Whatever became of the rifle fired by fictional hero Atticus Finch?

Atticus Finch and Heck Tate in 1962 'TKAM' movie.

With February on my mind the other day, I was reminded that one of the most famous scenes in Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” happen in February 1935. It was on a Saturday in February in fictional Maycomb that Atticus Finch shot and killed a rabid dog in the street in front of Boo Radley’s house.

The scene in Chapter 10 of the novel begins with Scout and her brother, Jem, out with their air rifles, looking for a rabbit or squirrel to shoot. They were about 500 yards from the Radley House when Jem sees a dog in the distance. The dog was walking “erratically, as if his right legs were shorter than his left legs,” reminding Scout of a car that’s stuck in a sand bed.

The children recognize the dog as Tim Johnson, the “pet of Maycomb.” Tim, a liver-colored bird dog, belonged to Harry Johnson, who lived on the southern edge of Maycomb. For a living, Harry Johnson drove a bus back and forth to Mobile each day.

Jem runs to tell Calpurnia, who then gets the local telephone operator, Miss Eula May, to call everyone on the street to warn them about the dog. Cal then runs onto the Radley porch to warn Boo and his father, Nathan, of the approaching dog. Not long after that, Atticus and Sheriff Heck Tate arrive in a black Ford.

At this point in his life, Atticus is nearly 50 years old, and he lives with the “tribal curse of the Finches,” that is, he’s nearly blind in his left eye. When he wants to see something well, he turns his head and looks from his right eye. When Tate hands Atticus the rifle to kill the dog, Atticus informs the sheriff that he hasn’t shot a gun in 30 years.

Atticus takes the rifle anyway and when Tim Johnson stops in front of the gate to the Radley House, Atticus shoots him above his left eye, putting the dog out of its misery. It’s here that Jem and Scout learn that Atticus was once known as the “deadest shot in Maycomb County.” Neighbors Maudie Atkinson and Stephanie Crawford tell the children that Atticus was at one time known by the nicknames of “One Shot Finch” and “Ol’ One-Shot.”

During all of this, several characters mention the once commonly held belief that dogs couldn’t get rabies during a cold weather month like February. Scout says that she thought dogs got rabies in August. Cal also has to tell Eula May, the phone operator, that she knows “it’s February… but I know a mad dog when I see one.” Miss Stephanie also remarks, “Uh, uh, uh, who’da thought of a mad dog in February?”

On a side note, those who know a lot about firearms tell me that the rifle used by Atticus Finch in the 1962 motion picture version of “To Kill a Mockingbird” was a full-length American Krag-Jorgensen Model 1898 rifle in a 30-40 caliber with a cut down stock. It would be interesting to know where the rifle used in the movie is today. Perhaps it would make for an interesting item to display in the Monroe County Museum.