Elk hunt

[Kokopelli]

I had a bit of misadventure last weekend. I went elk hunting with my son and father and my son made a great shot and got one opening morning just before noon. While trying to retrieve it I rolled my ATV and broke my left arm just above the wrist. My son took me to camp on his ATV and my father went back to get my rifle off my ATV but the ATV was on top of it and he wasn't able to move it by himself so he left it there and left to take me to the hospital. He came back the next morning and found somebody had stolen my rifle, along with some other stuff from the box on my ATV. The rifle was a Springfield 30-06 with a Bushnell expert scope, a black composite stock, and a tan leather sling. So if anybody sees or hears about someone getting a rifle please think of me. We were in the hills above Fruitland UT when it happened.



My splint that another hunter helped me fashion.

[Sandstone Addiction]

Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but have you reported it to the county sheriff as stolen? If you provide them with the serial number it should raise a red flag when they try to dump it at a pawn shop or trade it for something else from a dealer.

I mistakenly forgot to put my father's Pre-64 Mod 70 30-06 in my Bronco way back when, after a long day elk hunting, and of course by the time I'd discovered my mistake it was long gone.

The county sheriff just shook his head when I told him that my dad had never recorded the serial number down anywhere and that there was nothing he could do about it.

I still feel sick about it to this day and spent many a gun show looking at every vintage Mod 70 hoping to find it for sale. Lesson learned, I have since logged every serial number for every gun and accessory ever owned with a copy on the PC and a hard copy in the safe.

Good luck, I hope you get it back.

[Painted Horse]

I was also near fruitland this past weekend elk hunting. Beautiful weekend to be out.
A rifle is a minor cost to replace, Probably just a small percentage of what your medical bills will be and what you will spend to fix the damages on your ATV.
It's now a great excuse to buy a new gun and try something different.

[Kokopelli]

True the medical bills and the repairs to the ATV will be more but the rifle is more irritating. I just find it amazing that someone would come across a wrecked ATV and just help themselves to my stuff. Plus I've had the rifle since I was 14. It had a lot of sentimental value to me.

[Painted Horse]

I definitely don't condone anybody just helping themselves. I've been fortunate that we haul our camp in and set it up in late September and usually leave it until about Halloween. We come and go as work schedule allows, and have always found our tent, cots, sleeping bags, wood stove etc just as we left it. My experience has been that other hunters on the mountain have been very respectful of the stuff I've left between trips. Of course we don't leave any food because I'm more worried about a bear tearing up the tent or mice infesting it to get at some candy bars. And I don't leave stuff that is easy to walk off with. (Rifles or Binos) I guess if somebody wants to steal a $70 cot and carry it 7 miles back down the trail. They needed it more than I. If I stumbled across a wrecked ATV, I would assume that the owner would be back to clean up the mess. Nobody likes to see parts of a Snowmobile or ATV scattered on the mountain, We all hope the owners make the effort to get the debris off the mountain. And in cases like yours, where somebody got hurt, expectations should be that they will come back after the medical emergency has been handled.

Maybe in your case you just had the luck of the person who found your ATV, being one of those that hates atv riders that take their atvs off the trails and it was his way of telling you that you should have stayed on the trail.

But to help ease your irritation, My experience has been that guns don't survive wrecks very well. Usually a stock breaks, Scopes get cracked, The bedding gets banged up and the gun doesn't shoot very accurately after the accident. Hope your arm heals and you find a great deal on a new rifle that will accrue new memories