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Forums10
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Joined: Jan 2002
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Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,002 |
As is typical, I assume, my Stevens Model 311A has no serial number. Is there any way to determine its date of manufacture? It has H J and a smaller G inside a circle, stamped on the flats and water table, and H J and what looks more like a C stamped in the end of the buttstock under the buttplate, along with a few other markings I can share if it helps. Hoping this is a date code and that one of you can break it. Varnished walnut stock with non-fluted comb. Dimensions are 14 1/4 x 1 5/8 x 2 7/8. A wand-like 6 lb. 14 oz. 20-gauge I950-65 is my best guess, but I'd like to narrow that down. By the way, it says Stevens 311 on one side of the frame and Stevens 311A on the other ... what's the "A" for? Thanks for any guidance you can give, guys, and happy hunting. TT
"The very acme of duck shooting is a big 10, taking ducks in pass shooting only." - Charles Askins
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,715 Likes: 114
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,715 Likes: 114 |
All the Stevens factory guns made from 1948 till the passage of the Gun Control Act (requiring serial numbers) had a date code roughly stamped on the center bottom of the action either just in front of the trigger guard or just behind the hinge. The stamp is a letter for the year and a number for the month of manufacture, stamped inside of a circle or oval. "A" represents 1948 and each succeeding alphabet letter represents the next year. "O" and "Q" were not used.
I don't know what the letter codes on the action flats mean. The 311A is a model number; there were several letters used with the number 311 to identify the various small changes in the gun over the many years of production...Geo
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,002
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,002 |
Perfect, that's just what I needed. I've got a small 9M in an oval on the underside of the frame, just back of the hinge. That would put it at September 1960, which seems about right. Thanks for your help, George. TT
"The very acme of duck shooting is a big 10, taking ducks in pass shooting only." - Charles Askins
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,715 Likes: 114
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,715 Likes: 114 |
Those older Stevens 311's in 16ga and 20ga with walnut stocks are pretty nice guns. When I was in high school, I decided I wanted to switch from a 20ga Rem. mod 31 pump-gun to a sxs. A 311 was what I wanted, but instead ended up swapping for a Savage "Fox" model B 12 ga with vent rib. What a come-down! It ended all right since I swapped on to an L.C.Smith 20 and then into a Westley Richards 16, but boy, that Fox was a clunker...Geo
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 11,464 Likes: 133
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 11,464 Likes: 133 |
That Fox Model B came out of the same factory as the Stevens.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,715 Likes: 114
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 7,715 Likes: 114 |
That Fox Model B came out of the same factory as the Stevens. I know it did, but the 311 wasn't tarted up like the Savage Fox. I think my real problem was changing from a svelte 20 to a clunky 12; whatever, it ruined the model B's in my mind forever...Geo
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,002
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,002 |
I have to agree with George. My first shotgun was a Fox Model B 20-ga built in the early- to mid-70s (beavertail forend, pressed checkering, very heavy). As I said earlier, this 1960 311 is no "wand," but it still seems like a higher-quality gun than that Model B was. I figure that rising production costs and corner-cutting over the 15 years between the manufacture of those two guns is the main cause of this difference. I will also speculate that American demand for side-by-sides was at its lowest point ever right around 1975, and that Savage saw no reason to build a nicer gun if the market didn't want it anyway. My two cents. TT
"The very acme of duck shooting is a big 10, taking ducks in pass shooting only." - Charles Askins
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 36
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 36 |
The 311 is a great user gun and I carry a 410 in my Tahoe most of the time.I like it so well I had a single trigger put in it. Its a real shooter. Last Sunday at our vintage shoot where I ran 50 straight in wobble with my 21 20 after which I put my 410 barrels on and gave it to a friend.Then I got my 311 out for the 410 event and broke 21x25 for second place using AAs 1/2 oz.8 1/2s and 3" 7 1/2s in the second barrel.
To bad they didn't spend a little more money on them when they made them.They work.
AC
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,232
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,232 |
There was an old gun trader in my home town that had a Stevens 311 that he'd special ordered years before. It had 32 inch barrels, single trigger, 3 inch chambers, and even ejectors if memory serves. It had been his duck and goose gun for many years. He owned Parkers and Smiths, but used that Stevens for most of his waterfowling. I tried to buy it after his death but everything went to a niece and she sold all the guns to one guy for next to nothing before I ever called.
Destry
Out there at the crossroads molding the devil's bullets. - Tom Waits
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 11,464 Likes: 133
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 11,464 Likes: 133 |
The early Model B's weren't so bad. Slim forends, not terribly clunky. They did indeed get "tarted up", and grew very fat in the forend, in the later versions. Kinda like putting more makeup on an aging streetwalker.
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