My Father in Law found a pistol while out for a walk the other day and it got me to thinking. I found a gun on the side of the street years ago and my buddy found one on HWY 101 last year......

How common is this? Have you ever found a gun in the street? If so tell us your story

I found three .22 rifles in a trash pile I was cleaning up at work.  Two Mossberg Plinksters and a 10-22.  They were pitched in a old drum out side an old cannery building in a big pile of junk that we, city employees, were working at getting cleaned up when we had time. 

I called the VPSO, Village Public Safety Officer, we documented where they were found and the rifles, and forwarded the info to troopers.  While we waited for call back, they were stored in evidence storage.  Within 24 hours troopers said that they were not stolen, and that they did not have any owners info, so do what you want with them. 

The Plinksters were corroded beyound salvaging so I locked them in a vise and chopped them into 4-6" pieces, then tossed them in a Smart Ash Burner with a load of used oil filter, and sorbents.  The 10-22 was in bad shape but it's better metallurgy aloud me to use it as a starting point for a youth sized 10-22 build.  Some of the pictures, before and after, and what I ultimately did with it are here.  https://wethearmed.com/gunsmithing-and-weapon-repair/rebuildingbuilding-a-1022/

Nothing functional.  What was left of a couple of old beater single shots from waaay back turned up when we were grading a new roadway over a piece of land that had once been an old farm.  They had been there so long you couldn't really recognize what they were.

I did find 3 incomplete guns in a house i had rented for 5 years. It was funny to find, a bolt to a Lee Enfield, a stock for a mauser 98, and a .30 cal M1903 Springfield barrel and reciever. I wondered what kind of project that guy had in mind.

A friend found one in his apartment, after a deployment and ugly break-up. He had no idea what to do with it (Californian), and called me. I took it down off the top of the cabinet it was on, cleared it, and agreed to store it for the night. The next day, we took it to the local PD together. I have no idea what happened to it. Since it was my friend's apartment, it was his police report. It was a POS Star .380, so I didn't really want it for anything other than "free gun!"

Yup.  The guy you pulled over had the gun his son found and shortly thereafter you found a gun also.  You own as I recall.    

I won a WTA writing contest a bunch of years ago about a guy finding a gun:

https://wethearmed.com/military-and-law-enforcement/young-cops-are-dangerous/

Yup.  The guy you pulled over had the gun his son found and shortly thereafter you found a gun also.  You own as I recall.    

A few days ago I was looking for Buds story of his high power from Vietnam. I combed all over this forum and couldn't find it. Could someone please either post it here or PM me?

Excellent.  Thanks for the link.   

Winston-Salem, NC.
I found a Glock outside a Circle K once.  Just outside the door, behind a trash can. 
If I hadn't been about to stuff old McD's bags in the can, I'd never seen the gun.
I knew better than to touch it, so I moved it around with my penknife.
it took me about 5 seconds of looking to know I wanted to call the cops, so I did.
someone had made a s___ty attempt to grind off the serial number and manufacturer's marks.
'FREE' gun or not, I'm not keeping one that is an automatic felony.
beat cop came and got the gun. no attempt to protect any fingerprints and he didn't even bother to clear it.
he took a report and a nice detective told me months later that they'd linked it to three shootings.

I've also found a VERY old and rusted out single barrel shotgun in an old abandoned house.

Kind of.  The action from a civil war musket, near Roanoke.  No wood was left and the action was a rusted chunk... but still. 

When cultivating a garden I hit metal.  It was a cache of quite a few metallic case US Mil. .45-70 ammo with headstamps dated 1883.  Live ammo.  No rifle, though.  :-(

Do you happen to own a .45-70? 

Then again, I'm sure keeping them for the story or perhaps even selling them wouldn't be out of the question.

Never, but if I did, first thing I'd do is report it to the police. I'm certain criminal use could be a very real possibility.

True, it's probably best not to touch it either.