Old West stories of lost Winchester in Nevada?

[Darto]

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If anyone here reads those Wild West magazines. Were there any stories of a lost Winchester in Nevada?
Of course this would relate to the 132 year old winchester found in Great Basin National Park in November last.
Many web articles on the find , such as for instance:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/14/132-year-old-winchester-model-1873-repeating-rifle/

Maybe someone knows of a story of where a rifle might have been lost and abandoned in Nevada, maybe something about Mormon settlers. Nevada was probably mostly Mormon in 1880's (when the gun was made).

[Shotgun Franklin]

'They' are guessing that based on the condition of the gun it was left there much later that the manufacture date.

[Hambone Dave]

They found my rifle!!!!!!
Is it metal and wood....yup that's the one I lost.
I was wondering where it went to.
Who do I contact to get it sent back to me?
I might even agree to pay the postage.

[St. George]

There's every chance that some kid left his Grandpa's rifle leaning against a tree long after the West had settled, too.

No one was ever going to report a 'lost or missing weapon' back then, and judging from the vast number of dug-ups found in streams, fields, in the rocks and old building sites, folks shed their firearms like trees shed their leaves in the Fall.

Scouts Out!

[Johnson Barr]

It will be interesting to find out, after the NPS has the rifle stabilized for display, if there is a round (charged or discharged) in the chamber and if the mag tube is loaded as well.

[Blair]

Head stamp markings, if rounds are there, may also help identify a time period?
My best,
 Blair

[TUCO-the-ratt]

I thought this is a very interesting story. There have been a lot of old firearms found down on the ground rusted into a barely recognizable lump of rusted metal and the wood long gone. My cousins and I even found a rusted lump of a rifle once in the forest in Washington State. What makes this story interesting is that the rifle was vertical, leaning against the juniper tree and in the dry climate was preserved much better than what usually happens. The fact that it was vertical, shedding water and preventing rapid rot of the wood could indicate that it may have been there for a very long time even though it is in pretty good shape for a lost rifle.   

[Shotgun Franklin]

If the serial # can be read then there's a chance they can trace a bit of the gun's history?

[Will Lynchem]

Can I put a bid in on it? It seems that is the only type of gun NCOWS allows any more. 

[St. George]

The only history they can trace - if they can trace any at all - would be to the shipper and maybe the jobber or other dealer house.

Beyond that, the trail would grow cold.

Doesn't hold out a lot of hope for all those modern-day fans of TV's CSI being able to tell in a matter of moments, does it?

No 'trace evidence', no blood spatter or fingerprints, no hair and fiber evidence, no attitudinal-personal-agenda-driven-wild-assed-but-right guesses from lab rats - no nuthin'...

Men have dropped, rested, lost or otherwise completely forgotten their weapons since they figured out weapons - civilians are the worst of them, but hunters are no slouches, either, and soldiers routinely leave their piece leaning while they get chow, while cops put their shotguns on top of their vehicles and drive off all too alarmingly often.

The point is - while interesting to be sure, would this be 'as' interesting had this been a Hopkins and Allen or a Crescent shotgun, or is it interesting 'only' because it's a 'Winchester - the Gun That Won the West' (though one article quotes Houze as saying it was Remington - go figure), and 'everybody' knows that Winchester was the only lever-action rifle filling scabbards and fighting off Indians and Outlaws during the days of the Wild, Wild West?

Headstamps aren't going to help, by the way - ammunition wasn't expended back then like it is today during a 'Shoot-Fast' meet, and a lot of it stayed on the store shelves for decades - just as it sat on shelves in Line Camps and Bunkhouses, so older stuff would still be around and available for quite a long time.

Unless it's poorly stored, ammunition lasts a helluva long time - even blackpowder-loaded ammunition, with the old primers will still surprise you every once in awhile if it was kept in a dry area. (In Vietnam, we routinely drew .50 Caliber Machinegun ammunition that was brand-new in 1943, and every round fired, because it had been properly stored and kept canned-up.)

As to NCOWS - they allow far more different firearms than SASS - they just don't allow all the modifications and modern stuff - to them, 'modern stuff' means 'Colt New Service'.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!