There is no real way to sort these aberrations out, but in most cases they can be identified as "suspicious" if that matters to someone. 'Gun control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped. its not to look up what day your 2013 colt xse was made.
Colt pistol serial numbers lookup serial number#
First, identifying a Colt revolver can be frustrating because beginning in 1840 Colt always started each new model at serial number '1', and progressed upward. Some Colt 1911 pistols have been found to have a hidden serial number on the back of the firing pin retaining plate. that service gives you the entire history of that firearm for collectors looking for provenance on the old collectable colts for insurance and sales purposes. And of course there is always the potential for the "screwdriver variations" arising from easily-swapped parts that muddy the gun's actual date of origin, either "early" or "late". Running a gun serial number search before you buy will make sure you get a gun that you can legally own and register in your name. There will always be the occasional "late shipped" gun having bits and pieces that were released considerably after the gun's serial number might indicate, or the occasional gun wearing some older bits from way earlier production that just floated to the top of the "parts bin" at final assembly. He can, for instance, occasionally come pretty close to revealing within a month's time when certain features/parts were changed in a run of a particular model. However, they were not completely consistent with this scheme.
Colt pistol serial numbers lookup install#
His serial number breakouts are considerably more precise than anything Ruger has put out, and his discussion of which parts were used when is further informative. When the 1902 Model came out, Colt’s decided to install high -spur hammers on even-numbered pistols and round spur-less hammers on odd-numbered pistols until all the high-spur hammers were used up in the low-7000 serial number range.
Knowing the month as well as the year certainly helps since the various "type" configurations of many of the Old Models are pretty well known and documented in Chet15's Red Eagle News Exchange Reference of Ruger Firearms.