Any awesome stories of finding guns??

[TheBoss930]

Go!!

 

[Kirk Freeman]

A Ruger 22/45 on my SUV's back bumper in front of the coffee shop. It was mine when I put it there at my house, 30 blocks away. Nearly had a heart attack.

I am much better about yammering on the cell phone now.

 

[curraheeguns]

A Ruger 22/45 on my SUV's back bumper in front of the coffee shop. It was mine when I put it there at my house, 30 blocks away. Nearly had a heart attack.

I am much better about yammering on the cell phone now.

I did the same thing with a wallet at the walmart on Rockville Road.

It was still on my bumper in Effinham, IL when I stopped or gas.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

My brother and I were wading in the White River, near an old iron-truss bridge (that's long gone now). We found a sawed off .410/.22 over-under single shot break-down. The stock was cut down just leaving the pistol grip and the barrels cut to about ten inches. It was rusted almost beyond function and despite my brother and I having notions of seeing if we could make it operational, my dad called the police and turned it in to them. That was in the early 1970's.


More recently, I was working in my garden and I actually dug up an M16 out of the dirt. (It was a GI Joe M16, but still kinda cool).

 

[Beowulf]

Not my story, but a friend of mine was helping another friend of his work on his house on the south side (probably 10 or 15 years ago). They were working on the kitchen and were replacing the door. They had pulled the door frame off and found a .22 revolver with the serial number filed off hidden inside.

My friend called me and asked what they should do and if they could keep it. I let him know that the filed serial number made it illegal and it was likely linked to a crime, so they needed to turn it into the police ASAP.

Interesting story, but with a sad ending. I always hate the idea of any firearm having to be handed in for destruction.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

A Ruger 22/45 on my SUV's back bumper in front of the coffee shop. It was mine when I put it there at my house, 30 blocks away. Nearly had a heart attack.

I am much better about yammering on the cell phone now.

My brother's friend had used my brother's vintage 1930's era Winchester pump .22 and when he was unpacking his SUV, he somehow had left the gun, in the case, leaning against the back and when he closed the back, it left the gun wedged in somehow. He drove somewhere before he noticed the gun and when he got it out of the case, it had worn off the top corner of the butt stock about two inches.

I think I remember a cell phone call distraction was involved in that one too.

 

[Rookie]

I found two home made suppressors when I was remodeling my house.

 

[indiucky]

A guy brought in an 1858 Remington his granddad (frame and cylinder, grips obviously rotted away) found on a bluff above Indian Creek near Corydon...I took it in on trade towards something and then sold it to a local Civil War collector who wanted a relic gun from Indiana for his collection...It had the US Government proof marking....You never know but it COULD have been at the Battle of Corydon. Another young man brought in a flintlock pistol with the lock dated 1847 made in Portugal...A pawn shop offered him $20 and a gun shop in Corydon said they can't give him much for it but to take it to me (I think Corky's exact words were "Take it to Rick down at Falls City...He loves that old ^%^$."....) I rolled the dice and gave him $150....Four hours of clean up later (epoxied worm holes...I was nervous but two broken fingernails and a broken needle later I had picked all of the epoxy off) and she looked pretty good...He found it behind the wall of an old farmhouse that belonged to his granddad that he was tearing down...He figured it was in the attic and as the house began falling apart it had fallen behind the wall...I traded it to a regular for a couple of Finn Mosins and he has since got it up and running and has even fired it...The pistol had a rack number on the trigger guard and I figured it was a "Bannerman gun" that the owner of the house had bought for %$^*& and giggles back about 1910-1920...He probably bought it for $1.50 back then.....

Back in the late 1970's a fishing buddy and I found a Winchester 190 .22 hidden underneath an old, cheap kids wading pool the river had worshed up...You couldn't squirrel hunt in "town" back then, yet we had a massive amount of wooded river bottoms to hunt in...Most folks did it anyway and I figured somebody was squirrel hunting and had the law called on them so they ditched the gun and planned to come back for it...Dad made me turn it over to the police.....

 

[BogWalker]

Dad found a Remington 1889 double barrel leaned against a tree on property we had bought. Most likely a hunter sat it there, walked away, and forgot it.

Had been there a good while. Still had paper shotshells in the chambers (gun was found in the early 2000's).

A shame the barrels are too rusted out to use, but the outside cleaned up very nicely for a wall hanger.

 

[TheBoss930]

Wow!! Some really cool stories!! Thank you all who shared/will share!

 

[24Carat]

I hid a Browning Buckmark real good before the granddaughter came to visit one time. I finally realized I hadn't seen it in a long while, even suspected someone of stealing it. 7 years later we sold the house and while packing and moving it showed up laying on the kitchen counter. I never knew who found it or where it was.

 

[VUPDblue]

I found the remains of a Winchester lever action in the creek near my parents' place when I was a kid. It was nearly unidentifiable and had obviously been in the creek for years.

 

[mom45]

We found a Browning 12 gauge shotgun in a case in the ditch along the highway. My husband spotted the case on his way to town and thought it was probably an empty case that had blown out of someone's truck or something. On his way home from town, he stopped and picked it up. When he got home and we opened it, we were rather surprised to find the gun with extra choke tubes in the case. I called the sheriff's department. They sent a deputy out to pick it up and fill out a report. We were told to check with them later (6 months I think) and if nobody reported it stolen or claimed it, it would be turned back over to us. We called in and the gun was still there unclaimed so we got it back and they filled out papers to record the transaction.

 

[pudly]

I was wondering where that thing went. Where do you live again?

 

[Hkindiana]

I was hiking in deep woods on a military base and saw an M16 leaning against a tree. I looked at it, but did not touch it. It's hard to comprehend a soldier losing his rifle like that.

 

[mom45]

I was wondering where that thing went. Where do you live again?

It no longer lives here.

 

[indiucky]

I never knew who found it or where it was.

 

[Fordtough25]

My fil gave me an old lever action he found in the woods in the 60's on his farm. 32-20 I think, I meet to try that molasses soak stuff and see if I can get some of the rust off of it.

 

[jmemmert]

Friend of mine bought a desk at an estate sale for $5. One of the drawers was stuck. Turned out there was a nickel bobcat 32 taped to the back side of the drawer in a brown paper bag. Pefect condition!

 

[r3126]

1971. Jungle Warfare Training Center, Panama Canal Zone. Night compass course - nothing but swamp (area approx 2 miles x 5.5 miles). 0 dark 30. 6 man patrol sits down to rest in middle of area - tired beyond description. PFC lays M16 down while resting. Gets up, conveniently "forgets" rifle and patrol moves off. Some 6 hours later during debrief he states that he "lost" his rifle somewhere during patrol. This happened in Bravo Company - I had Delta Company. Battalion Commander goes ape s**t!!!! Puts entire Battalion "on line" and we sweep swamp (see above for size of area) from bottom to top. Nothing. We sweep area from side to side. Nothing. This goes on for 2 days. In the middle of sweep number 5 or 6 or..... We lost count. While taking "5" a PFC from Alpha Company drops his helmet in about 3 feet of swamp water - reaches down for helmet and..... You guessed it! He finds lost rifle. Million to one shot? Probably more! PFC who "lost" rifle gets NJP at Battalion level. PFC who finds rifle get Meritorious Mast. Memories are made of this.