Need some help dating this shotgun. The S/N is 111XX. If anyone is able to provide a mfg date I would appreciate it. From the little info I found, I believe it was built prior to 1938 but info is hard to come by.

Thanks!

bob

huskerbob,

I tried to paste a picture here, but I'm not savvy enough.

There is a system that uses a two character letter code that might date your Sportsman if it was manufactured between 1921 and 1972. BLACKPOWDERX. B=JAN, L=FEB and so on...for the month.

The year is the second letter. No secret "code" here. M=1921, N=1922...Z=1931 then back to A=1932 until L=1942. After that it's a three letter code until 1953. Starting with MM=1943, NN=1944 until ZZ=1953. Then it starts with A=1954 through W=1972.

In my experience, the code is located on the left side of the barrel near the breech.

Clear as mud?

Doug

Rakkasan wrote:huskerbob,

I tried to paste a picture here, but I'm not savvy enough.

There is a system that uses a two character letter code that might date your Sportsman if it was manufactured between 1921 and 1972. BLACKPOWDERX. B=JAN, L=FEB and so on...for the month.

The year is the second letter. No secret "code" here. M=1921, N=1922...Z=1931 then back to A=1932 until L=1942. After that it's a three letter code until 1953. Starting with MM=1943, NN=1944 until ZZ=1953. Then it starts with A=1954 through W=1972.

In my experience, the code is located on the left side of the barrel near the breech.

Clear as mud?

Doug

Doug,

Thanks for the info! I'll take a closer look and see if I can figure it out.

Bob