Re: Newbie with LC questions; identifying year of guns. Archived Message
Posted by David W on July 21, 2008, 1:19 pm, in reply to "Newbie with LC questions; identifying year of guns."
DW, Like the initials. I will try and help you out.
When you first come to this sites Home page on the left hand side go down to Shotguns, when you put your cursor on Shotguns it turns red and opens up a series of subjects and one is Year of Manufacture. Scroll down to your serial number range and you will find the year. In the very early years some of the numbers are missing but you can still get close.
In order for me to date them it is important to know the gauge most of the times and the Grades. Also in the Marlin era guns it is important to list the letter "S" or the "M" because the serial numbers started over again and could become confusing.
So your first gun from what I can gather is from 1920. The second gun is from 1918. This would be the correct date because the Curtis push button release was used until then. It was only used on Field Grade guns because there was no other way to keep the forend from falling off if the "J" spring was loose on the forend. It was very expensive to made and was discontinued shortly afterward. Used from 1913-1918? Field Grades with ejectors had the banjo shaped escutcheon with the roller release. All other grades used the banjo escutcheon release whether they had ejectors or not until around 1934 when they went to the rectangular shaped roller release. Earlier guns from I believe 1892-1900 had the clam shell shaped release.
The "R" at the end of your serial number no one seems to know what that means. If it had been a prefix it would have meant Regular Frame.
The stocks on most guns from the factory was 14"-14 1/4", but you could order what you wanted. The measurement is from the concave part of the front trigger straight across to the end of the stock. Any type of recoil pad was available as an option. The only way you might find out if the stock was not cut is to take off the recoil pad and see if there is another set of holes where the original butt plate might have been.
As far as value, it is all about condition of gun. For insurance purposes any reliable gun dealer will give you an insurance price for them. BUT do not think that he will give you that for said guns.
Hope this helped you out and please become a member, you will find that shooting with these guns and being here on the forum that there are some very knowledgeable people to help you out. I'm just a novice learning all the time and having fun doing it.
Good luck
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