Thank you Sir. I was really happy about the way the Aluma-Hyde coating turned out. Easy to use. I baked it in the oven, and the out gassing wasn't bad at all. I did it when Fastlady was gone for a few hours. When she got home, she was none the wiser about what I had been up to. That's why I posted the link. I highly recommend it to anyone who has an old beater and would like to gussie it up a bit.Originally Posted by Idaho45guy
Deplorable infidel
OH Yes they do, especially the Cold War era GDR, USSR and Albanian and Bulgarian ones.
The ENEMY is listening.
HE wants to know what YOU know.
Keep it to yourself.
My wife’s cousin told me about losing his old High Standard .22 revolver one year while hunting way out in the sticks in the snow. He looked for a while but gave up as he had covered a lot of ground in a really remote area.
A few years later he was hunting again in the same region, with his RV parked in a campground. He happened to strike up a conversation with a neighboring camper, they talked about hunting and guns, and he mentioned losing his High Standard revolver. The guy got a funny look on his face, and asked him if there was anything unique about it. He says yeah, I hand made some one-of-a-kind custom grips for it, and described them.
He said the guy got a pained look on his face and stepped into his own RV for a minute, and came back with the revolver! He had found it the following year, hunting the same area. The only damage was some rodent had chewed on the grips.
He said the guy clearly wanted to keep it, but his conscience clearly wouldn’t let him.
Two more tales come to mind, but once again not my finds: First, a customer who was a regular in my shop came in with a late model Colt Police Positive .38 Special that he had found on a deer hunt in Eastern Oregon. The soil was very sandy and he said that he was walking along looking for deer tracks, and spied the corner of the butt sticking out of the sand just a bit. He kicked it with his foot, thinking that it was just an unusual rock, and more of the revolver was revealed. It was rusty but salvageable and he wanted it reblued. I put some effort into it, and it became very presentable. However, I had trouble with just the cylinder which turned plum color. I re-polished it and ran it through the bluing tanks 3 times with the same results. The customer liked the job overall, but not the color of the cylinder so much. Then, with a little research, we found that some of the new-in-the-box Colts were the same way, so there wasn't much to be done about it. He ended up being happy.
Next, true story and verifiable as it appeared in the Roseburg, OR, newspaper, two fellows were fishing in the South Umpqua River. A special kind of row boat is used to travel down the river from pool to pool, where the water is crystal clear. In one such pool the guys spotted what appeared to be a tripod mounted machine gun sitting on the gravel bottom. They hauled it up and it turned out to be a German WW I Maximum complete with tripod. They took it home and over the next couple of months cleaned it all up to where it was very presentable and appeared functional. Then they phoned the ATF and told them the story and asked if they could keep it. Answer: "We'll be right over."
DG
Got a found and one intentionally lost one story.
Brother and I were going through my aunt's home after she had gone into nursing home prior to her selling it.
She had inherited the house from her sister about 10 years before, after her sister had killed herself after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Well, he had put his hands on the old revolver that we expect she had used, and he found elsewhere in some of her husbands items a colt 1908 25 caliber vest pocket semiautomatic. He kept the revolver, and I ended up with the colt. My uncle had most probably bought that pistol new and had carried it around for decades in his pocket while working. It had been well used, finish is gone and barrel worn. But after getting a new spring for the firing pin, it does shoot.
For the one intentionally lost, my dad was in army in Germany at end of the 2nd World war. He had take a couple of trophies, on being a nice luger which I passed on to my only nephew a couple of years ago. I've no sons and daughter isnt interested in firearms to collect. But my dad had found and taken possession of a Belgian 12g shotgun and had carried it for several months. As he described, was a beautiful engraved browning. at any rate, as they were readying to depart back to US. orders came down that only one gun could be taken back, and it seemed that there were indications that the officers were taking for themselves the best weapons and trophies. He got pissed and went out and buried the browning. So somewhere in France there is a nice browning rusted away. As a master sgt, he had no respect for a lot of the middle officers.
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A friend of mine was camping with the family by a remote mountain lake on the Oregon coast. As he waded into the lake, his foot bumped something in the mud. He found an old sock containing a Hi-Point .40 pistol and a box of old 30-06 GI match ball ammo. He turned it in to the county sheriff but they said there was no record of anything like that being stolen anywhere nearby.
It amazes me how many people have something stolen from them and don’t bother to report it. I always have a little hope that someone someday will find my 4” nickel model 29 that was stolen from me back in ‘99, and do the right thing and turn it in.
Dad was in the navy on the USS Portland during WWII. One day while in port he went into a captured Japanese sub, and came out with two rifles. He got them home somehow and after the war he traded one to his brother who was in the army. My uncle had been exploring a cave in Belgium and found a stash of guns. One was a 16 gauge double barrel shot gun he gave dad for one of the rifles. Dad used that shotgun hunting pheasants and ducks all through the 60's and 70's while I was growing up. One of my nephews (sisters boy) ended up with the remaining rifle, and my older brother snagged the shotgun. I would love to have either one today. I'm guessing the nephew sold the gun for drug money, my brother carries on the hunting tradition.
My Dad was the driver for the CO of the 66th Field Hospital 1944-45. (Think M.A.S.H. without the helicopters) Somewhere in France they came through a town before marshal law was declared. My Dad found an abandoned factory making Browning pattern .25 and .32 autos. He collected two duffle bags full and sold them for $5.00 each on paydays. He gave one of the .25s to his Colonel. One night they were driving under blackout conditions and must have missed timed a turn or mis read their speed. They could see they were approaching a large object which they thought was a hill. It was a French tank. Instead of ten minutes behind the front line, THEY WERE ON THE FRONT LINE! My Dad had a laugh later because when he looked over at the Colonel (a surgeon by trade) he had the little .25 auto in his hand.
When it came time to head back to the states he still had one duffle full. There was a gap in the gang plank and when he went to swing it over he lost his grip and it went into the drink. Easy come, easy go . . . .
An “acquaintance” from Kansas headed back with two MP-40s. My Dad remembered reading later on about a bank robbery in Kansas committed with the same weapon.
Last edited by Butzbach; 09-04-2021 at 08:13 PM.
And 2 cops had P38's !
Question, not really related to found guns. Ithaca 37s below 855000 serial numbers barrels are not supposed to be interchangeable and that looks like an old one. Did you have to do any special fitting to make it work?
There are nearly two million Ithaca Model 37s already in the field, and many of their owners would like to outfit them with a new barrel. Just how that aim is achieved depends on the serial number of your gun.
Model 37® firearms with a serial number below 855,000 have barrels that are removeable but not interchangeable with our currently manufactured barrels. If your M37 was made before the 855,000 mark (which occurred in 1963), we will be able to furnish you with a replacement barrel for it, but you must send your gun to us for the barrel to be fitted. The process includes machine removal of existing threads, insertion of adapter and re-threading of receiver and re-bluing. Please note that once this is completed you will not be able to reuse your old barrel. Cost for this process is $750.00 for the adapter, the barrel, and re-bluing. This also includes a choke tube kit.
Model 37s® with a serial number above 855,000 have interchangeable barrels (except for some Deerslayers), but often still require some custom fitting by our gunsmiths.
The thread pattern that we utilize on our interchangeable barrel field guns is the same pattern that was used by Ithaca in New York after 1963. However, Ithaca in New York used manufacturing methods that created differences between their firearms that made their barrels less than truly interchangeable. So, while some of our barrels may fit post-1963 guns off the shelf, others will require at least minor modifications to fit correctly. You may send your gun to us for the barrel head spacing to be checked and tested, and there is no additional charge for this service, or have your local gunsmith perform this fitting.
Dug Up Gun museum in Cody - probably better than the Buffalo Bill Firearm museum all things considered.
The short answer is no. See the above post from Ithica Gunner. My found gun was mfr'd around the late 70's, and the replacement barrel fit perfectly.
Since we're on the subject, I would like to plug the excellent service I received from Ithica Gun Co. while pursuing this project. When I called to order my stock set, the gentleman on the phone asked me many questions about the gun I had, to make sure I was getting the right items. He also took the time to explain some of the quirks I would encounter during disassembly, things to look for, and the best ways to get it back together. That phone call and the advice that was offered goes beyond the level of service we are used to in this new age.
Thanks Ithica Gunner!
Deplorable infidel
I'll second all the "that turned out great" comments
I Am Descended From Men Who Would Not Be Ruled
Fiat Justitia, Ruat Caelum
Thank you kind Sir. I owe it mostly to the Aluma-Hyde coating. Good stuff and easy to use.
Deplorable infidel
M1 Carbine found at the dump!
A guy several years ago found a Mil. issued M1 carbine at the dump. It lookEd rather tough. He brought it home and put it his closet. He totally forgot about it.
Years later he was moving, he brought the rifle to me and I started cleaning.
After while, I got a round fired in it and it did not blow up. Another friend brought me a magazine and I loaded three or four rounds and it cycled those right through.
I spoke with the finder of the carbine and he expressed an interest in selling it. His price ...... $150. I told him he could do better than that and he said that’s his price. I gave him 24 hrs to reconsider, but that price stuck!
After I paid him, the friend with the magazine took his blue book and looked what an EARLY INLAND was worth and I about fell over. I reminded him it was a rough looking one, mainly the stock and he said that WAS FOR A ROUGH ONE!
Later putting my Inland on paper and it’s golf ball accurate at about 30 yds with its iron sights.
Reminds me of the saying that even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then!
Three44s
Last edited by Three44s; 09-06-2021 at 10:46 AM.
Quote Originally Posted by Bret4207
“There is more to this than dumping lead in a hole.”
Found a rifle and two other thing one day deer hunting found a near new Marlin 30-30. About 200 yds later I found one very drunk so-called hunter. After rolling him on his side and making sure he was no going to drowned in his own vomit. I headed to the truck to go get help to get him out of the woods.was all most to the truck and I found a very scared 10-12 yr old boy. His first question was have you seen my Dad?. Put the kid and gun in my truck and drove him home where Mom called some family to retrieve dear old Dad! As we waited for them I gave his rifle to her. Her comment was “ It will be a long time before he see,s this again!”
Clint, that's one of the saddest stories I've ever heard, that poor kid's got a father more interested in getting drunk than to have memorable , meaningful hunting trip with his son. makes me realize just how blessed I was to have a dad who taught me how to shoot, reload and hunt even though the hunting we did was to eliminate critters that were destroying our crops and not to put food oil the table, starting when I was about 10, never ever thinking about getting drunk or stoned or anything like that
Agreed. It's a good thing you showed up, no telling what might have happenned to that boy.
Was magnet fishing a creek from a bridge, found a shotgun with the barrel folded over no wood left and very rusty.
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