In the midst of one of the roughest mule deer seasons ever, I came across this in the middle of nowhere:



Pretty dang neat if you ask me. Notice its cocked and ready to roll......

Matching numbers?

That's amazing. Congratulations!

Nice find.

Looks like a 92? Pretty cool find

Wow! What a shame that it couldn’t be useable.

Think of all the stuff spread all over the country for over 100 years, that someone lost or misplaced. I have a metal detector and have found some really cool things, but no guns…

That's cool. It would be something to know the story behind that one.

So cool!
I'm jealous! That would be my dream to find something like that! I love old relics like that.
Thanks for sharing.....

I wonder if it fell out of a scabbard somehow, and what the rider said when he realized it was gone?

There'd be a few less rifles around......

Wow. Cool find

A friend in Nashville found a Colt percussion revolver near the Battle of Franklin site. Five chambers were still loaded.

That would have made my hunt for sure, really cool.

Very interesting find!

Even more interesting is the grip frame on that 94 Winchester is bent like that. That takes some doing!

Nice find!

Make for an interesting discussion piece for anyone's gun room for sure!

Wow, that's really something....great find!

First thing I thought. I bet he invented new words.

Rates a two-cool.

Nice patina.

Super Cool, especially with the hammer cocked.

I wonder how long its been out there, anyone care to guess based on the patina?

Congrats!

Decades, if not a century.

It's also interesting to see the position of the notch on the barrel, off to the left side, and the receiver screws totally rusted away.

Hammer style is early Model 1894 rather than a M94.

One of my "toys" as a kid was what was left of a Browning A5. It was about as rusty as that old Winchester in the OP. My grandpa found it in a fence row next to a road. Speculation was that it had been stolen and someone got scared and tossed it there.

Way cool!

Better than finding a deer even!

That is why I leave every spent shell case that killed an animal.

It appears to have been an 1894 rifle rather than a carbine.

The dovetail (that is tweaked to the left side) was to accommodate the magazine tube. How it got tweaked is anyone's guess...

In my opinion, it was like this rifle.



More particularly, looking at the barrel length, it was probably an 1894 Short Rifle. Not as long as the 24" barrel, but still had the magazine tube dove tail. Not nearly as many of that model were made, vs full rifle, or carbines.

I wonder if the round in the chamber is still viable?

Very cool find.

I am sure it isn't an 1894. It looks like a model 1892...

My BIL way back brought me a Savage lever [ looks like a 250-3000 that he found up in the Artic] no guts just the barrel and receiver lots of deep patina,

another one i have a 300 that someone lost in a farm yard action parts were still useable but the wood was pretty much gone and heavy pitting barrel and receiver.

norm

Thanks for the input guys. Where we found it looked like it could have been a very old homestead of some sort. Not really any remnants of structure of any kind, but there were a few springs that could be part of an old wagon or such, but just a guess. Ranch records document a fella that lived in an old dugout about 1/2 mile from there, where there are some very old pens and such, near two old wooden windmills or what's left of them. That dates back to the early 30's. I'm going to go back over there and look around a little more carefully and see if there's anything else interesting there. It did look like a couple of windmill parts there as well.

From the looks of the slight sweep in the hammer profile it does look more like a 1892. If that could be any indication.
The hole configuration in the receiver indicates that too.

That is really cool. I would love to know its story.

If my rifles could talk they'd say "let me out of this damn safe every now and them, you non-shooting, non-hunting dork."

Old Betsy went and got lost!

Could be an 1892 short rifle... The loading gate would sure tell the story. And the top of the bolt area in the receiver. Hard to tell from the pics.

What an awesome wall hanger that's going to make.

Very cool! I have jealous!

Cool!

Very cool!!

A Great find! Probably a bear got the rifles owner, one of the rare Texas Grizzlys! Be a great place to play with a metal detectors.

That’s a pretty cool find OP. Hammer being cocked makes it even better.

As a dumb ass kid I lost a Winchester Model 64 out of a scabbard that I had rigged with the butt stock to the rear of my leg. We looked for a couple of days but never found it, might still be there 50 years later. Very steep country so I lead horse a lot of the way and didn't feel the rifle slip out of the scabbard. Must have caught of one of many Mahogany tree I passed through. My dad was pissed, rifles were hard to come by back then. My family was really proud of the "long barreled" 30 30.

I bet that hasn't haunted you ever since.

Yup!

Very very cool find.

Holy cow.......

JG, did you find it close to that fence? Think how many guys worked and walked that fence over the years and didn't see it.

I bet a cow stepped on it and bent the tang........

a old man i know found a small cap & ball pistol loaded wile clearing land that was in that state

I'm glad mine can't. It's also why I prefer to hunt alone......

Verycool find!

My wife received this photo from acquaintances that found this on their land outside of Helena:

I was thinking the same thing. Only thing I can think of on why it wasn't seen before is the grass is really grazed down low, much lower than normal.

Hows the rifling?

What is it?

Pretty cool

That's pretty neat.

Firewood! 😃

That is a super cool find!

How about, someone was hunting and laid the gun down while crossing the fence. They drove off without it. Later, when they realized it was missing, they went back but they couldn’t find it.

I was hoping someone here could tell me

I believe it’s a M1871 Dutch Beaumont. 👍🏼

That. Is. Cool.

Send it to Burns.

He can trick that to gong @ half a mile.

one of my dad's friends bought an old house in PENN back in the late 70s and while rewiring the electricity he found a civil war rifle inside one of the walls. It was in very poor condition, but it was a cool find

What’s the twist?

Hell of a find

Very cool. I’d love to know how the tang wound up so bent. The most likely thing that I can come up with is that the previous owner had anger issues and flipped out over a missed shot or something and trashed rifle swinging it like an axe handle and then just left it there.

Very cool...........that doesn't look like a very high fence

I'd doubt it - it's cocked.

Can you run a rod down the barrel to see if it's still loaded?

Very Cool Find

That should Buff Right Out with no problem.









Very neat for sure.

I was actually trying to put a stalk on a real nice mule deer buck when I stumbled onto it. First shooter muley I've seen since season started first of November. It's at the ranch foreman's house right now so I'll check it out more thoroughly in a few days when I go back.

That’s a pretty cool find. The fact that it’s cocked raises lots of questions.

Just needs a little Kroil and 0000 steel wool. 😊

Cocked and with a badly bent lower tang. Did someone use it as a club or was the tang bent years after the stock rotted away? It would take a pretty good lick against something to bend it like that or someone driving over it. Lots of questions about that one for sure.

Best I've found is an old spur in similar condition.

I have always wished old guns , cars and trucks , but most of all old farm houses and barns could tell us their stories. mam oh man thats a very cool and curious find !!!

The gun that really shot Kennedy.

Cody, Wyoming has an entire museum dedicated to dug up guns. Cool place to visit.

Neat find, JG.

Near the gun site, found numerous shrouds of painted pottery, what looks like remnants of a Model A Ford (both doors and engine covers, various pieces, etc) an old spoon, and this......

WRA CO 1906 30 G
The headstamp means 30 Cal Government 1906, what we all call 30-06 now of course. My info says WRA marked them that way up through the ~1920s. Very unique to say the least.

Neat find ! Thanks for posting.
Reminds me of that '73 Winchester they found leaning on a bush in Utah a few years ago.

https://www.winchesterguns.com/news/articles/lost-model-1873-visit-winchester-repeating-arms.html

My Dad grew up in Vegas. Him and some pals were out goofing off in the desert one day and they found an old SxS coach gun with the wood rotted away.

His buddy cleaned it up and fired it!

I'd like to hear what this one had to say:

absolutely a cool story and thread..
I was afraid to going to be a story about the creedmoor coming out of the closet...

Great find.

I bought this rifle about 8 years ago. It is a Sedgley Sporter 30/06 made in the 1920s. I found out from the previous owner that it came out of Slana and was the primary rifle of Capt. William Boyden. This has been verified by Kirk Ellis who was there. Why that is interesting is that Boyden was an old time freighter and hunting guide from the 20s to the 1950s when he retired and sold his piece to the Ellises at Devil's Mountain Lodge. He would do huge expedition type hunts in the 1920s and took some of the wealthiest hunters in the world. He would pick up clients up the White River from the Dicksons who would start them near Burwash landing. The price of a hunt was between 4000 and 5000 dollars. This is north of 200,000 if you figure in for inflation. The rifle went to Africa and from other stories handled a charge from a large Bear on Bear Lake in the Southern Wrangells next to McColl Ridge. The Rifle also worked for a shift on a man killing Bear up in the upper White River Valley. I always wonder how many different things it encountered.

Good stuff kaboku.

This is my other candidate for if a rifle could talk. This is a marlin 1881 Deluxe in 32-40 that has type A checkering and a silver plate with an embossed cursive G on it. It has Rocky Mountain sights and an octagon barrel. It came out of a collection out of the Copper River Basin that will never be equaled. The fact that it came out of a cabin between Valdez and Copper Center from the short gold stampede to Copper Center in 1899 and the fact that it has probably seen a lot of interesting changes in history make me consider how short we have on here.

I think the rifle in the original post may have been burnt.

Cool thread, thanks for sharing. I can’t imagine losing one of my guns, but I know it happens, from personal experience. We hunted Kodiak Island last November. Cold, snow, rain, and slick as hell. My nephew was carrying a S&W 686. Came out of his holster, presumably on one of the many falls he took. Back at the beach for pickup when he realized it was gone. Hunted the same area next morning, but of course it snowed a few more inches overnight. There is a new 686 waiting to be found in the mountains above Larsen Bay.
1985 or 86, hunting Grey Lodge refuge for ducks in Northern California I kicked up a Miroku O/U 12ga. Looked brand new. No one ever called the refuge looking for it, so I was able to keep it.
As said previously, maybe it fell out of a scabbard, maybe the original fence builder leaned it against a sagebrush, continued with their work, and then couldn’t find it again. Or, maybe a horrific struggle with a 2 or 4 legged critter. Who knows, but fun to ponder, especially with a good Bourbon in hand.

Eric

Turnkey , I've been to that museum in Cody. you are right ,very cool stuff in there

I entertained that possibility as well. Very possible.

Friend was hog hunting and dogs bayed in a cave around 10-15 years ago. Found a loaded cap & ball revolver ( 3 loaded chambers ) and 3 muskets stacked together in a triangle. Worms or termites had eaten most of the wood on the the muskets and pistol. He was trespassing so he didn't advertise what he found. He sold the pistol and 2 of the muskets. I got to hold the musket he kept. Wish I'd taken pics. Very very kool civil war find. The back of the cave probably went in over twenty five yards and he said it was powder dry.
I know where he was and it wouldn't be a good thing if he was caught. Great thread!!!

Nearby, but this pic is a few years old, back when we had lots of grass.....

I bought this '73 Winchester n 38 WCF several years ago and it is now in its 137th year. In addition to having been dropped, bent, cold blued, and battered, notice the wear to the wood at the rear of the forearm from being carried with a hand wrapped around it.

Lost Kahles scope story...

Link