doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Stampings on Model 21 barrel breech

This was posted on the SSBB by becassier. I though it of interest.

"becassier
Post subject: Stampings on M21 BreechPosted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 10:27 pm


Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2004 6:17 pm
Posts: 11
Location: Texas
While cleaning my M21's I noticed some stampings on the breech end of the barrels on the area covered by the ejectors. Across the area where the barrels are joined together, there are the numbers 754 with the letter "A"at the 7:30 position on the right barrel on my 16 Ga.

On the 12 Ga., 751 is stamped on the area where the barrels are joined together, with the letter "P" at the 6:00 position on the right barrel.

Can't find any mention of these in Schwing's book. Can anyone shed any light on these markings

Thanks"


I made this reply: "
"My 16ga Model 21 Skeet Grade has the #382 stamped between the barrels, under the ejectors, and the letter "P" at 7:00 position of the right barrel.
I don't have any clue of their meaning. The might be barrel assemblers stamps?

_________________
Ole Cowboy

Ole Cowboy,

My 16ga Model 21 Standard has Nº602 stamped between the barrels, under the ejectors, and the same letter "P" at 7:00 position in the right barrel too. Maybe you are right as "P" being related to the assembler identification.

EJSXS

a little of subject but i once had a skeet 21 ws1 ws2 26" that had marked on outside of barrels 3" the letter from cody had no mention of it but it looked like winchester did it, it was perfectly marked. sold the gun however. why would any one want a skeet gun with 3" chambers is anyones guess, bottom of receiver was marked skeet gun was from 1937 according to cody. 12ga

Jimmy W, do your 21s have these barrel breech stampings?

My 21 barrels:
12 ga 28" 862 K
30" 895 Q
26" 605 P
16 ga 28" 8Z9 L
30" 340 M
20 ga 30" 534 Z
28" 424 Z
26" nothing They were bought from Galazan 13 years ago and were unfinished. Sent to Frank Lefever for boring, chambers, and finish.

Yes, all of mine have the numbers, but my 20 gauge doesn't have any letters that I can see. I would guess that it is a dating system as to when the barrels were finished. The Z on William's 16 gauge was probably supposed to be a 2 so that it would read 829 instead of 8Z9.

Seems a bit odd that there is no mention of these stampings in any of the reference books, at least as far as I know.

Maybe we all ended up with "LUNCHBOX GUNS".

I don't think the numbers can be an employee's ID number because there are too many different numbers envolved. And I don't think they had that many people assembling the barrels. I can't figure out any dating system by the letters, either. Two of my guns don't have any letters at all- only numbers. One of my guns has 67E. I thought if you started at 1929 or 1930 and went down through the alphabet, this would make it the fourth or fifth year, which would figure with the serial number 2560. One I have has 123 only (with no letter)which could be the first year if they didn't put a letter on it. Or for the first few years- which would figure because the serial number is 93. The one I have #19754 was made in 1947 so an S could figure 1947 if you went down through the letters. You guys will have to check your letters with the serial numbers to see if they match up with the date they were made if you have the paperwork to be sure. They put them on there for some reason....?? I'll see if I can find out.

The letters matching the year does not match up. My #15XXX is from April, 1942 has a P.
The letters could be the assemblers ID and the number could be the number of barrels they had assembled to that point in time?