably looking for directions, but we weren't home.

The big Meade telescope in the front window of the greatroom sent them across the threshhold. They became criminals. Jimmied the lock on the great room door and grabbed the telescope. Scattered eyepieces all over in DEEP snow which pretty much renders the instrument useless. They took the Scottish Claymore hanging just inside the door and then the .54 Mountain Rifle hanging in the den.

The deeper they got into the house, the more cursory became the theft. Walked right by my glass front gun case, which was unlocked. Ignored all our computer equipment. Took Minolta and Nikon binoc's but left the Zeiss (go figure). Got my old manual Minolta SLR but left my wife's high-buck Canon.

Worst of all, they stole Olivia's .357 Mountain Gun, which is irreplaceable. It has "Olivia" engraved on the side, a birthday present the year they came out.

This thread means "Maybe there's yet hope."

Gatehouse,
I'm surprised that the R.C.M.P Didn't charge you with improper storage of your firearm. Did they give you any trouble for not having it locked up? How bout the .270 that was taken from your truck?

Originally posted by Ranger Dave:
Well you should have bought a blued gun so that the finger prints would have been rusted in to the metal.


[ 04-05-2003, 23:40: Message edited by: Nebraska ]

Am I missing something, why in the world would someone bother to pick up a stainless steel, plastic stock gun that was in the mud and snow, or a can opener for that matter (both made of the same thing) unless of course one needed a tent stake..Yes we know who we are!!

Well, well, well - finally a Rust Metal and Termite Food FAN (Mr.Ray) dives in.

Hey Gatehouse, I'd like to offer a "test" suggestion and you are obviously the guy to run the test.

What we need is for one(or more) of the Rust Metal and Termite Food guys to "LOAN" you one of their non-stainless / non-tupperware firearms. Then have you go position it in the same spot you found your S&S(Stainless & Synthetic) rifle - for the same amount of time. I'd even encourage you to place it there on the same day of the year your S&S was stolen.

Then after the same amount of time your rifle was holding-it's-own, you can go recover the Loaner and relate to us how well it has held up.

After reading some of the HIGH PRAISES concerning the "durability and reliability" of Rust Metal and Termite Food, I feel sure you will be inundated with offers to prove "their" point.

YEAH RIGHT!!!

Buying a S/S rifle on the chance it might hold up better if left in the woods for a year is the same logic as dating only ugly women on the chance their face might catch fire and someone will put it out with a track shoe.

Jeff

And now gentlemen you can plainly see the mentality of a SS/plasic gun user such as Hot Core who wants me to leave my gun in the snow all winter to prove something, whatever that might be!!!! I bet he would love a gun made of glass it would never rust or be eaten by termites, just turn blue in 100 years, now theres a material for guns Hot Core!!

Oh well I will stayu with my rust and termite infested guns that have served me well for the last 50 years or at least until the sawdust settles in the road.

Yes, we do know who we are!

Still no offers of a Loaner to see just how GREAT these Rust Metal and Termite Food fiascos do outdoors?!?!?!? I'm shocked that Gatehouse has not been inundated with offers.

Must admit it does make a difference if you "use" a firearm and not just keep it well protected in the house. I had to use Rust Metal and Termite Food tooooo many years not to appreciate the warmth, beauty, realibility, etc. of good old S&S.

I thought I read from some of you folks the "Super-Duper Rust Blue Method" is impervious to moisture. Surely that wasn't more of the same foolishness as is told about the TOTALLY SAFE and functionally perfect Remington trigger design - yeap, sure sounds like it.

Hot Core,
And I thought I had been using my guns and not keeping them indoors all these years..You must really hunt a lot more than most to use your guns more than the rest of us...well maybe someday I will catch up with you and get to where I like guns that look like my wife toaster or blender, but until then I will stay with rust blue and termite ridden tree limbs...I have to agree my rust blue is not as rust resistant as SS but I don't mind taking care of my rifle, in fact I enjoy it, and they have served me rather well as is and I would bet I have spent as much time in the Canadian and Alaskan hunting fields as most folks, except you of course and yes we know who we are.....

Ray - Some of us just like guns we can count on for more than 5 or 6 seasons of use. I will say that the conditions I use firearms in are harsher than any hunting I can imagine (I do stream surveys in SE AK for a living). Pre-64 Winchesters are great guns for a hunter, but not for carrying 200 days a year in salt spray and rain. I have some sense of this after wearing out two pre-64s that could have been replaced numerous times with the aggregate gunsmithing bills. I finally capitulated and went to stainless synthetics. Although I hated to see them chop saw the Winchesters into pieces when we finally decided they were beyond reasonable repair, our new Rugers are sure a lot less work to keep functional.

Nobody needs to loan me a test-rifle.

I found out what hapens first hand a couple of weeks ago. I took 4 new shooters out to the range and we shot a bunch of different guns.

When we were packing up, a Browning O/U shotgun was placed in a foam case that had somehow been left open and gotten rained on. It was my fault for not checking, but there were alot of guns getting packed away.

I didn't get a chance to unload the guns until the next day as I went to a friends house for dinner that night.

When I unpacked the Browning, there was rust speckling it all over. This is a fairly new gun with all the blueing intact.

As for the "prettiness" of S/S guns, I actually think they look good, as well as being durable and functional.

I appreciate good wood/metal work, but I've broken and chipped nice wooden stocks from having simple slips and falls- I've also had a horse roll around on my synthetic stock with no ill effects.

In any case, most of the factory wooden stocks that I see in the gun stores today aren't very pretty. I much prefer a straight black stock to a cheap looking wood one. My guess is that the wood on Ray's rifles are probably either fine custom work, or come from an era when factories put nice wood on rifles.

If a wood stock is beautiful enough for me to say "OOHH, AHHH, NICE wood!" then I probably won't feel comfortable going hunting with it.

Gee Hot Core I didn't know things could get so rough in the Carolinas, Your BS is getting deeper than the snow here in Idaho...

Idaho BTW is not Alaska or Canada, but I would be hard pressed to tell the difference if I was dropped off in the Salmon or River of no return on a wintery morning...

I know a number of Eskimos that have managed to get by with wood guns and blue, and prior to SS and plastic a few old sour doughs got by pretty well...

My old 300 H&H has spent many days on a horse, and snow mobile on Grizzly patrol in Jackson, Wy. and on many a hunting trip in Idaho, Wy. and Montana, (no gun bearer or Safari truck) in the last 50 years...Just maybe some read too many gun magazines, then spread the BS a bit thicker...

Wood and blue will work under harsh conditions and so will SS and Plastic, but I must defend wood over plastic as it was challanged by the first post and yes, we do know who we are...We are hunters with years of experience, diehards to the last man standing.