These serial numbers for each year from 1949-63 are best guess. S=12 gauge • V=20 gauge • F=28 gauge • J=.410 bore. Date of Manufacture is a two digit code • Z=1 • Y=2 • X=3 • W=4 • V=5 • T=6 • R=7 • P=8 • N=9 • M=0 3.

1930 is the correct year for the receiver. That's the easy part.

Auto-5 serial numbers ran concurrently for the 12 gauge until 1957. After that Browning imports used letter prefixes to differentiate the various models.

Sage 50 pro accounting 2014. Sometime after 1957 FN also changed how they marked World Market guns. But for any pre-1957 12 gauge or pre-WWII 16, this is a useful reference: I doubt the S-prefixed number on your barrel is the serial number.

If your barrel has a serial number, it will appear in the barrel ring like this: FN stopped matching the barrel's serial numbers to the receiver's in 1953, and I believe later barrels had no serial number. They had numbers, but not serial numbers. Another way to date a barrel is with the date code. In the following picture you can see the letter 'h' in script. According to this source, my '1930' Auto-5's barrel was produced in 1929. The ring on my barrel has a serial number matching my receiver, but I also have a number on the barrel that I cant explain using any resources I know of.

I can date the gun and barrel with the serial, so the suggestion that the first two digits are a year doesnt hold up in my case. The markings which have me stumped are the ones on the face of the receiver, the number on the barrel as mentioned above, a '1' on the barrel and an 'infinity' or 'lazy 8' on the barrel and finally 'T196' on the barrel and barrel extension - Im making the assumption that this is a torque setting in Nm. Sorry Rudolph, my bad. I should have reread before posting. You are bang on the year for my gun. It is a 1954 and it does have a Lambda mark, although a Lambda is an upside down 'Y'.

I checked the year codes and couldnt find the lazy 8 anywhere. Another interesting thing to note is that it seems to be scribed rather than stamped. I have no concept of torque having never used a torque wrench. It's just a guess. I have not measured anything, it could be a length?

There is a straight mark on both the barrel and extension, which allows them to be lined up perfectly. Whether this is applied before or after the parts are mated would tell us whether it is to aid initial fabrication or reassembly. Thanks very much for you replies Rudolph. I'm really enjoying this research. Donald, Your guess is as good as mine, but I doubt that number is a length as it's on both the barrel and the extension.

Remove Advertisements From File Explorer. To disable these options, open File Explorer’s options window by clicking the “View” tab at the top of a FIle Explorer window and clicking the “Options” button on the ribbon. Click the “View” tab at the top of the Folder Options window that appears, scroll down in the list of advanced settings. Windows 10 Solitaire ads have become controversial ever since Windows 10’s launch. In case you don’t know, users have to purchase a subscription to get rid of Windows 10 Solitaire ads. If you really don’t want to spend money on a default time-killer though, there is a way to remove these ads for free. Microsoft solitaire collection without ads.

I occasionally use a torque wrench on nuts and spark plugs and am used to seeing inch-pounds; foot-pounds are pretty big. But a quick search on the internet came up with 35 ft lbs of torque for an AR15 barrel nut, so who knows? It's interesting that your barrel has a matching serial number as FN supposedly stopped matching them in 1953.

There's always a transition period so yours probably isn't the only one like that. I have a 1953 12 gauge and the serial number on the barrel ring matches the receiver but is off by 4 on the extension.

The strange markings on my first Auto-5 and the research required to decipher them is what got me hooked on these guns.

I'll break it down for you Aaron: 6V - 6 meaning 1966, the year your gun was made. 'V' is the product ID code, in your case, 12ga Mag The number following it is the actual serial number of the gun.

The ball or round knob grip is just the style of the day. Browning serial #s (on A5s amoung others) are confusing and were oft changed due to several global and corporate influences. The whole thing goes a little something like this: The first A5s became availble to the US sportsman around 1920 or so. They were available in 12ga only until 1925 when the 16ga came out. In 1937, the Sweet 16 hit the shelves. Round about WWII, Remington started making model 11s as Belgium was under German occupation. Model 11s are worth about half what A5s are (at best) and the parts are not interchangeable.

Back to A5s.in about 1953, Browning brought about 'product ID codes' that consisted basically of a letter before a #. Such as G38000, meaning standard (might be light) 12ga and then the #. Things got a little more streamline in '58 when they went to the #letter# system. Of course, nobody thought what would happen when they got to 1968 (sort of like the Y2K scare). So from 1958-67, you will see a # that stands for the last digit of the year (in your case 6 meaning 1966), then a letter that IDs what gauge and model the gun is (G for light 12, V for Mag 12, S for Sweet 16 etc etc) and then the actual serial #. In 1968, a few things happened. First, the # before the letter became a two digit #, for example 68V 38000, and for the most part, round knobs went away for one reason or another.