Saturday, February 26, 2011

Ballseye's Gun Shots 123 - Do You Have Any Guns That Are Older Than You?

I posted a pic of my C&R guns on a firearms forum last night and it got me to wondering, just how many guns I own that are older than me. I sat down with the older ones around me and looked for dates of manufacture on them. That was easy with the old combloc weapons - they were all dated. It was not so easy but still not all that difficult to determine at least a date range of manufacture for the rest of them.

PISTOLS:

1) Ortgies in .32 Auto, probably made in the late 1920's.

RIFLES: (When it came to rifles, I had some checking to do. They are listed by order of age, oldest first.)

1) Mosin Nagant 91/30 - manufactured 1939 at the Izhevzk Arsenal.

2) Mosin Nagant 91/30 - manufactured at the Izhevzk Arsenal 1943, bent bolt.

3) Mossberg 44 U.S. - these were made between 1943 - 1946 and mine has an early serial number.

4) Remington 241 Speedmaster - these were produced between 1934 - 1951. While there is no date code on the barrel, judging by the serial number and the fact it has a steel butt plate (they changed to aluminum in mid 46), I would say this one was made in early to mid 1946.

5) Mosin Nagant M44 - Hungarian manufacture in 1953.

6) Remington 513T Matchmaster - manufactured September 1963. Whoops, not older than me but I may have shot this one at summer camp since it came out the year I turned 8 and I started camp that year or next and went for 5 years. I never before realized that it could actually be one of the Remingtons we fired at summer camp. I remember they were heavy as could be and this is a fairly heavy target rifle. I wish I could find out for sure but such will probably never happen.

Well, now you know, I was born somewhere between 1953 and 1963. Am I getting old? I suppose so but thankfully not yet as old as some of those guns. Then again, all of them are in better shape than me!

All the best,
Glenn B

2 comments:

GreyBeard said...

I have a number of them actually,
A JC Higgens 12 gauge pump,
A Winchester .22 pump
A Winchester M-94 .32 special
A Rem. Model 8 in .35 Rem.
A S$W K-22 revolver
A Winchester single shot .22

I'd get the model numbers, but I'd have to dig them out of the safe. At my advanced age, that's a lot of work. :-)

Glenn B said...

A Rem. Model 8 in .35 Rem. - A rifle of my dreams!