Crazy gun story

double

Twelve Pointer
Flashback almost 3 years ago my buddy was coon hunting around Jordan lake and his pistol fell out of his holster somewhere during the night. He looked that night and the next day and never found it so he reported lost to the Chatham county sheriffs office. A game warden called and ask about where he thought it might be and said he would look around for it. Flash forward to last Friday he gets a call from the Sheriffs office the army corp of engineers were doing some surveying around the lake and found his pistol either in the edge of the water or just on the bank. Its a Stainless Taurus snub nose 22 and looks way better than a gun that has been in the woods and water for 2 years should. After about 20 minutes of cleaning I am confident it would shoot now but I am gonna give it a thorough deep cleaning before shooting it. He took some before pics I will take some afters once its clean. It really looks like the rear sight is all that is going to need replacing. Any of you guys ever found a long lost gun or put one back into service after a long time outside?


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Thomas270

Ten Pointer
That’s crazy for sure, never lost and found a gun but my brother did lose his mag light one year duck hunting and found it the next season, had definitely been underwater part of the following year and completely exposed. It came on when we picked it up and tried it! Then he lost it again at a later date. That’s why I was always reluctant to lend him small items. You would think with that gun that “gremlins” would show up with a lot of use, mainly springs and such just being brittle from exposure. Other than those replaceable parts potentially failing I think he is good, and lucky.
 

double

Twelve Pointer
Yeah I told him we will probably have to replace the springs but I am gonna clean up and shoot it like it is just to say we did. If it works it will give me a whole new respect for Taurus revolvers. So far I have just ran it under hot water and cycled it to get most of the gunk out. Right now it is coated in WD40 for the night and I will crack it open after work tomorrow.


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nccatfisher

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Man the chances of that are slim. My father lost a High Standard semi-auto over the side of the boat in Fla. in the 60s. It was several hours from home. I will add in fresh water. He rigged a car headlight on a pole and got a huge magnet out of a scrap yard and went back looking for it. It was in about 8' of water and luckily he found it. This was about 10 days later. It had started to surface rust slightly on some of the internals but nothing that ever hampered it. I still have it.
 

odie408

Ten Pointer
A buddy found a 20 ga. Fox double barrel by the blind when he drained his duck impoundment. Don't know who or when it was lost but it cleaned up fine. We think someone did some after season hunting and got spooked and left it. Hope it works for him and glad he got it back.
 

ellwoodjake

Twelve Pointer
When we were kids, dad found an old single shot 22 inside a hollow tree, while cutting firewood. After taking apart and cleaning up, it would produce about a 3 inch group at 50 yds with an occasional keyhole. We used it to throw around in the floor of the jeep and knocked many a beer can off a fence and even a few coons out with it. Not sure where it ever got to.
 

C52

Eight Pointer
I found this old Stevens 12 gauge on my property years ago. The stocks were bare, the front stock was taped on and it was so rusty the I cleaned it up with sand paper. Reblued the barrel, refinished the stock, cleaned and oiled it and here it is. A good shooting solid old break action. I wish I had before pictures.
 

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klim

Twelve Pointer
That’s pretty cool!! A friend of mines dad, found a M1 grand with the clip missing. The stock was cracked in the woods behind his house, when he was a kid. He said he had found what looked like a abandon army camp site and actually trip over the rifle buried under some leaves. As far as I know he still got it but I haven’t talked to him in years.
 

QBD2

Old Mossy Horns
I lost a crow call in Kansas. Found it the next year. Got the mud out of it and it ain't missed a beat:)

Ain't misplaced a gun. Yet...
 

Eric Revo

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
When I was much younger we were walking the swamps of Northwest Florida hunting squirrels and a buddy happened upon a really nice Remmy .22 with scope leaning against a tree in the middle of the woods.
We took it to the closest campsite and asked if anyone had heard of a gun being lost, there were no takers. He's still the proud owner of a "Found" rifle 40+ years later.
 

double

Twelve Pointer
I can just imagine the csi investigation to a snub nose revolver found in a lake. I am sure the COE thought they had found a murder weapon.


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Triggernosis

Ten Pointer
Co-worker's son found a stainless steel Mossberg pump shotgun like you would carry on a boat under a stack of old roof tin that someone had throw out as trash in the Croatan Forest near Swansboro. I was well-wrapped in plastic and looked brand new. His kid roams all over the state forests looking under tin, boards, and trash piles to find snakes that he keeps for a while (he's a herpetologist).
 

dlbaile

Ten Pointer
Not lost and then found ,but had a rifle get stolen out of my truck one year,reported it to sheriff , 3 years later got a call from local PD had recovered it in raid.
 

NCdoe

Ten Pointer
While loading the van for Pigeon Forge my husband laid my pistol on top of the van (before daylight). Drove off and the pistol fell off 1/2 mile down the road. The person who found it turned it in to sheriffs department about a week later. I thought it was stolen while in Pigeon Forge so I reported it missing there. Three years later while cleaning out the Evidence Room our local sheriff's department ran a check, saw the pistol was reported missing, and returned it to me. Never did find out why it took so long but at least I got it back. It was still loaded.
 

30/06

Twelve Pointer
I caught a single shot sawed off shotgun years ago under a bridge. I have a feeling that one was lost on purpose. Turned it over to the troopers.
 

Colekira

Ten Pointer
Contributor
I found an old 870 in between some duct work in the basement of a supermarket in Jersey City. It was completely rusted out and the only way I could tell it was an 870 was from the oval port.
 

double

Twelve Pointer
Starting the tear down


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cuppednlocked

Ten Pointer
Have you ever tried electrolysis? I did a little and it works amazingly well. Some of the larger parts look like good candidates.
 

shaggy

Old Mossy Horns
Former coworker/friend of mine was hunting with a 9yr old family friend. They were running dogs and just milling around an old field when the little boy said he found a gun. My buddy glanced at a mud covered old looking cap gun as he described it so he just let the kid play with it for a while. As they were driving the kid finally gets the trigger to pull and it goes off in the truck....it was a still working and loaded flare gun. Bout burnt my buddies door up as the flare ended up in the door storage compartment.
 

double

Twelve Pointer
Shes alive took it out and fired a few shots through it. Still a little to tight for double action but it worked for single. Gonna clean it again and oil it well and give it another shot at the range.


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My uncle once left a 22 rifle leaning on tree while coon hunting. Only realized it at the next treed coon ,went back to look for it- never to be found again.
 

Eric Revo

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Shes alive took it out and fired a few shots through it. Still a little to tight for double action but it worked for single. Gonna clean it again and oil it well and give it another shot at the range.


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depending on the rust to the mainspring it can actually harden the metal and make that spring too stiff. I don't know how you cleaned it but some rust removers can chemically change the hardness of spring steel as well.
You may want to think about either cutting a couple of wraps off or changing out the mainspring if it doesn't seem to lighten up with use. You can also fill the action full of valve grinding compound and work it a couple of hundred times then take it apart and clean it thoroughly and that should get the metal to metal binding problems fixed.
Nothing should be warped or mechanically off to make it tight to shoot since it wasn't damaged except for the changing metal properties.
 

double

Twelve Pointer
depending on the rust to the mainspring it can actually harden the metal and make that spring too stiff. I don't know how you cleaned it but some rust removers can chemically change the hardness of spring steel as well.
You may want to think about either cutting a couple of wraps off or changing out the mainspring if it doesn't seem to lighten up with use. You can also fill the action full of valve grinding compound and work it a couple of hundred times then take it apart and clean it thoroughly and that should get the metal to metal binding problems fixed.
Nothing should be warped or mechanically off to make it tight to shoot since it wasn't damaged except for the changing metal properties.

I just put it back together to check functionality with no oil. Pretty sure a good oiling and working the action a while and it will shoot good as new.


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shaggy

Old Mossy Horns
That flare gun must have been a roit inside the truck!! Lol

Same guy was shooting at a deer across his hood from the driver side one day and noticed something weird in his scope view. Once the shooting stopped he realized as the deer ran left to right he followed and had been shooting through his windshield. He shot up his own truck!
 
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