Determining dates of manufacture

[Maxsplat]

Found this helpful for trying to determine if a firearm is C&R or not:

http://www.nramuseum.com/media/940941/serialization-date%20of%20manufacture.pdf

I'm not sure how many of you know of it or if its already been shared (I searched but didn't find anything) but I figured it may help new C&Rs (like myself). I was able to find quite a few things in there but things like Nagant 91/30s I did not see in there. Nor did I see Star. Which could be due to them actually having the dates on them but I'm not certain.

Is there any place else that might have this kind of information handy for us?

Edit: This doesn't cover everything but it seems to cover quite a bit.

 

[somd_mustangs]

http://star-firearms.com/firearms/numbering.shtml
http://star-firearms.com/firearms/proof.shtml

good stuff on this website. Incidentally the date codes are good for Astra too, and perhaps other Spanish pistols.

BTW - the PDF linked above is from the back of the Blue Book of Gun Values (not sure which volume). There's a lot of other good info there too. The Blue Book will often have a mfg date range under the entry for a particular model. You can find an out-of-date BB fairly cheap, or subscribe online if you don't want a 3" thick book on your shelf. The online version typically has pictures, the hard-copy doesn't. The Standard Catalog of Firearms has nice pictures for most items. But you also need the Standard Catalog of Military Firearms, as the former is commercial only.

 

[Maxsplat]

Thanks! Star firearms was actually one of the ones I was looking to find. Are the standard catalog books available online like the blue book?


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[somd_mustangs]

I haven't seen any website for Standard Catalog of Firearms. It would be convenient as they're even bigger (physically) than the Blue Book. The Standard Catalog is published by Gun Digest, while Blue Book does much more than just guns so they have more infrastructure I'd guess.

Nice thing about the Blue Book online is it has values going back 10 years or so, and you can readily see that some firearm values haven't been updated in years. It provides a plot of historic values for a particular condition (60%, 98%, etc) which is pretty helpful to see trending - assuming values have actually been updated For either source, the values are really broad guidelines, and you're best off doing your own research on pricing.

 

[Machodoc]

Gun Digest has been moving into e-books lately. Here's a starting point.

http://www.gundigeststore.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=standard+catalog+of+firearms

 

[dancnr]

Here is a source if you have a Savage 99 you want to learn about http://www.savage99.com/savage99_dates.htm

The website for the blue book of gun values also has some manufacturers listed online, its not much but there are a couple well known brands they offer like Marlin and Savage. Those were the first two I thought of, I know there are some more I will have to try and think of.