The Way Of All Steel...

Oxide to oxide and rust to rust!  Better keep a light coat of oil on your hardware!

A neighbor hit this old Winchester with his plow about fifty years ago, and judging from the looks, it was probably on/in the ground for about fifty years.  The 1902 Sears catalog has octagon barreled Model 94s listed for $12.50, or about half a month's pay for a laborer back then.  This would have been a painful loss for whomever laid it down or lost it off his wagon.  You could buy a Model 94 in 32-40, 38-55, 25-35, and 30-30 back then. 

Speaking of losing things, Cameron Bosworth was making firewood down east of the farm in the Auxier/Shelton Creek Bottoms with Susan's Grandfather, Martin Knapp.  At the end of the day, Cameron hid the wedges so they wouldn't have to carry them out.  He had the misfortune of dying that night, and Martin never found those wedges.  That ground is all row-crop now, and I wonder if they have been plowed up and hung up in a toolshed as a souvenir.