My grandfather was a gunsmith and had rifles, pistols and stuff stashed and hidden all over the property. Seems he had trouble with stuff disapearing and didn't want any one to know what he had.
Anyway, he died in 1997 and I bought the place. My dad and my two uncles had pretty much found all the gun stuff and I was left with a huge pile of rusty junk.
I salvaged three shotguns and restored them, nothing special.
Last summer I needed a new flourecent tube for the overhead above the bench, so I went around to the furnace and reached behind there where there were a bunch standing, and I felt something unusual.
It was definately heavier than a flourecent tube! Well first out came an old lever action that was still in decent shape, then came out this old longrifle.
I called dad, he came over and confiscated the lever action as he had been looking for that one. The long rifle he said probably belonged to his great grandfather.
He said when he was a kid he remembered running the ramrod down the barrel and finding some kind of black goop.
Well, ran the rod down it and sure enough, some heavy black goop. Must be the same gun! The initials in the plate oposite of the lock M.P. proves it may be the same gun. Hiding behind the furnace definately kept it dry. I don't want to restore it, but I would like to give it a gentle cleaning just to get the shop dirt off it. Who knows, maybe I could make it shootable and run a few rounds through it? Well, maybe not.
