All are possibilities at this point.SpongeBathHotPants said:Is it possible he was AWAL? Could have decided to hide out in the woods for a while. The gun could have been for protection from animals and for hunting. Or maybe he wasn't going to be captured and was going to fight back. Just some thoughts.
If he was hunting, he probably didn't know much about it, based on his clothing, lack of proper hunting supplies, and carrying of equipment not needed for a hunt. However, many hunting accidents involve people who don't know what they are doing, so the possibility is there. One of the most common "accidents" is hunters mistaking other hunters for game. Another common accident is a hunter carrying or handling his rifle or shotgun in an unsafe manner. Also, hunters often fall out of tree stands, or drop their rifles from them, causing fatal accidents.
More likely that he was only camping and intending to do some target shooting as well. There are bears in Pennsylvania, and maybe wild dogs, so maybe he was carrying the rifle for protection.
The case summary does not mention how much ammo he had, or whether any fired casings had been found nearby. One news article mentions that "three boxes of shells" were found with his things. The proper term would be "cartridges" rather than "shells" if this was unfired .30-06 ammunition. "Shells" could mean shell casings of fired cartridges. It is not clear.
A fully loaded 1903 Springfield rifle holds five shells in its magazine. This rifle had one fired shell casing in the chamber, and two cartridges in the magazine. Rather unusual, as it would indicate that perhaps two other rounds had already been fired. If he was intending to commit suicide, why would he need two extra rounds in the magazine? Did he expect a follow-up shot in case he missed?
It is a good possibility that this man was a military veteran of WW II and/or the Korean War - based on his age, physique, and assumed or aparent familiarity with camping and shooting. Whether or not he was Absent without Leave from his duty station, there is no way of knowing at this point. He could have been on the run and hiding out from a number of different situations besides the military.
The military does keep score on all deserters and still has them on the books with active arrest warrants going back to the late 1940's. There was recently in the news a story about an Army Sergeant who deserted in 1964 in Korea, and who returned to US control last year. He was processed back into the Army, given an Administrative Discharge Hearing in lieu of a Court Martial, and formally processed out of the Army with an Undesirable Discharge. So, if there is any possibility that this guy was an active duty military man who went AWOL, or simply missing, it can be checked into rather quickly. If, however, he was already a discharged Veteran, there would be no records maintained by the military regarding his disappearance.