A "rattling" sound from a cabinet being shifted gave away the presence of a shotgun that is one of the hundreds of firearms handed in to Tasmania Police in just one month.
Police in Tasmania said they were amazed at how many unregistered guns were still out in the community.
The firearms have been handed in during the latest nationwide gun amnesty.
Tasmania Police gets about 1,000 guns voluntarily handed in each year, but since the national gun amnesty began on July 1, police say more than 800 firearms have been handed over at stations and mobile centres.
Alan Pursell surrendered a shotgun at one of the drop-off points in Granton near Hobart on Monday.
He said he found it as he was moving from his Granton property, where he had lived for 31 years.
"When I picked this cabinet up to put on the trailer, I heard something rattle in the bottom of it, underneath, in the base of it, and there was a gun there," he said.
"I don't know whose gun, I didn't even know it was there. If I hadn't have moved the cabinet it would still be there.
"I've got guns that are registered to me, but I didn't know about this one."
People handing in 'family heirloom' guns
Sergeant Phil Burton said police were particularly concerned about guns that are "just lying around".
"It's a concern, because there are firearms in people's houses that might get stolen," he said.
"The problem that that raises is if an honest person gets burgled, and they know that there was a firearm there that they shouldn't have had ... then they're in the quandary of 'should I tell the police about this?'
"The way to fix that is to hand it in now."
Some of the guns — such as sawn-off rifles — are illegal; others were not registered when gun laws were strengthened following the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.
Sergeant Burton said about a third of the people taking advantage of the amnesty had told police they inherited the gun or found it while administering a deceased estate.
"About a third of the people coming in refer to the fact it's a firearm from a family member from decades or longer ago," he said.
"[They haven't been handed in before because] it was a family heirloom, I guess, or it was stored somewhere and nobody really knew where it was."
Tasmania Police are setting up a number of mobile drop off points during the three-month amnesty.
The amnesty runs until the end of September.
