Strange finds/experiences in the outdoors?

[Mausermolt]

so i came across a thread similar themed thread on another forum i frequent. it was one of the coolest threads ive ever read! i didnt see anything like that in a quick search of TFL so i thought it would be a nice change. this can be anything from bigfoot sightings, aliens, finding old artifacts, guns whatever! just cool stories!

ill start.

i worked on a ranch near Riley Oregon while i was in high school. most of the employees were high school kids and a couple of mexican guys. we would get sundays off and usually would spend them coyote hunting, shooting sage rats, or jackrabbits.
one night around 1 AM we were out cruising the roads with our 22's in a Kawasaki Mule looking for some flea bitten varmint that needed a lead pill. when suddenly a series of bright lights zoomed across the sky at what seemed like Mach 90, then coming to an abrupt stop. we watched it totally stupefied as it hovered over the desert probably 500 ft in the air for about 3 min, then suddenly it zoomed off at about Mach 90 again in the opposite direction of us.
we all looked at each other wondering if anyone else had just seen what the other had. "did you guys just see that?!" "yeah! lets get the heck out of here before it comes back and wants to probe us!"
so we hauled butt back to the bunkhouse and proceeded to polish of a case of beer we had stashed for weekend recreational use.

and for a interesting thing i found in the woods: i found this old wagon while out rounding up cattle with my mother on some BLM land North of Burns

http://thefiringline.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=89517&stc=1&d=1368909566

Moderators: If this thread needs to be moved to the General Discussion forum pleas feel free.

[Erno86]

I'm excited to hear about your eyewitness account of the lighted orb's. No doubt...they {UFO's} were intelligently controlled, and most likely --- not of this earth.

I'm a UFO hunter myself...with my own UFO sighting under my belt. My major goal is: communication/contact with the otherworder's, sans the anal probing.:D

What color were the orbs? Did you report the sighting? If not...NUFORC {National UFO Reporting Center} is a good start.

Have to go now...cuz I want to catch the Preakness on TV.

Cheers,

Erno86

[NoSecondBest]

Crop your picture size and all your text will fit without using the scroll bar.

[jmr40]

Several times in the last 15-20 years there have been some pretty severe tornados hit towns 60-70 miles to the west of us in Alabama. After these storms when turkey hunting in the spring I have often found lots of debris in the woods. Including someones W-2 forms. I mailed them back to the guy and told him where I found them. I was hoping to hear back from the guy, but did not.

Early one morning when I was about 13 I walked up on 2-3 guys in the process of stripping a stolen car. I was quietly walking down an old logging road squirrel hunting. They had driven the car in from the other direction just far enough to not be seen from the main road. They never saw me, and I didn't see any of them well enough to identify them. But I probably set an Olympic record for the 2 mile run while carrying a 20 guage shotgun. Got home and called the police. They were in the process of setting the car on fire when I spotted them. They were long gone by the time police arrived.

When I was 17 I found a Moonshine Still that had very recently been destroyed by LE. This place had probably been in operation a month before I found it.

Large portions of the North GA mountains were logged back in the late 1800's-early 1900's. They would lay RR tracks along the creek drainages, log the hillsides and drag the logs downhill to the tracks. When they finshed one drainage they would pull up the tracks and move to the next drainage. I quite often find bits or RR equipment, sections of track, etc in these places.

[Mausermolt]

the Moonshine still would have been a cool one. would have been even better if it was running and the moonshiners were friendly enough to trade silence for product :D

[Mausermolt]

COME ON! someone has to have some more fun stories?!

[Gunplummer]

What about tires? Even when I was a kid I wondered how in the world tires could get into the most inaccessible places in the mountains. I found a fireplace and chimney standing in the woods when hunting. There is a small spring there, but not enough soil for a kitchen garden. Who knows why someone built a cabin there once.

[Double Naught Spy]

COME ON! someone has to have some more fun stories?!

You posted on finding an old wagon and that virtually killed the thread. How can you get cooler or more fun than that? :p

Let's see, I almost pulled a Jessica McClure in an open field if not for the sharp eyes and quick hands of a buddy. Otherwise, I would have been discovering local geology about 30 feet down.

I have a Rusted Victor trap from Alaska that I found on Prince of Wales Island that still has toe bones in it. :(

[Art Eatman]

I meddle around the Solitario formation in south Brewster County, Texas. I occasionally find an Indian site, or a crystal cave--and often the remains of old ranching operations. I once was horse-backing in there and found a frame for hanging sacks for wool from sheep-shearing.

There is a creek running through my forty acres coming out of the "Lefthand Shutup". It has long been an access way into the Solitario from the east, and is mentioned by Louis L'Amour in one of his short stories in the collection "Monument Rock".

The Solitario, from 4,000 feet above:

http://thefiringline.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=3606&d=1021565164

From a couple of miles northwest of my huntcamp. The Chisos Mountains of Big Bend National Park, some forty miles southeast:

http://thefiringline.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=3554&d=1021342883

There is SOME water in the desert:

http://thefiringline.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=9471&d=1042176038

Back behind where I'm standing taking the photo are some Indian pictographs, and underneath a ledge is the fossil skeleton of a fish...

[jmr40]

Art, I enjoyed the 1st 2 photos, but when I tried to open the 3rd I get a message saying I don't have permission to access that page.

[Mausermolt]

same here Jmr, the 3rd one is locked.

so ill try and keep this alive....but im out of pictures

once working for the USFS i found an bull Elk carcass tangled up in a barbed wire fence. looked like his heard had been chased off the hill through a valley the fence ran through and he didnt quite make the jump. poor guy broke his neck :( got a cool 5X6 european mounted by nature :cool:

[doofus47]

While scouting with a friend we came upon the remains (mostly just rows of stones) of an old cabin. I passed by, my buddy scrounged a bit and came up with a mostly rusted gold pan.

[FrankenMauser]

Car engines at 9,500 feet, in the middle of 80+ year-old stands of trees, where hiking in was difficult.
Narrow gauge railroad grades where there is no record of any railroad (including logging, mining, and portage operations).
Spurs and saddle horns in the desert.
Indian ruins. (they're all around you, if you know what to look for)
Abandoned 19th century saw mills.
Two Model T Fords locked together in a mangled mess, half way down a granite mountain side.
A horse bridle tied to a tree, with a partial skeleton below it. :eek:

...some of the more interesting things I've come across.

[Mausermolt]

poor pony! ...makes you wonder what happened to the rider....

ok ive got a couple more. but these i knew they were there by researching approximate locations on the web. so a few buddies and i went on a treasure hunt :cool:

1: A wreck of a A-6 Intruder near Christmas Valley, Oregon

http://thefiringline.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=89568&stc=1&d=1369070772

2: P-38 Lightning Wreck 1 mile hike from the A-6.
interestingly enough the A-6 crashed ON THE SAME DAY 30 years latter as the A-6. unfortunately the P-38 was only scraps, but there is a huge hole in the ground where you could see it impacted. we dug around in the hole a bit and found a bunch of mangled 50BMG and 20mm shells. This pic is of the side plate from a Browning M2

http://thefiringline.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=89573&stc=1&d=1369088774

3: B-24 Liberator wreck near Denio NV

http://thefiringline.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=89568&stc=1&d=1369088648

really neat things to go and check out if your into military aviation. All 3 sites we brought along a few cold beers to pay our respects and leave for the poor souls that lost their lives.


EDIT: my apologies for the mega huge pictures, i dont know how to crop them smaller :/

[Kreyzhorse]

Awesome pictures Art.

[Paul B.]

I was at the ripe old age of 15 and I was with my just ex'd girl friend, my buddy at the time who had his girl friend with him. We were in Golden Gate park in San Francisco and I'd just dumped my girl friend. My buddy and I were walking maybe 20 or so feet ahead of the girls as my ex was being consoled by my buddy'd girl friend. I was just a bit ahead of my buddy, looking back at him and that the comment, You know how peole are always finding bodies it the park? Probably never happen to us. Then I tripped and fell flat on my face. You guessed it a dead guy. :eek: Piece of clothesline tied to a branch on a tree and the same rope around his neck which I guess broke from his weight. We sent the girls to call the cops who came fairly quickly. Got our named in the paper and a lot envious notoriety at school. I still have the newspaper clipping from back then. Back when I was a kid, that park was my playground. I still remember that incident even though it was 60 years ago.
These days, I look where I'm walking. :D
Paul B.

[anothernewb]

I found a partial skeleton of a Triceratops once. friend of mine and I salvaged what we could. Each of us has a couple bones on our shelves.

Probably the strangest thing I ever found was a toilet out on a ridge in the badlands. probably 150' up a rock ledge. complete with seat and fill hose. looked like it was just pulled out of the box. probably 2-3 miles from any road or trail I came across. Had a commanding view though. I guess if you gotta go, might was well have some awesome scenery. Careful with balance tho, whole ledge was probably 2' wide at most.

[Erno86]

I was visiting one of my perported space alien haunts at Calvert Cliffs, Maryland, on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay...when on my hike up the fireroad --- I heard a woosh-woosh sound above my head --- I looked up, and there was a bald eagle taking off from a pine tree; about 30 feet above my head.

About 15 years ago...I was bowhunting for deer in Seneca Park, Montgomery County {at the height of a rabies epidemic}: While walking back to my car on a underground telephone line trail after sundown...I saw a low-flying bat flying up an down the trail. I was concerned to say the least. All of a sudden {in the low light} I saw this bat coming straight for me --- at eye level --- I quickly raised up my four wheel compound Jennings Arrowstar bow in front of my face, and fought off the screaming bat with my bow. After making bow contact with the bat...I ran off the trail and into the woods --- while screaming at the top of my lungs. Later...a bowhunter come over and said that my screaming/running had spooked a big buck, that he saw running off into an adjacent cornfield.

[Art Eatman]

A buddy and I were meddling around on the west side of the Black Rock Desert, NW of Winnemucca. We drove by the remains of some sort of little community. Six or eight little rock houses. A little chuckle-gurgle creek behind them, and fruit trees of some sort. The houses were maybe 12' x 15', give or take a little. One room, each, by the looks.

[shouldazagged]

While squirrel hunting very early one morning I saw a pileated woodpecker--we called them "woods hens" because of their size--that had just finished hanging himself. He had swooped down between two trees, caught his head in a fork of a thin sapling, and broken his neck. He was still warm.

[FrankenMauser]

Mausermolt, that reminds me of a crashed F-86 I hunted around in Florida.

The military declared it unrecoverable, when it went down (http://goo.gl/maps/ER6uP). (The "road" nearby is impassable, even for many modified off road vehicles; and everything turns to swamp on the other side.) Since then, it has been used as a visual training aid for pilots, and a nice landmark for hunters.

The deer rubbed that thing like crazy.

[1tfl]

About 25 years ago I found an abandoned Chevy Vega in the woods. It looked like it had been out there for many years based on the condition of the metals and trees that were growing around the car. It was hard to tell if it had been torched or not. I have no idea how it got there because the nearest road was over a mile away and the surface around there was too soft to drive a car in.

About 15 years ago couple buddies and I were checking out a lake in the woods for duck hunting. It was a small lake but deep (20+ feet) with clear water. We went to one part of the lake with a lot of weeds and we could see into the water and see couple cars on the bottom. We called the local sheriff dept. in case there were bodies in them and they checked it out and decided to fish out all the cars. We learned later on the news that they found 23 cars in and around that part of the lake and that most were insurance jobs. Evidently it was a popular spot to make your car disappear for insurance money. I heard several people were arrested for insurance fraud.

[eldermike]

Back in the late 60's I was stationed on an isolated site in Alaska, well above the tree line. When spring began and the snow melted a bit I found a rounded metal object flat on top of the snow. As the days went by it turned into a VW beetle. There was about 3 miles of dirt road so we got it running and played with it until winter. When I left in late winter it was no where to be found. I wonder if it ever ran again.

[Keg]

I have some property leased....After having it for several years..I noticed something thru the trees....It was winter..and the leaves had fallen....There was a small house/cabin in the woods....It was still in decent shape....As the years went by..saplings grew up around it..then they turned into full grown trees....It had tin on the roof....It was tough to get to....

[dakota.potts]

I live in a residential neighborhood surrounded on all sides by woods. 15 minutes to the nearest grocery store and an hour to the nearest hospital, but there's a huge neighborhood in the middle of nowhere :confused: Anyways, walking around that with my friends, we found an old tanker just stashed there less than 30 feet off the road in one of the neighborhoods. Front doors were unlocked. Still had a radio in it. We didn't have a mind to take anything but it looked like there was stuff worth taking to somebody else. We even climbed on top and got a look at the filling port up top. It said it was a saltwater transport. Not sure what that means.

There was also a CAT tractor and a front arm attachment. One of the scoop things.

I also once found what appeared to be the jaw of a cougar not far from the remains of a small building on a friend's 40 acre horse ranch.

[n5lyc]

I was about 15 or so, squirrell hunting, walked up on a 410/22 over under leaning against a tree, way out in the woods.

I called out, no one came, I waited in the general area until close to dark,
Retrieved the weapon, ran an ad in the local paper, "found, shotgun in woods in infield area, call to identify." Got no response..

Gave it to my nephew years later..


Another time, a group of us were playing paintball, ran across a BNSF service truck in the boonies, stripped and burned, called the police, they wrote it up, next week, it was gone..

[BumbleBug]

Well, I'm sure this is not too exciting, but a lot of Texas hunters, including myself, arrowhead hunt when we are scouting or resting between hunts. I'm pretty bad at it, but manage to find a few. The best time to look is right after a rain. You might think you can "pick" a spot clean, but there always seems to be more!

http://i39.tinypic.com/z3ex1.jpg

...bug :)

[Keg]

Cool Bug!

I was out scouting our riverbottom lease once and came upon some large rock formations in the yaupon thickets....There was a couple small caves....
I talked to the landowner next to us..and he said there were caves on his side too..with native american writing in them....I hope to get to see em....

[new_camper]

If you get to be friends with a farmer who still does conventional tillage instead of no till, you can find lots of arrowheads that way.

[bamaranger]

As a kid, I used to hunt quite a bit along a mainline RR. One morning while rabbit hunting I found a big Caterpillar 'dozer had come off a flat car and taken out one on the mains and a junction to a plant. I ran all the way home, shotgun and two beagles, to call that in. They already knew.

The RR was pretty good hunting,...... and I found other stuff that had come from trains. Once an entire crate of stainless steel pitchers, that we gave away as gifts that Christmas. Another time a small crate of small RR type flares (6" or so)and some "torpedoes", crush sensitive explosives with lead bands that could be attached to the rails and detonated by a passing trains wheels that served as a warning for trouble ahead.

I like finding shed antlers and have a 5 gallon bucket full of them. One is a dandy and came off a B&C class buck in the Ouachita's in AR. I never saw that buck in two seasons.

Old moonshine sites are a dime a dozen in my area, and any wooded draw with water in it is a good candidate for where an old still used to be. All show signs of having been blasted or axed by LE. Typically there will be old cans and bottles about, some tin for the boiler, the really old sites will only show piles of rocks where the fires were built. Very common.

If hunting is slow, I can't resist scuffing about in a bluff shelter and have found some isolated ones that likely held many artifacts if excavated. These are all on state land and digging same is prohibited. Some boot scuffing turned up two dandy tiny bird points at one site in particular. That land was private and has sold, and I cannot get back in there. I don't know if the rich out of town doctor knows of the site or not, I'm not going to tell him. I've found points at stream crossings/glades, but I am not a dedicated arrowhead guy.

I've found a bunch of modern stuff, lost by other hunters. Two walkie talkies, two sets Stony Point shooting sticks, one cheap folding knife (stuck in the ground at a deer kill), a bunch of grunt calls, a few turkey mouth calls. This spring I found a dandy AA Pelican flashlight at a parking area, buried up in mud. Still worked with the same batteries.

Found a guys bow once. He'd killed a deer the evening before, put the bow on the roof of his truck, loaded the deer and drove off. I knew the guy, recognized the bow. He hadn't missed it yet.

[Mausermolt]

Be careful posting those arrowheads. i worked for the USFS archaeological crew and if you get caught with authentic artifacts its a 250K$ fine. im pretty sure thats a federal law also. but only applies if the artifacts were found on Gov't land. if its on private land, its technically the property owners property. That being said ive found some really awesome sites, one is a sandy hill that is totally covered in spear points, bird points, mortar and pestle, grinding stones, you name it. every time the wind blows something new gets uncovered :) but i leave all the artifacts because its on Gov't land

[chewie146]

2 weeks ago, I was hiking on forest land up what is called Water Canyon, and just as I reached the trail head, I head a loud crashing coming through the trees. I though a branch had let go and I backed off. It was a squirrel, stripped completely from the shoulders up. I looked up, not sure what to expect, and hoping it was something unusual, but it was just a red-tailed hawk that I had rudely scared out of his lunch. He hopped to the next tree and eyeballed me for a while.

[BumbleBug]

I hunt private ranches pretty much 100% of the time in Texas. I usually show my really good arrowheads to the land owners & nobody considers it a big deal. A buddy of mine found a pristine 4" arrowhead & he thought it was probably very valuable. He took it to the Archaeological Dept at a local university. They gave him a frown & told him to take it back & put down exactly where he found it. I'm sure he did just that!

...bug ;)

[Art Eatman]

Given the activities of museum and archaeological people in the late 1800s and early 1900s, I don't doubt the claim that there are more Indian artifacts in boxes in the basements of NYC museums, other museums in the area and in university archaeological departments than in the entire rest of the U.S.

As near as I can tell from reading, there is little archaeological value to surface finds of dart points, spear points and arrowheads.

[silvrjeepr]

I used to hunt some woods that butt up to an old private runway in Meridian, MS. Long story short it was a slow day in the stand and some plane was making all kinds of racket flying by low and loud. I grabbed my stuff and headed out. As I stuck my head out of the brush by the runway clearing, I saw a P51 mustang heading directly towards me at about treetop level heavy on the throttle. He pulled vertical before reaching me, and I got goose bumps watching that plane disappear straight up into the clouds. Later I found out the runway owner was a WWII plane fanatic and was able to check out his hangar and F4U corsair.

[cnimrod]

most interesting experience in upstate NY was being on stand and being propositioned by a young lady practicing the world's oldest profession:eek:

[budd]

When I was stationed at Camp Le Jeune at the Naval Hospital there I was paddling along the New River with a friend. We heard a couple of screams so we landed the boat and went to help. We found a young teenage couple half naked on a blanket screaming and trying to get dressed (at least the girl was) It seems that the couple placed thier balnket too near the river and after the boy had his pants off he got bitten by Mr Copperhead very high on his theigh. He was scared and in pain, the girl was scared of the snake and screaming and trying to dress and the snake was pretty good size, angry, and coiled ready for another bite if those two would not go. We got the kids to our boat and our car and took them to the hospital where we were stationed. This was 1971 so no cell-phones or things like that available so we race to the hospital as fast as we could drawing the attention of several MPs for speeding.
At the time it was serious, but afterwards me and McBride
laughed about it and had a few beers at the E-Club and reveled in the retelling of the Adventure.

J.Budd

[BuckRub]

One time visiting kin in Nacadoches, Texas I found a stihl that was still being used making moonshine whiskey. Forgot to tell ya it wast uncles. Lol. He make whiskey up until he passed.

[60hp3850fps]

It was probably around 1980 and I was duck hunting in the marsh areas and creeks that flowed into the Raritan Bay in NJ. I was motoring up one of the creeks and I saw something that looked like a waving white flag...as I got closer I realized it was a sea gull .. apparently the gull was standing on the piling that had a large split in it. the gull fell into the crack and his leg was wedged tight and he broke its leg. I brought him home (not and easy task) and my wife and I put a splint on it, after a few weeks of R&R I released him.
He flew strong and hard ....never saw him again. : "Johnathan the Seagull"

[dogrunner]

Caribou hunting off the Denali Hwy not too far west of the Susitna Rvr in the mid '60's. Buddy & I spotted several good racks & decided to try to head 'em off. We took off at about 45 degree angles figuring if they turned one way or another we'd get a shot. I cleared the ditch on one side of the roadway and felt something smash underfoot.....paid it no mind & continued that attempt....Buddy scored, plus found a good bleached grizzly skull....on the way back to our rig I found what I'd jumped on and smashed.........a 3/4 full case of old deteriorating dynamite that had apparently been lost by the construction crew when that road was cut........needless to say I left it where it lay!

[TMW89]

I guess I don't have anything to top ufo's, just some unique animal experiences while on stand. A couple baby foxes playing around underneath my stand. Or a momma doe and her baby grazing in front of me, then seeing them snap their heads over to my left, when I looked I saw a beautiful coyote come busting out of the bean field toward them. The deer had too much of a head start to be caught.
Also three young bucks fighting each other only 15 yds away from me. Nothing crazy, but just plain cool experiences I thought.

[new_camper]

I saw a squirrel and a crow get in a fight once. The crow had just taken off from the ground as the squirrel was running towards it, the squirrel jumped and caught the crow by the legs. He then proceeded to yank the crow back down to the ground and then beat the crap out of him. I almost died laughing.

[arch308]

I saw a herd of gobblers run off a small bobcat once. They spotted him on the trail and just headed his way. He trotted off a ways, stopped and peed. Then walked away. I had to laugh.
I watched another young bobcat stalk across a field and jump at something in the tall grass at the edge of the field only to discover there was nothing there. He looked around like "whaaaat" then walked away into the grass. Another good giggle.

[AL45]

My cousin and I flushed a pheasant near an old abandoned house and watched in amusement as it flew into the side of the house. Before we could get to it, it stood up, shook his head, and ran around to the back of the house. It was as if we were in an Elmer Fudd cartoon. We did get that wascal though.

[Geezerbiker]

I've found a few old homesteads in places that they didn't seem to belong. One on Mt Scott just outside of Portland, OR had an old apple orchard where on of the limbs of the tree had been pulled down into the ground to produce a new tree. The limb that connected the old and new trees was about 10" in diameter. It looked like the homestead had been abandoned abruptly. There was some rotten wood on the ground that looked like it could have been the remains of a cabin. This place is gone now. That whole forest was bulldozed for houses...

I ran across another old homestead in the Gales Creek area of Oregon and the only thing still standing was the outhouse. It looked pretty rickety so I didn't get to close.

I thought I saw a UFO once out in the area near Yakima, WA but I was told that it was a satellite and you could see them on any clear night about that time...

Tony

[Brian Pfleuger]

If any of you guys are wandering around Gunnison National Forest near Aspen Leaf Reservoir, I have a friend who lost a Matthew's bow in some Oak Brush last elk season.:D

[Pathfinder45]

....... I stumbled across the remains of the Steamboat mine in southern Oregon. There were numerous mine shafts, a cabin an old garage and a nearly complete stamp mill.

[tahunua001]

not really firearms related but last fall in one of my regular hunting spots I ran accross a horse drawn hose reel for firefighting. what it's doing dumped down in a draw I don't know and I must have walked by it 30 times as a teenager and never noticed it until now... odd to say the least.

[22-rimfire]

Interesting things I have found hunting or out tramping around:
Old Mine openings
Carbide lamps
old rail beds with the trolly tracks intact with spikes and so forth
foundations for old homesteads or old buildings from many years ago
graves
Indian arrowheads, grinding stones, and misc. pieces of pottery
bobcat kitten
ginsing (never been a ginsing hunter/gatherer)
stolen rifle
ammunition
knives
old car bodies (pre-1950)
saw mill stuff
well kept springs out in the middle of no where
remains of stills

[Mausermolt]

ill add one more just to keep this one going.
found a Colt 1911 7 rnd Stainless magazine full of ammo while tromping around in the forest. i just happened ot be carrying my 1911 so i slapped her in, racked the slide (the ammo wasnt corroded by any means so i felt ok shooting it) BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG. still have the mag :)

[FrankenMauser]

ill add one more just to keep this one going.
found a Colt 1911 7 rnd Stainless magazine full of ammo while tromping around in the forest. i just happened ot be carrying my 1911 so i slapped her in, racked the slide (the ammo wasnt corroded by any means so i felt ok shooting it) BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG. still have the mag

That reminds me of a ridiculous chain of events that came together on a local hunting forum last November/December (they're now shut down :().

Member A finds a Springfield 1911 loaded with 2 rounds of some kind of Cor-Bon JHPs, far from a trail, while hunting Elk. Since he happened to be carrying it after he dropped a Bull, he used the 1911 for the coup de grâce. He then posts on several local forums, about the find, and claims to have notified the police that he had it.

Several days later, Member B starts a thread asking people to let him know if they come across a Springfield 1911, because he lost it while hunting. He gives a general location (matching Member A's description), the date, notes that it had "self defense ammo" in it, and only asks for email or private message contact if anyone has information about the pistol. He pleads with anyone heading to the area to take a look around, because the pistol was borrowed.

As several forum members are rabidly trying to get the two posters together, a wrinkle appears:

Member C starts a thread, asking people to let him or the Sheriff's department know, if they had any information that could help in the recovery of a firearm that was stolen.... He had a Springfield 1911 stolen from his truck (window broken, truck ransacked) at an unimproved campground several miles from the location given by Members A and B, followed by several reports of camp sites being shot at by a drunken fool that night. He provided quite a few details, full contact information, and even stated that it was loaded with CorBon 200 gr JHPs.

Due to the particulars of the posts and any updates provided by the members, nearly everyone assumed Member C was the victim, Member B was the thief, and Member A was just happened to find it and was about to be a hero. The threads were getting out of hand, so...

All three threads were locked for several weeks, until one of the board administrators merged everything and posted an update, just because the situation was so interesting to the member base.
The forum owner had stepped in and forwarded all the information they had about the three members to the Sheriff's department ... which turned out to be useful.


...Member A lied about the serial number of the 1911 he "found" and, apparently, just wanted to 'brag' that he had found a pistol. He also had NOT notified police of the "find". He was tied to one of the camp site aggravated assault incidents, and was seen in the area where the truck break-in occurred, in the time frame when it took place. On top of a probation violation, he was screwed...

Member C did not get his pistol back, but he at least knew where it was (an evidence locker :().

As it turned out, Member B's pistol was completely unrelated and the Sheriff's department had it in their possession. Another hunter had found it, and had driven all the way into town to turn it in immediately (30 miles of highway after 25+ miles of dirt road, one way). The deputy working the case just hadn't gotten around to calling Member B about the 1911, yet. :rolleyes:


It was a rather interesting month on that forum. ;)

[Mausermolt]

now thats a darn good story! thanks for sharing!

[Husqvarna]

I once caught a burlap sack of dead kittens while fishing:(

[WV_gunner]

We once found an old family cemetery in TNT while hunting. It has several graves, if I remember right the newest one was over 100 years old.

[creightonenterprises]

I've lived in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest working for the Coast Guard and Forestry Service before I retired. I found dozens of abandoned cabins, mines, lodges, etc.

I think the neatest place was an old mercury mine that some Chinese developers had operated before the war sometime in the 1920s. I went hunting near there, and we were still able to use their buildings to bunk down.

[TommyP]

A few years ago in a bowhunting stand I found a rusty old folding knife stabbed into an oak tree about 15 feet in the air. No telling how many years it had been there and continued to rise higher in the air as the tree grew...

[Mausermolt]

Trees grow up from the top. they dont grow up out of the ground. thats why once the top of a tree is dead it wont get any taller just wider, so most likely someone climbed up and stuck it in the tree....even more interesting

[TommyP]

Huh, I did not know that.....now I have no clue how that knife could have gotten up there :confused:

[BoogieMan]

Trees grow up from the top. they dont grow up out of the ground. thats why once the top of a tree is dead it wont get any taller just wider, so most likely someone climbed up and stuck it in the tree....even more interesting
I thought the same but not entirely true. If you trim or the top dies a tree will bush out. But they grow up the entire length of the trunk in all directions (diameter and height). We have trees that we stepped out for permanent deer stands. After a several years the steps get to far apart to climb and the tree has to be re-stepped.

[Hawg]

I used to do a lot of metal detecting for Civil War relics. I got a lead on an unknown skirmish site way out in the woods. I didn't find any war relics but I did dig up an 1892 Winchester in 32-20. I saw no signs of a house ever being anywhere near the vicinity. The stock and forearm were completely gone. I searched a long time for the butt plate but didn't find it. I guess some hunter kicked it up and took it with him. Serial number dates it to 1907. It was frozen solid but a few months of soaking in kerosene freed it up but its too far gone to do anything with. It was completely empty. Didn't find any fired cases either.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y269/rebel727/oldest/100_0296.jpg (http://s7.photobucket.com/user/rebel727/media/oldest/100_0296.jpg.html)

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y269/rebel727/oldest/100_0299.jpg (http://s7.photobucket.com/user/rebel727/media/oldest/100_0299.jpg.html)

[deadcoyote]

My friend and I were set up in a kind of hide once getting ready to shoot a deer outside of Blue Lake CA. We were discussing if I should take the shot or not, as it was his turn but the deer was around 165 yards out and he a pretty poor shot, I was trying to sell him on letting me shoot the deer since he would likely miss it.

While we were watching the deer and whispering to each other a mountain lion came out of a dry creek bed and tackled the deer! It was an amazing thing to watch. Also made our argument about who was gonna get the deer kind of pointless.

[Willie Lowman]

The best I have found while hunting was a tree stand that someone had put up on my Grandma's property without permission. I used it for a few days then my uncle and I moved it. We never took it down because we didn't have a dime in it. It's been a little over ten years, the tree has grown around the stand a bit.



-----------------

Not hunting related but I found a single shot 12 gauge that had been sawed off and a white canvas bank bag when I was in the 6th grade. The grips were broken off of the gun. The barrel and receiver were broken apart, it had deep groves in it like it had been beaten with an ax. The bank bag was from somewhere in Kentucky. I took it to my mom and she took it to the Sheriff's dept.

[anothernewb]

The knife could have been stuck in the tree in the winter. couple of feet of snowbank would easily account for the height.

[Mausermolt]

Awesome stories guys/gals! keep em comin! i think the winner so far is the Winchester 32-20 for the coolest item.

[Claims Rep.]

I've hunted some national forest land for years. Once about 12 years ago I walked up on a very old stone fireplace out in the middle of the woods - about 150 yards from a huge bluff. There was a stone foundation in front of the fireplace, making the cabin about 12' x 14' roughly. There was also another stone foundation off to the right, but no fireplace for it. I thought it would be really cool to come back there one day and do some metal detecting - provided I got permission.

Three years ago my son bought a metal detector, and I got the bright idea to go out there. I called up the ranger in charge of that area, and believe it or not he gave us permission to go out there. I told him I'd swing by and show him what we found, but he said he didn't want to know. LOL He did tell me that the area was an old settlement back in the 1880's called Bluff City. He thought the cabin area in question was an old camp for loggers - turns out he knew exactly where I was talking about, because he had walked past the chimney many times himself. Turns out he was right - see the last pic - we found two crosscut saw blades that were covered in rust - they were about three inches below the surface. We also found a ton of nails (as you would expect), and various pieces of metal - not sure what most of it was for.

Remember --- we had permission to be there and dig.........

I imagine that fireplace won't last another ten years or so. If that place could talk I imagine it would tell some woeful stories of people who worked super hard to just try and scrape by.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c62/DCPhillips/IMG_1121.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/DCPhillips/media/IMG_1121.jpg.html)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c62/DCPhillips/IMG_1118.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/DCPhillips/media/IMG_1118.jpg.html)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c62/DCPhillips/Andrew_sawblades_smiley_zps5d579412.jpg (http://s25.photobucket.com/user/DCPhillips/media/Andrew_sawblades_smiley_zps5d579412.jpg.html)

[sc928porsche]

I hunted the Sierra's for a lot of my life and have come across old narrow gauge railways, mines and mine shafts. The most curious was a steel pipe that had been wedged between two trees and over a long period of time the trees grew around the pipe. It was also about 12 feet off the ground. I imagine it went up in height as the trees grew. The area around the trees looked like it had been a campsite at one time. Maybe an old sheepherders camp. Great location for a camp. Little brook very close by and sheltered, but access was difficult.

[BigD_in_FL]

Friend and I were deer hunting in one of the more remote canyons in northern NV and came across an abandoned car from the 30's. No side windows, body had a rust patina, but it still had the wooden floorboards inside the car - dried and weathered, but still there after at least 50 years, If we weren't so far from any form of a road, we would have towed that out of there. Have come across many unusual artifacts out in that high country desert - the dry climate seems to preserve just about anything........

[splatman]

Hunting up near Buffalo Pass Colorado one year when I
came to a clearing not too far from the road. There was a keg
leaning up against a tree and looked to be a makeshift
ping pong table from an old piece of plywood. Nearby was a
fire pit and some rails built from logs like you
tie horses to. Except there was no hoof prints or
dung around. Liquor bottles all over the place.
And then I discovered a 12 inch glass dildo
standing straight up on a sitting stump. Anyways
I took some iodine from my first aid kit and
disinfected the object and rinsed it off with
water. I then brought it back to camp with me
and thought about slipping it into my hunting
partner's sleeping back but I decided not to in
the end. This incident really let the steam out of
hunting trip. My guess is that some people from
Steamboat Springs decided to have a sex orgy and
they had to leave in a hurry, why else would you
a keg behind. Still have the keg to this day.

[shortwave]

Kinda neat that Claims Rep found a guy with a funny face holding saw blades in the middle of the woods.

[kilimanjaro]

Biggest bull elk I've ever seen, tripped over a hose lay on a fireline and broke it's neck. The rack was displayed in our warehouse for years.

[RodTheWrench]

In the mountains of NE Oregon, a tripline tied to a simple contraption that would have struck the primer on a 12 gauge shell filled with 00 buck. About chest-high on a tree not 6 feet away. Sure glad I spotted it! It was easy to disable, so I did and reported it to the FS. A few days later the paper said a big marijuana grow was busted up by the green-truck brigade, hooray!

I've often wondered if the shotgun shell would have been effective or not. It wasn't in a barrel, just mounted flat on a small board with one of those metal conduit hold-downs. I'm sure some of it would have hit me, but I think a lot of the energy and shot would have gone out the sides of the hull in the explosion. Again, sure glad I saw it!

[Mausermolt]

well im happy this thread came back to life :) keep it going!

[shafter]

The knife could have been stuck in the tree in the winter. couple of feet of snowbank would easily account for the height.

Maybe someone had a treestand at one point and left it there.

[ebell46]

Nothing too crazy but i'm always amazed when i find a lone shoe while hiking or hunting. It never fails, there is always just one shoe.

[new_camper]

The bear must of eaten the other one :eek:.

[Deja vu]

I have enjoyed this thread. The best thing I have ever found was an arrow stuck about 10 feet up in a tree with the remains of a tree squirrel pinned to the tree. :p

[mcb66]

I found a set of crutches out in the middle of nowhere one time. I have always wondered how they ended up there.

[8MM Mauser]

A buddy and I once found the remains of a 67 Corvette probably a good mile from the closest road. No idea how it got there. In the same section of woods, probably a quarter mile away we found the remains of a house, mostly just the crawlspace, but part of a brick fireplace was intact too.

[PawPaw]

Sometime about 1968, a bunch of us where hunting on the west side of the Catahoula swamp in Central Louisiana. Very rugged, flat area, it is a floodplain of the Little River/Old river area, dominated by a huge, flat lake. We were out in the middle of that swamp, about a mile from the nearest road, and we found a school bus. Not a school bus body, painted green and modified for camping, but a by-God, totally legit school bus with all the seats, yellow as the day it came out of the Blue Bird (http://www.blue-bird.com/) factory.

We marveled at it for a little while, and wondered how it got there. We used it as a landmark for several years, until a big flood came along and took it.

[bird_dog]

While squirrel hunting very early one morning I saw a pileated woodpecker--we called them "woods hens" because of their size--that had just finished hanging himself. He had swooped down between two trees, caught his head in a fork of a thin sapling, and broken his neck. He was still warm.

That reminded me of this: (good thread)

One day when still-hunting for deer near a friend's pond, I scared up a flock of geese. I can only assume that I was blocking their normal takeoff path, and they had to climb sharply to get over some poplar trees.

One of the geese hit some branches and (I guess!) broke his neck, falling stone dead, back into the pond.

[WV_gunner]

Me and a buddy have literally found a bag of rocks. It was a nylon feed bag filled with rocks. We found a Gerber knife the sameday, ended up belonging to a friend. In the same area we've also found a cemetery, about a 100 years old. Shame the government acquired the property in the '40s.

[TXAZ]

B-24 wreckages on the highest peak in AZ and one on a high peak in NM.

[globemaster3]

TXAZ, what was left of the wreckage?

[Jo6pak]

About 10 years ago we found a complete rotting body of a huge buck stuck about 15 feet up in the wedge of a large oak tree at the bottom of a 80ft tall rock facing. We can only guess that the buck ran off the end of the cliff and got caught in the tree branches.

[Kimbercommander]

I was running a gold dredge just down river from Sutherlin, Or. and from under about 8 feet of overburden in the hole i found a toilet with seat still on it. I got to looking figured it was deposited there during the 1946 flood as thats the last big flood in that area.

[BumbleBug]

A friend of mine was touring his ranch in West Texas after a recent, much needed rain. With deer season right around the corner, he was checking blinds, feeders, looking for hog damage, arrowhead hunting & jumping a few deer. He decided to check an old shack that is on the place & discovered a visitor!
http://i44.tinypic.com/sccfx5.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/11bl0g2.jpg
http://i43.tinypic.com/1zpp6ib.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/2vlofug.jpg

...bug :eek:

[Mausermolt]

love the posts guys! keep em coming! not really a "find" but as a pilot i see lots of cool things from the air. my current job in Haiti they have alot of 18th and 19th century forts. this one is considered to be the lost wonder of the world The Citadel Henry. every stone was carried up a STEEP 2500 foot mountain to be build all by hand. beautiful sight to see from the air :)

[Art Eatman]

Mausermolt, hunt up a 1940s Book Of The Month Club historical novel, Kenneth Roberts' "Lydia Bailey". Part of it is set in Haiti during Christophe's time in power.

[Mausermolt]

i will have to do that :) thanks Art