Actually, the information about the rifle being sold in 1938 or 39 was not correct in the origional case summary and in early posts in this forum.
The follwing is from my 2008 post (number 291 on page 12):
... "Although the Doenetwork and early posts in this thread described it as a "Springfield Rifle", that was evidently only a sort of generic name meaning that it was a bolt action type. I spoke with the officer working this cold case, and he described it to me as a Remington Model 721A in 30-06 caliber.
The Remington 721A (a civilian hunting rifle) was introduced in 1948 and last manufactured in 1962. These dates do not support a statement made in one of the posts which dated the rifle to 1939. It was, in fact, a fairly new rifle at the time of this young man's death (1958). Documents indicated that it was origionally purchased in Fort Wayne, Indiana, but no records were kept back then as to who that origional retail purchaser was. The date of that purchase is also in question." ...
The rifle was likely sold in Fort Wayne, Indiana but the date of that sale had to have been some time between 1948 and 1958.
Thanks Richard for making the make/model of the gun more clear. I remember thinking when I first saw the gun described as a "Springfield" that maybe it was mistakenly called that because the .30-06 Cal. is technically referreed to ".30-06 Springfield". Just like there are calibers such as .243 Winchester, .270 Winchester, 7MM Reminington Mag, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, etc.
At first I was puzzled with so much ammo left at the scene but if Mr. B was in fact killed and then dumped there it makes sense that the killer would dump the gun there and all ammo he had linking him to the gun as well.
Tracing a "long gun" even today would be hard for LE. Two years ago I had my house broken into and 2 shotguns were stolen. Of course I reported them stolen and gave the serial numbers to the officer who responded but what I found out was that the state did not track "long gun" serials and me giving the serial numbers would only be beneficial in claiming the guns if they were ever recovered.
So I kindly asked the state police that if my gun was used in a homicide and left at the scene. How would they trace it to me if I had not reported it stolen.
The state police told me they would have had to call the manufacturer and find out what gun shop/store they orginally shipped it to.
From there they could only rely on the gun shop's records to trace it back to the owner. But the orginal owner probably sold it to someone..who may be the killer or he also may have sold it to the killer.
So obviously having the gun is a good piece of evidence but it's not surprising to me at all that LE has only a dead lead there.
Gun laws were real lax in the old days. I remember back in the 80's when I bought my first rifle I just gave the guy at the store 150.00 cash and he handed me the rifle..that's it. I could have used the rifle in a homicide the next day dumped the gun at the scene and there was nothing at all linking me to that gun. Even if they went to the store I bought it from the only thing they would have had to go with a maybe a physical decription if the store owner remembered me.
