Hi everyone My Auto-5 has different serial numbers on the receiver and Barrel and I am trying to ID and age the old girl. Serial is 158964 on the receiver but S59726 FN on the barrel. I think the gun was made around 1930 but I cant work out how old the barrel is. Clearly it's been replaced at some point as the numbers don't match. Would appreciate any help from the gurus on this forum!
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. 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: http://www.nramuseum.org/media/940941/serialization-date of manufacture.pdf 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. http://damascus-barrels.com/Belgian_All_Proofmarks.html
Very interesting! The ring on the barrel doesnt have a serial number but it does have the number "1" on its own at the top of the right hand side. The only number that resembles a serial is on the pic below.
That number means something at the factory, but no source I'm aware of decodes it. You didn't provide a picture of the proof marks, which may provide the answer. For what it's worth, your barrel looks like newer production, possibly the 1970's. I would have speculated the "79" designated the year but I believe production had shifted to Japan by then. Of course, anything is possible. With Auto-5's few rules are set in stone. How about a pic of those proofs?
See that underlined "m" ? If you look that up you'll see that it stands for 1974. The 2 stars indicate a Modified choke. Checking my notes I found that Japanese imports began in 1976 but Belgian production didn't end until 1978.
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. Here is my gun with markings 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.
If you're referring to my earlier post, I said those numbers are unexplained, and the first two numbers could not be the year. I believe the lazy 8 is the Greek letter Lambda, code for 1954. Not necessarily the same year your serial number corresponds to as barrels were often made in advance. http://damascus-barrels.com/Belgian_All_Proofmarks.html I have no explanation for the "1". Interesting theory about the torque value, but 196nm is over 144ft lbs, which seems excessive to me. But I really have no idea, so I'll keep an open mind.
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. 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. Have fun!
