Rifle Props!

Some weeks back and archeologist and her crew were combing the deserts of Nevada for Early American artifacts when they stumbled across a winchester leaning against a Juniper tree. There it sat, for god only knows how long, propped against the tree. Its stock was buried and the gun was very weathered. No trace of its owner lay about.

They've done a little research and found the gun was manufactured in 1888 and shipped out west, after that, they lose track of it.

Who knows what lonely traveler left it there. Did he forget it? Probably not. Like as not he leaned it there while resting or camping or recuperating from some wound . . . and he never got back up. Probably not in a fight or the gun would have been taken. Snake bite? Bear attack? Who can say.

Only the wind, the whispering wind...