I have not seen this rifle in person, but I've always found the story very interesting. A couple of things I found very odd was the fact that it wasn't loaded. The other thing is the missing carrier block. The gun does not appear to have been taken apart, so my guess is that the lifter arm had broken off inside the action and the carrier block simply fell out, which would render the gun useless except as a single shot. This may be the reason it was left leaning up against a tree.