Original 1873 Winchester found in mountains yesterday

[Hawg]

Almost every story on fb is bs.

[sltm1]

Hawg, since it won't ever be a shooter, you could split the forestock on the bottom to mount it in two pieces and just JB weld the wood parts in place. If you like the idea, I would saw most of the way through the forestock, then split it with hand pressure so the crack would be natural looking and the wood wouldn't be to short around to fit properly.

[Hawg]

Now that's an idea.

[birdshot]

Almost every story on fb is bs.
__________________
http://blackpowdertimes.com/index.php

Apparently this face book story is one of the legitimate stories.

[Bishop Creek]

Alright, something is amiss here. My wife, who works for the BLM, brought those two photos home to me the other night and said that two of her coworkers found the rifle south of Lone Pine, CA. I had no reason to question it, as they had also found the 1851 Navy a couple of years ago, and I handled it in person and took that photo of it. She will inquire more about this rifle tomorrow at work and I will post an update here.

[Jbar4Ranch]

If this came from the vicinity of Lone Pine, it could explain a couple of things.
It's certainly possible it was a movie gun, and has only been out in the elements for a few decades, instead of 100+ years. That could explain the butt stock not being completely rotted off, and the seemingly relative young age of the tree it was allegedly found leaning against.

[Bishop Creek]

If the rifle did come from the Lone Pine area or even nearby Nevada, that area has extremely low humidity (the lowest humidity ever recorded anywhere on Earth was taken in the nearby White Mountains) and gets very little rain, about 2 inches per year, and maybe four feet of snow per Winter so I can see the stock looking like it did after 100 years or more. The trees grew very slowly here and the Bristlecone Pine trees about 60 miles north of Lone Pine are the oldest living trees in the World, some over 4,500 years old and are small and stunted looking.

[Mike Irwin]

Yep, that stock has all of the hallmarks of something that has been out in a low moisture low ambient humity area for a LONG time.

My Grandparents would go throughout the West every couple of years and would bring back wood like that, stuff that had been exposed for decades.

[maillemaker]

Almost every story on fb is bs.

It just depends on how smart your friends are.

Steve

[Mike Irwin]

Well, if it makes it to Wikipedia, it will be 100% believable!

[RodTheWrench]

Here's the story from Utah - looks like it was made in 1882. Found in November in Great Basin National Park near Ely, NV.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=33093460

[Salmoneye]

I have seen axes leaned against trees that the tree grew around before the hickory handles began to rot...

I have a very hard time buying that rifle has been there anywhere near 100 years...

[Molasses]

Jbar4Ranch wrote:

It's a '73. You can tell by the shape of rear of the side plate and the length of the action between the rear of the side plate and the butt stock.

Personally, I prefer just glancing at the trigger; if the trigger's almost directly under the bottom rear corner of the receiver, it's a '76 and if there's an appreciable amount of receiver behind the trigger, it's a '73.

[Armybrat]

Well, I gave my son a North American .22lr mini revolver for Christmas 2013.

A couple weeks later he sheepishly asked me if we had found it left behind at our house. Nope, so he sadly concluded the little tiny gun had been tossed out in the trash with the wadded up wrapping paper.

One month ago we got a call from him - he was excited because his wife had just found it zipped up in its little rug in the bottom of a box full of unused wrapping paper that she had gotten out to start wrapping presents for this Christmas.

Nevertheless, I didn't give him any new guns this time.

[Wyoredman]

Mike Irwin - Sorry about the duplicate thread in the General Discussion section! I looked for a thread before posting, but didn't look here!

That said, things like this take me back to the old west! So very interesting and intriguing!

[Trum4n1208]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/15/us/nev...ark/index.html

Howdy gentlemen, sinc we were on this topic, thought I'd share this.

[spacecoast]

Another one - http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/m...nal-park-tree/

Picture appears to confirm it as an 1873. I've been in that park, one of my favorites. I believe I also remember driving down the mountain, smelling the brakes and having them glowing red.

[campingnights]

My guess is a Grizz chewed on the hunter, when the hunter woke up he crawled to the tree and leaned his empty rifle against it. He then died and was drug away by various varmints. Has the makins of a good saturday afternoon flick anyways *snickers*

[FITASC]

Here is an article about that rifle:

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com...onal-park26150

Engraved on the rifle is “Model 1873,” identifying it distinctly as a Winchester Model 1873 repeating rifle. The serial number on the lower tang corresponds in Winchester records held at the Center for the West at the Cody Firearms Museum in Cody, Wyoming, with a manufacture and shipping date of 1882. But the detailed history of this rifle is as yet unknown. Winchester records do not indicate who purchased the rifle from the warehouse or where it was shipped.

[HMC8404]

Such a great find! I see that some here try to judge how long it's been in the weather by the condition of the wood. That is not a good indicator. Think of how many 100+ year-old fences and barnwood still survives in dry climates. In a humid climate, the entire rifle might not have survived.

[Notanotherstatistic]

Interesting read. If there's enough moisture there for a Juniper tree... That ain't exactly barren desert. Interesting regardless of how long its been there. I'm thinking its more like a few decades than a century. It's surprising it didn't grow around it.
[ATTACH]http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/autozone-fires-worker-who-stopped-robbery.html[/ATTACH]
Very cool that it was standing. Hell, I've seen guys that can't stand em up for a few minutes without em falling.

[Story]

Bishop Creek,

News reports say the rifle was empty.

Has anyone swept the area for empty cartridge cases?

[Mike Irwin]

"If there's enough moisture there for a Juniper tree... That ain't exactly barren desert."

Doesn't mean that the water's coming from the sky, though. The tree could have rooted into a weep or a shallow spring.

[Bishop Creek]

This is in the Great Basin, known as the "Great American Desert" on 19th Century maps. That Juniper tree is about 200 years old, very young compared to the nearby Bristlecone Pines, some over 4,500 years old and grows very slowly. Actually it is a desert, very high, over 9,000 feet, and very dry with average humidity around 5% which is why the trees, though old, are stunted. There are 150 year old wooden tombstones on pioneer graves in the Great Basin area that look just like the wood on that rifle.

[l.cutler]

Any clarification on when and where it was found? I'd really like to get an old Winchester, got my first deer with a Model 92 44-40 which was later stolen.