Why would you leave your rifle and not come back?

[woodsorrel]

Hi Everyone!

A 132-year-old rifle was found leaning against a juniper tree in Great Basin National Park (NV). What is the rifle's history? Who was the owner? Why was it left against the tree and why wasn't it retrieved?

Stories like this feed the imagination.

Here is a link to the US National Parks Service, January 12, report about the Winchester Model 1873 repeating rifle found in the park. After Jan 12, you may have to search for this report after clicking the link, below.

http://home.nps.gov/morningreport/

Interesting?

- Woodsorrel

 

[rik_uk3]

 

[santaman2000]

According to the article they were able to read the serial number so the rust couldn't have been too bad.; At least not bad enough to obscure said number. I doubt it's been there the entire 132 years. Even in the Nevada desert the rust would have been more than that.

 

[Tom Gold]

Just love the idea that there are places in the park where nobody has been for 130 years! Thanks for sharing, T

 

[Mesquite]

Interesting story for sure, just wish there were a couple pictures of it in situ as well.

As for why leaving it there, this clip immediately sprung

 

[tombear]

Pics here
http://sassnet.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=232426

Several things spring to mind, how olds the tree? I've no idea how slow that grows but I've seen pics of a bike left against a tree in WW2 and in only 60 years the tree had completely grown around it. The wood looks in far too good a condition. Was it loaded? Were the cartridge cases date stamped back then? Had the leaf litter built up around it to any depth? It makes a good story but it could have been placed there at any time, unless there's some evidence they ain't saying in the articles. It reminds me of that La Tene sword they found on time team, on top of modern barbed wire...

ATB

Google Cody dug up gun museum for lots of relic firearms.

Tom

 

[Adze]

A quick bit of Google research on the tree... If, as the article states, it is a juniper then they're relatively fast growing (up to a foot a year in prime conditions) with a typical maximum height of 10 to 15 feet. They're not as long lived as some of the other conifers with an average lifespan of around 150 years. It's possible then that the tree was approaching its full size with little or no growth left to do when the rifle was leaned against it. It is, after all, very unlikely the rifle was brand new when it was abandoned, unless someone in antiquity has pulled of one of the longest standing 'mystery' stunts of all time.. "Haha, this'll mess with their heads!"

 

[Dave]

A 132-year-old rifle was found leaning against a juniper tree in Great Basin National Park

Have they checked the top of the tree? Theres probably a 132 year old skeleton sitting up there, waiting for that bear to disappear.

 

[tombear]

I did a stint with a dry stone waling team up on the Snake Pass once upon a time, I was also smoking and breaking clay pipes so I'd save the bits and deposit them in the new or rebuilt walls. I can quite see somebody finding a old rifle that's not worth restoring and one hopes after making sure it was beyond firing, taking it for a walk and seeing when someone finds it.

Athough the tree may have stopped growing would there have been a ongoing replacement of bark like human skin?Certainly on other species damage like initials carved into the bark fade. Unless they got a proper archeologist to it first and recorded the evidence I have severe doubts about it being any older deposition than the 1960s, assuming it was in good condition when put there. The wood works just another bit of tasty dead after all.

In other places they have found muskets completely inside trees that have come down. I bet that suprised the guy with the chainsaw or at the mill! Do they metal detect wood before they cut it?

yes I'm a cynical old git! Over here they would have a fit as it s a GUN ( no matter how inoperative, the cissies ) and worse still its littering!

atb

tom

 

[Goatboy]

I did a stint with a dry stone waling team up on the Snake Pass once upon a time, I was also smoking and breaking clay pipes so I'd save the bits and deposit them in the new or rebuilt walls. I can quite see somebody finding a old rifle that's not worth restoring and one hopes after making sure it was beyond firing, taking it for a walk and seeing when someone finds it.

Athough the tree may have stopped growing would there have been a ongoing replacement of bark like human skin?Certainly on other species damage like initials carved into the bark fade. Unless they got a proper archeologist to it first and recorded the evidence I have severe doubts about it being any older deposition than the 1960s, assuming it was in good condition when put there. The wood works just another bit of tasty dead after all.

In other places they have found muskets completely inside trees that have come down. I bet that suprised the guy with the chainsaw or at the mill! Do they metal detect wood before they cut it?

yes I'm a cynical old git! Over here they would have a fit as it s a GUN ( no matter how inoperative, the cissies ) and worse still its littering!

atb

tom

Yup in bigger mills they pass the timber through a metal detector before processing. (Expensive job resetting the blades otherwise.) In parts of Germany there are patches of forest that'll never be harvested due to the ingress of metal fragments towards the end of WWII. A mate of mine had a nice memento on his mantelpiece. When we were processing some wood the saw halved a bullet that had hit the tree during WWII; we counted the rings back to age it. The area we had been felling in had been a training range during WWII and the 303 round was neatly bisected lengthways. So he sanded it all up and varnished it and kept it as a nice wee keepsake. Have found all sorts of things in trees, horseshoes being the worst - they really take the edge of a saw. And I used to really dislike working on trees that were on the boundaries of fields as farmers have a habit of nailing wire to them and it grows over.

 

[woodsorrel]

Pics here
http://sassnet.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=232426

Several things spring to mind, how olds the tree? I've no idea how slow that grows but I've seen pics of a bike left against a tree in WW2 and in only 60 years the tree had completely grown around it. The wood looks in far too good a condition. Was it loaded? Were the cartridge cases date stamped back then? Had the leaf litter built up around it to any depth? It makes a good story but it could have been placed there at any time, unless there's some evidence they ain't saying in the articles. It reminds me of that La Tene sword they found on time team, on top of modern barbed wire...

ATB

Google Cody dug up gun museum for lots of relic firearms.

Tom

tombear, thank you for posting the link to the pictures.

I agree with everyone that we have no idea how long the rifle has been at that spot.

- Woodsorrel

 

[Samon]

My inner idiot would disregard all obvious warning signs and try to fire it! lol

Wonder how it would turn out..?



Although it makes for a nice story it does just add to the general feel that americans do not respect guns properly.. (not too soot every one of them mind)

 

[Ogri the trog]

Do they metal detect wood before they cut it?
tom

My recent stint at a mill suggests that they do indeed have metal detectors in some mills. Apparently it stems from some mills that bought cheap Eastern European timber that had shards of WW2 shrapnel lodged in it that would wreck a set of blades. I can't say whether all saw mills employ them but BSW ones do.

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[British Red]

That's an iconic rifle, and a valuable one too, so I can't see it being left there as a joke. I guess we will never know. I wish it were mine, that's certain.

 

[Hammock_man]

Hate to say it but I think the Bike photo is faked. The bike is up in the air and trunks don't grow up just out. The trunk itself is way too round where the metalwork leaves the bark, no distortion in the line of the tree ???

 

[woof]

I once hit a nail with my chainsaw, the nail was a foot inside the tree, the tree(beech) was 4ft 6", across the base & 45ft high. The nail was the old square type.

Rob

 

[tombear]

The bike I'm thinking of was a ground level, somewhere in the uk, can't find the pic but it was like ths

http://m.imgur.com/Q6QXWMC

You'd think someone wouldn't re bury a Iron Age sword but they did! Unless someone comes along and admits it, like the crop circle blokes did, I guess we will neve know. Sniff, I never find stuff like that.

atb

Tom

 

[bambodoggy]

Chain link fences put up in the 70s, with rows of leylandii planted along them in the 80s and metal meta posted fences added in the 90s are the bain of my working life! Lol I use a hand held metal detector like the ones they use at airports at the base of trees and also stumps.
I often find lumps of concrete that we're poured into tree cavities too

Most interesting thing I've found while stump grinding was an old plough head but usually it's just long forgotten dog toys and nurf bullets lol Oh I've found a few old Anderson shelters and other bomb shelters people never knew they had at the end of their gardens when dong clearance work

 

[Tom Gold]

I'm just wondering if the rifle was loaded. Unloaded would be less suspicious...

 

[santaman2000]

That's an iconic rifle, and a valuable one too, so I can't see it being left there as a joke. I guess we will never know. I wish it were mine, that's certain.

I don't see it being left as a joke either. That said, it's not uncommon for non-shooters to inherit guns and have no idea of there value.