Thread: Owner of recovered firearm wanted

Hey team,

Long shot here but Police have recovered a Winchester Model 70 XTR Sporter.

Serial number is not registered to anyone.

If you know anyone that has had one of these lost or stolen please let me know.

Moderators if this isn’t the right place for this please move it.

Cheers,

Andrew

"owner wanted" ... what's he or she wanted for ?

I think that's bait.

as in...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiLX4bkKguA

Originally Posted by Andrew46826

Hey team,

Long shot here but Police have recovered a Winchester Model 70 XTR Sporter.

Serial number is not registered to anyone.

If you know anyone that has had one of these lost or stolen please let me know.

Moderators if this isn’t the right place for this please move it.

Cheers,

Andrew

Hi Andrew, good to see you back. I understand the context of your request - perhaps you should explain how you are involved and what you do. That might abate some of the suspicion.
Are you doing any hunting nowadays?

You will remember me from "Old forum Rangi trip".

yips its become a catch 22 if you have the misfortune to have something stolen....when you are threatened with allsorts of things from non secure to loss of licence fullstop it becomes easy to see why some folk would just suck the sav and say nothing.

I found a ss lever action a few years back it had been left on a log by a locked forest gate so I dropped it off to the local station the bloke behind the counter said if no one claims it I could have it , then I got a phone call saying the officer was mistaken & that the rifle would be destroyed if its owner did not claim it , 3 years latter I received a letter saying I could now pick the rifle up..it took me 10 minutes to collect it incase they changed there mind again !!

A simple yes or no would have sufficed

Tahr I hope all is well with you!

The long and short of it, I found the firearm in the boot of a vehicle after a vehicle stop.

It would be safe to assume the miscreants that were in possession of it did not own it. Or at least shouldn’t own it.

We have no record of the serial number and as such no record of how it came to be in their possession whether they have been given it by someone (I highly doubt) or stolen in a burglary (my suspicion).

I’m not here to hang anyone out to dry, simply to find the owner for what is a very nice, well looked after firearm, rather than see it destroyed like so many others.

Like I said at the start of my post it’s a long shot but I thought I’d give it a whirl.

Cheers,

Andrew

Originally Posted by sightpicture

I think that's bait.

as in...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiLX4bkKguA

You've got to love it!

Thanks Andrew 46826...good call, buddy!

It may belong to now Insurance company if there was a claim for the stolen firearm and it was settled with the previous owner, a recovered firearm is now the Insurance company's salvage.

We have had ones from thefts from 3 or 4 years ago recovered and if they are still in good condition, some people have even bought them back for a token amount.

I cannot speak for Auckland but the Christchurch Arms office have been pretty accommodating even if the last few months.

Originally Posted by Andrew46826

A simple yes or no would have sufficed

Tahr I hope all is well with you!

The long and short of it, I found the firearm in the boot of a vehicle after a vehicle stop.

It would be safe to assume the miscreants that were in possession of it did not own it. Or at least shouldn’t own it.

We have no record of the serial number and as such no record of how it came to be in their possession whether they have been given it by someone (I highly doubt) or stolen in a burglary (my suspicion).

I’m not here to hang anyone out to dry, simply to find the owner for what is a very nice, well looked after firearm, rather than see it destroyed like so many others.

Like I said at the start of my post it’s a long shot but I thought I’d give it a whirl.

Cheers,

Andrew

In the good old days not too long ago the Police would put up such a Firearm for auction with proceeds going into the Police budget, That would be good policy to reinstate in this cash strapped time
may even improve the standing of the Police with the Firearms community that PoliceHQ trashed so effectively in the last year.

Many years ago, the engineering firm I worked for was the go to for destroying handed in firearms. During the 80's amnesty they apparently had dozens of 44 gallon drums of firearms to be destroyed. Mostly 303's old 22's and sxs shotties.
Whilst I was there in the early 90's we did get infrequent intakes of firearms that had been confiscated, handed-in etc. for destruction, including a SS ruger mini 14 that someone had not done the paperwork properly when importing and another fellows (committed suicide before trial) firearms that included several Lugers one of which was a proper ww2 jobbie and relatively special. The firearms squasher tried his best to save that one to no avail. Also other pretty basic bolt actions.
Usually the pack rat firearms enthusiasts amongst us would get bits and pieces from the dead firearms.
I did get a couple of 303 stocks and I know on the rare occasion when a sporter rifle was destroyed they sometimes were allowed to get the stock before it was squashed, but not always.
I believe back then they used much the same policy as the Australians. They no way in hell wanted any firearm that they had contact with getting out there and being used illegally.

Originally Posted by Boaraxa

I found a ss lever action a few years back it had been left on a log by a locked forest gate so I dropped it off to the local station the bloke behind the counter said if no one claims it I could have it , then I got a phone call saying the officer was mistaken & that the rifle would be destroyed if its owner did not claim it , 3 years latter I received a letter saying I could now pick the rifle up..it took me 10 minutes to collect it in case they changed there mind again !!

That warms my heart. I remember you shared that story before, but not the happy ending 3 yrs later!

Apologies for the delay Phil.

I agree with you on most points and completely understand why someone wouldn’t want to put their hand up. Unfortunately that is what it is.

It is disappointing that Police are losing that relationship with firearm owners. There are plenty of firearm owners within the Police that would agree with you also.

However again I was hoping to find an owner of the firearm if it had potentially been stolen through no fault of the owner.

Cheers,

Andrew

Originally Posted by Andrew46826

Apologies for the delay Phil.

I agree with you on most points and completely understand why someone wouldn’t want to put their hand up. Unfortunately that is what it is.

It is disappointing that Police are losing that relationship with firearm owners. There are plenty of firearm owners within the Police that would agree with you also.

However again I was hoping to find an owner of the firearm if it had potentially been stolen through no fault of the owner.

Cheers,

Andrew

A noble gesture, thank you.
I had the above in the much maligned 7x57 stolen, obviously a hell of a long shot, she was a beauty of a rifle.


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