A 500-year old swivel gun is an interesting find. My favorite, though much younger, is the ’73 Winchester found propped against a tree.
Every now and then someone digs up an ancient, pitted, rusted ‘relic’ here in Montana. The stories those guns could tell………..
That article has a whole lot of assumptions and appears written by somebody who doesn’t know much about history or firearms… Unfortunately I’m not surprised given it is from USA Today and Yahoo News.
i’d give a million to know the story of that ’73.
The article at the link was written by the archaeologist who found it, Eva Jensen… https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/winchester-model-1873-rifle-found-and-preserved.htm
Following. This is why our short lifespans are for the purposes of being merely a custodian of all those martial implements. Maintain those guns, and cannons well and they shall soldier on long past your own expiration date. The archeological researchers at “the exchange”, will have to dig a little to figure out who the fellow was that engraved some kind of zero on those perfectly cached and preserved guns those Wolverines tribes of peoples roam around with. Do your part well, so as to help the future be frosty.
Hey, they found it not too far from me! Makes me want to break out the metal detector, still must be a lot of stuff to find. The fact that people were able to build such high-quality items such as cannons and firearms back before electricity, natural gas, power tools and machine shops is amazing. No wonder the blacksmiths stood at the right hand of the King.
The modern horse, steel and the wheel were first brought to North America by the Spanish and others. Imagine having to lug that thing around and cross rivers and canyons on horseback while the natives were trying to kill them.
I really wonder what happened to the owner of the Winchester that he couldn’t/didn’t come back to get it.
Oh to have a “Way Back” machine to be able to watch.
Well, given how expensive guns were back in the day, I’m guessing he died or was otherwise forced to abandon it. Given the manufacturing range of the cartridge in the buttstock, the rifle had been there no earlier than 1911 so while the rifle may have been well over 1oo years old, it had been leaning against that tree only since 1911 or later.
Drop down to Cody and visit the Dug Up Gun Museum. Not quite as famous as the Cody Firearms Museum, up the street, but cheaper (donation only, last I checked) and you can see everything in less than an hour.
Whoever wrote the article was probably ignorant of the fact that those cannons were produced in a royal reseal in Spain. As such they would have the Crest of the King of Spain. It also would have the year it was produced. And since the Spanish Archives contain many ships manifests that listed contents it would be possible to trace which ship carried the cannon to the New World.
There is a gentleman of my acquaintance here in Michigan that has an original cannon tube from a Spanish Arsenal. It is marked as I described. The Crest of the King is from the rein of Charles who was the brother of Napoleon. Charles was forced to cede the Louisiana country to France. Napoleon then sold that territory to the United States in 1803. Thomas Jefferson accepted the deal. Seven million acres for the price of three cents an acre.
I need to buy a swivel gun for the pickup truck…🤔
Most of the artillery makers are out of business. Steen is gone. Museum and collectors specialties has closed up shop. Stay away form Hern tubes. The quality just isn’t there.
Jim Olsen who operates South Bend Replicas would be your best bet to find a swivel gun. As long as your looking for a muzzle loader using black powder. His website is active. Prices are right and the quality is above average.