"other" firearm collecting......

[rugerguy]

anyone familiar with the serial numbers of the Winchester 21 shotguns ????

was asked about the approximate year of a number #15,500 16 ga .....

anyone have any clue???


Thank you !!!

 

[street]

This is all that I could find. After the war production of some guns didn't get started until some time in the early 50s. As the model 21 was expensive Winchester probably was late getting started on this model, so if they made 800 to a 1000 guns a year it would take 5 to 7 years to reach 15,500. So if production got started in 1946 to 1948 that would put it at 1951 to 1953. If production didn't get started until 1953 then that would put it at 1956 to 1958. So it probably will be somewhere in between. I guess a letter from Winchester will be the only way to tell for sure.


MODEL 21




Year --------------Start of year----------------------Number made
1930-31----------------1-------------------------------615
32-----------------------616----------------------------330
33-----------------------947----------------------------691
34-----------------------1639---------------------------960
35-----------------------2600---------------------------2797
36-----------------------5398---------------------------1250
37-----------------------6649---------------------------1277
38-----------------------7927---------------------------826
39-----------------------8754---------------------------855
40-----------------------9610---------------------------864
41-----------------------10475-------------------------1248

Total production passed 33,000 in 1975. Still in production. Figures after World War II have not been released.

 

[BRASS FRAME]

Hey Dan, per our discussion, my 32" TRAP gun, #14334 left the Winchester factory in 1938. I would put your 16 ga. in the 1939-1940 period, probably shipping just as WW II started! Great, well made S X S shotguns. Popular at live pigeon shoots and vintage Sporting Clays shoots. Brass Frame/Lee

 

[Ale-8(1)]

Just out of curiosity . . .

All those dates are way before the gummint mandated that all guns from a single manufacturer had to be unique, forcing Ruger to implement its prefix numbering system. Prior to that you could have Single-Sixes and Blackhawks and .22 Pistols all with the same number, shipped in different years.

Is there the chance that the various Winchester shotguns were numbered the same way . . . that is, the model 21s were numbered in their own series and the Model 24s in theirs and the Model 97s in theirs, shipped in different years?

I have a six-digit Model 97 theoretically shipped in 1940, and a five-digit Model 24 theoretically shipped in 1948, which would seem to support this thought.

 

[street]

This may help!!!!!
http://proofhouse.com/win/winchester.htm

 

[rugerguy]

thanks guys, seems like what Jesse ,from the Cody Museum said is pretty true, the list is NOT 'correct' as now after talking with Lee as well as another person, has one near,they have letters that put their guns way earlier in production, and the 21 being more "custom" built to orders, one number and the next before OR after, shipped no where near the same time????
wow , and we thought Ruger jumbled numbers :shock:
Nice gun, too bad it is not a 20 ga, I would be tempted to buy it myself!! :wink:

 

[sdoyl123]

Based on the book "Model 21" by Ned Schwing, serial # 15,500 would be 1939. This would be when the frame was produced.

 

[rugerguy]

Thank you 'sdoyl123' that is the book that I am "missing" ( thought I had it here somewhere,,BUT???)
and this falls in the realm of what Lee and Charlie had told me with their guns, that 'lettered'...........
appreciate it, as does the owner..................... :wink:

and as I had heard from Cody Wy. museum, there IS factory work order/invoices available to this particular gun,IF they want any 'letter' ,so it is in the system. 8)