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Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 380 Location: Northeast Ohio

Forgot to mention...the serial # is 251152W. What year would that be? Whenever it was the world was a better place in many ways then than it is now! At least for upland pursuits and young men carrying 16's.

Grouse Gunner.

To date a Remington shotgun, you need to look on the barrel, left side, close to the receiver. There should be 2 or 3 capital letters. If this is the original barrel, these letters will date the gun.
It is according to an alpha-to-numeric code .
The month of mfr. is the 1st letter.
Apply that to the code:
B-L-A-C-K-P-O-W-D-E-R-X
B is for January, L, February.....and so on to X for Dec.

The year of mfr is more complex. The 1st year they used this system was 1921, and the year code is M. Consecutive years through Z go to 1931, letter "A" - "L' is 1932 -1942, MM - ZZ is 1943-1953. Now here is where it can get confusing, and you really have to know your Remington models, here, because
1954 is also letter A, consecutive to W which is 1972.

This should help you date that 870 16ga.

Joined: 06 Jul 2009 Posts: 8 Location: Upstate NY

Somewhere a while back I came across the same dating system explained by offhand - I think in one of the gun value books.

Anyway, I've got a near-mint 870 Wingmaster 20 ga I purchased new in the 70s, with a serial number ending in X, so I had figured a 1973 manufacturing date. Whatever purchase information such as sales receipt, etc., I got is long lost to the ages. However, I wanted a more definitve date - like the month and perhaps even the day it rolled out of the factory, so I emailed Remington. You can go to their website where there is a specific section for history inquiries, or just call them (for what it's worth; see below).

Unfortunately their response wasn't all that helpful. Not only did I not get any info on month of manufacture, the woman who responded only said "your Model 870 was produced 'AROUND' 1974 [my emphasis added]." And 1974 doesn't comport with Remington's own date system where "X" would indicate 1973, unless they figure 1973 is "around" 1974.

But in any case, like grouse gunner says, whenever it was, the world was a better place then. And it was even better in the 50s and 60s.

Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 3 Location: Sedona, AZ

You are looking at the wrong thing for the date code. The X at the end of the serial number is for 20 gauge (V is for 12 ga./ W for 16). The date code is a two or three letter code on the barrel.