OT: This should buff right out!
01-15-2015, 11:06 AM
#1
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: The "empire" state-NY
Posts: 583
OT: This should buff right out!
source:http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/m...nal-park-tree/
Though not in very good shape, the rifle is certainly salvageable, Andler said, and it will be preserved so it remains in its current state.
While the rifle’s back story remains a mystery, the history of the place offers some clues: Great Basin was primarily a mining site at the time, but could have also been home to grazing cattle and sheep. The gun may have also been the relic of game hunting in the area.
This particular model of Winchester rifle was quite popular at the time, so it wasn’t necessarily a rare and precious item for a person to leave behind. The year this particular rifle was made, 25,000 others were also manufactured. In fact, the prevalence of the gun may have contributed to a massive price drop, from costing $50 in 1873 to $25 in 1882.
“It was one of those things, sort of the everyman’s rifle,” Andler said. The gun is often referred to “as the gun that won the West,” she added.
Park staff are now combing through old newspaper articles and records to try and unearth any information as to how the rifle ended up against that tree.
“It probably has a very good and interesting story,” Andler said, “but it probably is a story that could have happened to almost anyone living this sort of extraordinary existence out here in the Great Basin Desert.”
Though not in very good shape, the rifle is certainly salvageable, Andler said, and it will be preserved so it remains in its current state.
While the rifle’s back story remains a mystery, the history of the place offers some clues: Great Basin was primarily a mining site at the time, but could have also been home to grazing cattle and sheep. The gun may have also been the relic of game hunting in the area.
This particular model of Winchester rifle was quite popular at the time, so it wasn’t necessarily a rare and precious item for a person to leave behind. The year this particular rifle was made, 25,000 others were also manufactured. In fact, the prevalence of the gun may have contributed to a massive price drop, from costing $50 in 1873 to $25 in 1882.
“It was one of those things, sort of the everyman’s rifle,” Andler said. The gun is often referred to “as the gun that won the West,” she added.
Park staff are now combing through old newspaper articles and records to try and unearth any information as to how the rifle ended up against that tree.
“It probably has a very good and interesting story,” Andler said, “but it probably is a story that could have happened to almost anyone living this sort of extraordinary existence out here in the Great Basin Desert.”
01-15-2015, 12:27 PM
#3
Dominant Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 21,193
A very cool find. Think of all the reasons circumstances as to why it got there, how it got there, who left it, why they left it, whether it was loaded or not. It's incidents like this that makes one's mind smile inside with all the scenarios of what might have happened.
One a side note, many years ago, an old friend of mine came to my home to deer hunt modern season. He opens his gun case and there it is, that same model Winchester lever action rifle, and caliber rifle. I saw it and immediately knew its value. I was honored to just hold the thing. He then said it was passed down through his family and its now his. It was a 44-40 caliber as well. I immediately told him that rifle was too valuable to hunt with let alone shoot. He just laughed at me. He hunted the entire deer season with it at my place and took a small doe with it. Before he left he asked if I wanted to shoot it. Well I didn't turn him down. At 35 yards it was amazingly accurate. An old rifle like that shot and functioned so well. I would have hated to guess how old that rifle is.
One a side note, many years ago, an old friend of mine came to my home to deer hunt modern season. He opens his gun case and there it is, that same model Winchester lever action rifle, and caliber rifle. I saw it and immediately knew its value. I was honored to just hold the thing. He then said it was passed down through his family and its now his. It was a 44-40 caliber as well. I immediately told him that rifle was too valuable to hunt with let alone shoot. He just laughed at me. He hunted the entire deer season with it at my place and took a small doe with it. Before he left he asked if I wanted to shoot it. Well I didn't turn him down. At 35 yards it was amazingly accurate. An old rifle like that shot and functioned so well. I would have hated to guess how old that rifle is.
01-21-2015, 03:56 PM
#6
Typical Buck
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Pa.
Posts: 502
Great story and find.But I don,t believe it has been there for a fraction as long as they say.No matter how remote an area is the chances of that rifle bein there w/out bein spotted that long is practically zero.Bein a national park even shrinks the odds even more.
