Gold Country guns....

[nagantino]

Following the old Winchester story below....... About 10 years ago we took a holiday in San Fransisco. We travelled up into the Gold Country around Independence, lots of movies made there. While walking around the town, I think part of High Noon was filmed there, we visited a little museum. Lots of Goldrush artifacts on display and in a little cabinet were 2 guns. One was a Pepperpot design the other a small Colt revolver. The display said they had had been found in the nearby river. I always wondered why some one would throw 2 guns into a river especially when the Law might not have been so plentiful and detection unlikely. Has anyone else viewed these relics or updated the story.

[Shotgun Franklin]

When I was a Peace Officer many years ago, we'd take a cheap little gun off of someone on a minor case. We'd hold the gun 'til the case was over, usually the defendant never showed up to court and the bond was forfeited and that was the end of it. So we'd drive out to the bayou that ran through the City Park and throw the guns into that bayou. Things are handled differently now but I'll bet there are hundreds if not thousands of guns in the bottom of that bayou. A hundred years from now someone might find those guns and wonder the same thing.

[nagantino]

I like the sound of that.......it has a ring of truth. At the time I asked the guy running the exhibition " Why would anyone throw two guns away "? His reply was " Well sir you have to ask, what had the guns been used for". I Think a Backstory was being constructed for tourists. Unless anyone else has heard differently.

[Advertising]

[treebeard]

While in gunsmith school I had expressed disapproval of the police destroying some firearms and my two instructors were
actually in favor of it because they believed that it was common for the same firearms would show up in multiple crimes if
not destroyed. Apparently this is a common belief and may account for many of these found relics.

[Shotgun Franklin]

Before gun control took most of the junk off the streets that's exactly what we took off of bad guys, junk. As soon as 'they' outlawed all the little cheap guns the bad guys were forced to get better guns. I know because I saw it.

[nagantino]

Oh well...I had hoped someone would come along with a story of Gold Rush banditry and a clever detective story of how the the guns were chucked after a deadly shoot-out among the pines. On that same visit there was a guy dressed in buckskins and toting a birds head revolver. I couldn't take my eyes of it. Eventually I asked was the gun real. He took it from its holster and turning the chamber on his forearm he drolled  " " It shoots straighter than the road to hell ". Impressed me anyway.

[St. George]

All in all, folks don't generally throw away guns...

Back then, there was no reliable way to trace the bullet to the piece that fired it - matter of fact, that hadn't really been thought of.

Plus, in the Gold Rush Era, guns were relatively expensive and hard to find, so they had a greater value there, because of the shipping difficulties it took just to get them there than they did 'Back East' where there were well-established rail lines.

If they 'owned' a gun - they 'kept' the gun - or they sold it for a profit and went home to the farm when they found that their claim didn't pan out.

No - those guns were merely lost - dropped out of pockets, or from waistbands while crossing a stream, most likely - or left forgotten  in an old cabin site and found much later when the owner had gotten something better.

Not much by way of a thrilling story - but the truth seldom is...

Incidentally, those old Pepperbox pistols were exceptionally popular out there - probably because they were cheap, more than anything, I suppose - but they seem to be found more often in Old California than anyplace else - I've got one myself, and it came out of a streambed - no wood left, but after soaking in penetrating oil in the hot summer sun, it cycled - but it sits in a shadowbox, now.

Scouts Out!

[nagantino]

George, I agree with all you have said. A Pepper box costs something and the other, if memory serves, was a vest or pocket size Colt. Not cheap so why dispose of them like a modern criminal might. I live in Ireland and if ever I'm back in that wee town I will question those ruffians more closely.

[Major 2]

I missed the gavel on these two in a lot buy ..... $ 82.25  DAM ! 

[Grenadier]

Back about 25 years ago, my dad's friend was hunting lizards for bass fishing. Turned over a rock up some "hollar" in WV and found SAA Colt that had been laying there until the stocks rotted off. Always wondered if it was lost or thrown away after a crime.

[Slamfire]

 Back in the "DAY" I don't believe folk's throwed a gun away,,,, cause back then defend'n one's self wasn't a crime!! Just my thought.









  Hootmix.

[Bruce W Sims]

When I was a Peace Officer many years ago, we'd take a cheap little gun off of someone on a minor case. We'd hold the gun 'til the case was over, usually the defendant never showed up to court and the bond was forfeited and that was the end of it. So we'd drive out to the bayou that ran through the City Park and throw the guns into that bayou. Things are handled differently now but I'll bet there are hundreds if not thousands of guns in the bottom of that bayou. A hundred years from now someone might find those guns and wonder the same thing.

Had to smile.... I watched a program where the department in L.A. melts theirs down for re-bar. Takes an awful lot of paperwork to get those guns into the melter, though. I think some streamlining is in order......

Best Wishes,

Bruce

[nagantino]

In reading the replies, I had forgotten a holiday we had in a little town called Rossnowlagh, Co. Donegal. They have a little museum there that has 2 Colt type revolvers found hidden in a tree when it was felled. They must have been there quiet a while. The little history beside the guns stated that it was believed that they were used in the murder of a land agent. He would have collected the rents from the farmers who made a precarious living on the land. The land owners were absentee.....they lived in London. A Land War was going on in Ireland at the time. I'd forgotten that. Outside the museum is a huge iron pot, 3 feet wide, 3 feet deep. It was used to make soup for the starving during the potato famine 1845-48.

[Shotgun Franklin]

People then are no different than people now. I known a killer to throw his knife or gun away as a way of getting away from their crime. A Police Officer or citizen shoots a bad guy then sets their gun down and walks off. I've seen it. Especially the first time you shoot somebody you can react in crazy ways.

[GunClick Rick]

Could it be that a Chinese feller had it hid by a tree or rock and the river moved some,there were a lot of Chinese panning then and getting robbed all the time,they had to hide everything..They would pan where others wouldn't and still find gold.My cousin lived in Yuba,by the Yuba River and you could still see where those boogers carved steps and other things in the walls of the river and clear down to bedrock..My cousins brother and I were panning and such then and why we were there on a gold trip through gold country,i think we hit 149 and just kept goin..I live below Yosimitie.

[nagantino]

Yeah why not.  A good back story is always a winner. The great things about old guns is that they have a life of their own........ They don't actually need anyone else.