Most abused surplus arms encountered

[Adam Helmer]

Gil,

Good post; a few examples come to mind. When I lived in NH, I used to hunt deer in the northern section of the White Mountain National forest out of a camp with other guys. On the wall of the camp was a 98 Mauser one of the hunters found in the woods way up on Deer Mountain. Apparently 15 or 20 years before a hunter got lost and panicked and ran out of the woods without the rifle. The rifle was still loaded and the safety was on. It was a rusty hunk of junk.

A fellow nearby ran an ad in the paper saying he had "Army Guns" for sale so I went to take a look. On his dining room rug were about 20 rifles lying in a heap; all were rusty, the stocks were black with grime and the bores were solid rust. He advised me he shot most of them, but did not own a "gun cleaner." He had inheirited the arms from his uncle, a WWII veteran who brought most back from the war. I passed on all of them.

Adam