Found Revolver in Local River!!

snowtrooper49

Greenie
Sep 27, 2012
17
19
Farmington Hills, MI
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
This past weekend I finally got to search in a local river spot I've had my eye on for some time. I found several items but for sure the best was a revolver and Western 38 special bullet. I found the bullet first, which got me thinking how cool it would be to find a gun to go with it! It didn't take long before I came upon this old revolver! It's the first time I've found a firearm while detecting, so it definitely made my day!
I have a few pictures of the item fresh out as well as slightly cleaned up. The barrel is octagon shaped and it's missing the chamber. In place if the chamber, it looks like a rock wedged in there long ago and is now encased in the concretion that formed around it (almost kinda artsy by nature... haha). I think this is coincidentally a .38 caliber revolver, but likely no relation to the bullet I found in the area. Besides being octagon shaped, the barrel is 2" long and the entire gun is around 6.5" long. It's clearly toasted by the duration it was submerged and buried in the river bed.
I'm no expert in this stuff but I think it resembles a Forehand & Wadsworth Double Action .38 S&W revolver, but I'd love to hear any thoughts!!
 

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thadd

Jr. Member
Oct 7, 2012
70
27
Huntington Beach, CA
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Whites MXT
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Interesting find, gotta wonder if it was used in a crime and tossed into the drink a long time ago?? Makes you wonder.
 

OP
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snowtrooper49

snowtrooper49

Greenie
Sep 27, 2012
17
19
Farmington Hills, MI
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
85royalx - that's awesome! I'm sure there will be plenty more goodies down the road if you're still new to it.

thadd - It does make me wonder. The area I'm in saw a lot of Purple Gang activity during prohibition, but there might not be a way to ever link the two together for sure!
 

dieselram94

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Jun 17, 2011
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Really cool!!

Sent from my SCH-R930 using Tapatalk 2
 

thadd

Jr. Member
Oct 7, 2012
70
27
Huntington Beach, CA
Detector(s) used
Whites MXT
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
85royalx - that's awesome! I'm sure there will be plenty more goodies down the road if you're still new to it.

thadd - It does make me wonder. The area I'm in saw a lot of Purple Gang activity during prohibition, but there might not be a way to ever link the two together for sure!

Yeah, I'd say that any kind of evidence on that thing is pretty much history. Rifling and all that is far, far gone. Cool find, excellent conversation piece for sure.
 

cw0909

Silver Member
Dec 24, 2006
4,364
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Interesting find, gotta wonder if it was used in a crime and tossed into the drink a long time ago?? Makes you wonder.
cool find
didnt hoffa go missing about 30 mile from snowtrooper area LOL
 

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G.I.B.

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Feb 23, 2007
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Wow, tossed with the hammer back. It sure makes you wonder what the rest of the story was.

The cylinder with ejector rod should be somewhere close by.

That makes it doubly odd. The cylinder had to have been open, the hammer back when it hit the water. That might explain the loose round, but you generally don't reload with the hammer back... there is a heck of a story there.

Reloading, in the middle of a fight? One can only wonder.

Old time gangsters... Neat find.
 

OP
OP
snowtrooper49

snowtrooper49

Greenie
Sep 27, 2012
17
19
Farmington Hills, MI
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Wow, tossed with the hammer back. It sure makes you wonder what the rest of the story was.

The cylinder with ejector rod should be somewhere close by.

That makes it doubly odd. The cylinder had to have been open, the hammer back when it hit the water. That might explain the loose round, but you generally don't reload with the hammer back... there is a heck of a story there.

Reloading, in the middle of a fight? One can only wonder.

Old time gangsters... Neat find.

Imagination runs wild with a find like this!
I'm going to try to find the remaining components. The cylinder has had many years to roll downstream judging by how well lodged and cemented the rock in its place is. Hopefully I'll find it!
 

TheRingFinder

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May 22, 2013
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Minnesota
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Yep - Great find! - That's what MDing is all about, dreaming about what actually happened!!! I agree, Hoffa's murder weapon, probably priceless!!!!!!!!!!
 

ivan salis

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Feb 5, 2007
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highly possible long ago gun used in a crime * useless to police now most likely
 

mikeinnepa

Greenie
Feb 3, 2013
15
3
Lakevillepa
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Have one of those, they were sold through jc pennies for like 6.00$ cool none the less !
 

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