Old artical in Outdoor Life

[Dezertyote]

I remember reading an article back in the early 60s with a photo of an old flintlock rifle that had been left in the woods. A large tree had grown around the barrel of the gun. I can't recall where it was found, but I do remember that it was estimated to have had to of been there since the 1800s. That would be an awesome find.

Another find took place at a shop that I worked at in Phx. We got a lift of 1x8 pine in for building an exhibit, and an old boy found a mini ball that had been imbedded in a board. When the tree went through the saw mill  and was planed out it had sliced it length wise and showed the whole profile of the mini ball. We counted what growth rings were there, 35 or 38 cant remember the exact number, and no telling how big the tree was to begin with. I offered the old boy 50.00 bucks for it, but he wouldn't part with it.

[Dan Mich Trapper]

Back when I worked in the woods , we would always hear stories like this . I remember one where this logger was cutting into a big tree (musta been out west somewhere ) and hit some metal . After getting the tree down they found the metal was a gun barrel and there was a skeleton inside the hollowed tree also . They figured this fella was running from Indians and hid inside the hallow tree and couldnt get back out .

 I also saw in a hunting mag. a coon hound mummy that was found inside a hallow tree . Same thing , couldnt get back out .

[grizzy57]

I knew an old Logger who ruined a chain and bar on 3 longspring traps in an old Oak tree years ago.
                                     Grizzy57 :lol:

[Shorty]

My uncle once "found" a horse shoe deep inside a white pine log.  He said that the saw on his mill was spitting teeth like a machinegun! :eek:

[alpini]

I saw a show on TV where a guy had an old tree at his family home. One day looked up and spotted a bayonet stuck in one of the limbs way up there. They figured some soldiers fiddling around tossing their stickers during a lull and it was left that way all these years. Pretty neat find.

[MSP Ret]

Retired 3 years ago, about 2 years ago ripped up the rugs in the second floor bedrooms and re-did the floors with 10" and 12" shiplap 7/8" white pine, finishing the pine with 4 coats of pure Tung Oil (Waterlox brand). The floors came out great with beautiful color and nice character from knots and swirls in the wood. What is really nice though is a lead bullet that has been cut right through by the mill when processing the wood!! It is a bit misshapen as lead will do when shot into a tree and it is impossible to determine much about it without removing it which we did not do. I estimate it is somewhere between .22-.32 in diameter and be in the middle of the floor forever now. It is quite a conversation point but know usually covered with a  braided rug....<><.... :grin:

[Dan Mich Trapper]

I worked in a sawmill for a spell , its amazing what is inside trees that are cut . We found a horeshooe also that was in an oak tree . We found nails ALL the time , bullets , maple syrup spiles , wire , old glass insulators . Some of this stuff is deep into the trees too .

[1911crazy]

You left out barbed wire and steel fence poles which can really raise hell with my Husqvarna 2100 when I was logging years ago.  The steel fence pole took out my brand new 404 saw chain so that day it was a little costly.   I was getting one fall cutting season out of one 404 saw chain over using .375 on my smaller saws which I wore out more often. (smaller teeth)  That was the best time of my life while in the woods cutting trees, i was the in the best health I was ever in too.  My weight went down to 290lbs. and i just bulked up.  I guess using the 25lb 2100 all day sure helped too.  Of course the years of hard work sure took its toll too but I never regretted it.  Its funny how many guys wanted to cut trees with me but opnce they tried to keep up with me they just quit because they couldn't compete with me after being in the woods for so long you just get so strong you become an animal.  And most who thought it was easy found out it wasn't.  One guy just thought it was my husqvarna that was kicking his butt so his wife got him one and he still got his butt kicked anyway.   Mr. E.P. Bullard III said once I can take anyone off the street and make him a boss but i can't make a worker. (Bullard Machine Toll Company)                                                               BigBill

[Dan Mich Trapper]

I will not ceny that working in the woods was fun , but I never made any money . It was a very demanding job !! I ran a John Deere 440 skidder . It was very slow and beins the mill owned it , we got paid by the footage . I made $20 per 1000 feet of logs I skidded . When the timber ran small , it was hard to make money . Ya really had to make hay while the sun shined . We couldnt work on the real windy days for obvious reasons . Really wet days tore the woods up ( we did mostly private land). Deep snow slowed ya down . Long skids and small timber REALLY cut into your $'s per hour average.
 Those bad days I would cut firewood to sell . I cut and split while it was light out and delivered after dark . Really cut into the family time too . Now I drive a delivery truck . Little better money and Im home at night .

 Those were the days . I was about 22 yrs old with two kids so I had to get a better paying job , otherwise I'd still be in the woods .

[Javelina]

Hello Everyone,

I know I'm way late and more than a couple of dollars short on this subject, but here's sort of an interesting sideline to your stories.

About the time this thread was actually new, I ordered a buttstock for a Thompson Center Carbine alone with a forend and a barrel from Bullberry Barrel Works in Utah.  When I received the buttstock, it had two flaws that had been finished and epoxied over.  Both of the flaws seemed to be silver in color, one was only about 1/4" across, but the other one appears to be about 5/8" across.  Additionally, both of these flaws were finished smooth with the wood.  Having paid what I consider a lot of money (any money is a lot of money to me!) for this buttstock, I promptly called up Fred Smith at Bullberry and told him this sure wasn't his usual high-quality product.  He looked at it and said that he thought I'd be glad to have this "target tree" stock, although he was prepared to take it back if I didn't want it.  He explained that on rare occasions, he cut walnut for stocks that had bullets in it, and this was one of those special stocks.  After finding out what a dunce I was for not knowing how valuable this piece really was, I sheepishly mumbled an apology and asked for my wood back.  I received it in a couple of days - and now I know a lot more about trees growing around bullets and such.

This is a long winded story, but I thought it might be interesting to some.

Safe and good shooting to you!  

Javelina