the buried gun

[John Gryphon]

Circa `77 we were building a concrete water tank onsite in Serpentine Vic. Site/ground clearing produced this little gun that had been buried whenever previously. Iirc I think I posted it some years ago and someone ID it....Richard (ES?) Care to opine so I can do more research?

 

[enfieldspares]

Hello JG! I remember it. I think it is a Hopkins and Allen or Iver Johnson by the barrel and the under barrel pin. Here's one and one of the other that have been better looked after. LOL! Hammer spur says it's likely Hopkins and Allen more than I.J. maybe owned by some rancher or one of his hands who carried it to keep his hard earned safe when he went to town to bank after selling day or collect the payroll money.

American Bulldog in S&W .38

www.riverjunction.com

https://www.bradfordsauction.com/auction-lot/iver-johnson-american-bulldog-.38-s-w-revolver_F354A80827

It maybe was bought from a gun store or even maybe from the Army & Navy Co-op catalogue or similar "Empire and Dominion" mail order concern? For sure they'd have been cheaper than a Webley Mk III or similar size and calibre Smith & Wesson product. Did Sears Roebuck sell into Australia?

 

[John Gryphon]

Did Sears Roebuck sell into Australia?

First of all thank you Richard. This time I will screenshot your reply. (screenshoot lol?)
S R? I don`t think they ever made it to here.
That little piece being buried suggests to me 'sinister connotations' in its history.
The hammer is a pretty good giveaway,thanks old boy.

 

[Donkey Basher]

Just to add to the intrigue...

Looking at the cylinder proportions its not a 38 S&W - the latter has a rectangular profile whereas the one JG has is a square proportion. I'm not up to speed on my old revolver cartridges but would guess this is maybe a 32 not a 38?

 

[John Gryphon]

but would guess this is maybe a 32 not a 38?

Your sleuthing is more than likely correct DB.

 

[enfieldspares]

That little piece being buried suggests to me 'sinister connotations' in its history.

Maybe, and it is perhaps possible, some drover who now even to today rests in France or the Dardanelles, buried it well wrapped in oily cloths before they went to join up and never got to come back for it?

Because he, having neither permanent abode nor family, decided that burying it was actually the only way to keep it safe until their return? Most war dead will have a note of their family. Those that don't? Maybe they had none?

It maybe something or nothing. But L/Cpl Deslandes has unlike the others neither next of kin nor family listed on the Commonwealth War Graves rolls. Nor a known grave.

Lance Corporal Hector Leslie Deslandes | War Casualty Details 1598755 | CWGC

Lance Corporal Hector Leslie Deslandes | War Casualty Details | CWGC

www.cwgc.org

Serpentine and District Honour Roll | Places of Pride

Places of Pride is an Australian War Memorial initiative to record the location and photos of every war memorial across the country.

placesofpride.awm.gov.au

 

[John Gryphon]

I reckon it was probably involved in a crime,bank job,murder. My local cop at the time the most vacant Const Fred Burns had the smarts of a robotic echidna and was sitting at mine with a cuppa and I showed him the gun,suggested it was buried because of a crime and he looked me in the eye and said 'fascinating'. One never knows way back when the gun was working that perhaps a crime had been committed using the gun. I really thought that a fair dinkum copper would have delved into gun ID and crimes of the time...not so fascinating Freddy ****er couldn't care a ****.
It might be the answer to an unsolved mystery,**** it may have fallen out of Amelia Earhardt's plane.