doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Serial number lists or The myth of fingerprints...

I occassionally get emails from Aubrey / Meriden owners asking for more information. In many cases, these are heirloom guns that have been owned by a family member since they were ordered new from the Sears catalog.

Yesterday, I got the usual request. I try to give as much as we know about a particular gun. I often ask for photos if available, sometimes just more info about what they are seeing.

So this fine gentleman let me know that his grandfather was given 69307. Being a hammerless gun, this should have been made in 1905 or 1906. Here are 2 telling photos.



Notice the rib has the patent date of 1907. OK, so the list is off a bit...



Notice this is not an Aubrey but a Meriden. AJ did not leave until 1910! So at best this gun was made mid-1910....

I am sure we can come up with all sorts of stories.

In the end, a serial number list is only a best guess. Each gun is unique.

Pete

Sounds like another case of the auteur vs. the angel, Pete. Who's at the helm or has his name on the gun at a particular time is a tool for sorting out when these bins of predated frames became guns. Doesn't work so well with a big contractor like FN and the Superposed. Or would it, if the company personnel history was sifted thoroughly for temporal windows obscured by serialization of a major component?

jack

Do we know the barrels are original to the gun?

Mark,

Yes they are.

Pete

How was the forearm attached? The Deely & Edge style was introduced in 1910.

The Men that built these guns many years ago, did not have the benefit of the research and serial number lists that we have today, so they often time got things wrong.































Yes it is Sarcasm

Hi. I have just acquired a Meriden shotgun. My first one. I was wondering if by a description, someone could tell me what grade this Meriden is:

30" barrels, ICxM chokes, double trigger

Top of rib : MF'D BY THE MERIDEN FIREARMS CO.MERIDEN,CT.PAT'D JULY 9,1907

Serial : 74507

On the right side of action flat, under the right barrel : 37

On the left side of action flat, under the left barrel : T32

Stamped by the forend lug : T

Stamped by the front/ forward barrel lug : 2

There is a Setter dog on point in some grass/ rushes on the left lock plate.

There is a Pointer dog on point in some grass/ rushes on the right lockplate.

If someone could date this and tell me the grade, or where it fell in the Meriden line, I would appreciate it. I could post pictures if necessary, but I live out in the sticks, and I have old slow dialup. It takes forever.

thanks, redoftx.

Congrats on a nice American sidelock.

The serial number dates to about 1915-1916. It had 32" Twist barrels. It sounds like a model 37, which would have been model 34 early on. It sold for $18.85 in the Sears big book.

In 1917 they stopped production and moved to a smaller facility. They continued to sell from inventory through 1919 while doing repair work.

Pete

I would have to look up to find info on this but I certaimly don't think 1910 is the correct date for the D&E forend. It seems to me D&E have always been given credit for the origin of the lever forend latch & there are way too many pre 1900 guns in existence with this style latch for that date to be correct, or else D&E were total infringers of someone elses design & I don't believe that is the case.

I was misunderstood....what I was trying to say was that Meriden Fire Arms Co started using a Deely & Edge mechanism on their guns around 1910. So its another way to help determine when a Meriden gun was produced. Attached is a portion of the 1910 Sears catalog...