A major police search in woodland did not result in a weapon being found.
Officers launched the fingertip hunt in the seven acre Whitebeam Woods, near Whitebeam Road, Durrington, Worthing, last Thursday.
It followed a tip-off that a weapon, thought to be a gun, had been dumped there. Sussex Police said the weapon was being linked to a crime committed locally.
The search continued into Friday but nothing was found.
An almost identical and similarly fruitless search was carried out on August 15.
Inspector Howard Hodges, of Sussex Police, said the hunt had been a "proportionate response" to the tip-off and that the public were never in any danger.
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