you reminded me...well my wife read this and reminded me of an OOPS at the shotgun range a few years ago
i had a 12 ga ithaca old shotgun from my late grand dad
wanted to run it and see how the old girl was..
anywho the inerds that held the spring and shells got jammed up and i couldn't get the shells to pop out the way they went in, so i unscrewed the cap thing to remove the spring and the jammed up cartridge in the magazine...yes the breach was open and no shell.
i let go of the cap just as it ran out of threads and WHOOSH like a coiled up prank snake in a can the spring shot out.
i was standing under a pine tree and the ground was that nice color or spring brown pine needles and i could not find the spring.
a few weeks go by and member posted on the forum they had found the spring or a spring hanging in the pine tree about 20 feet up
yup it was my spring, not a bit more rusty
