Browning Sako Serial Numbers

Make: This rifle was assembled by FN in Belgium from a Sako (Finland) manufacture barreled action. Model: Browning FN High-Power Safari Grade Short Action Sako. Serial Number: 1096Y4. Year of Manufacture: 1964. Caliber:.222 Remington. Action Type: Bolt Action with Hinged Magazine.

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• The biggest sale in the history of our company! 40% off everything in the store. That's literally hundreds of books, maps and DVDs focused on Alaska hunting, fishing, and other outdoor topics! We're making a major change in the store, and we need to clear out all our inventory.

This is the lowest price you've seen on these Alaska outdoor books, maps and DVDs. Take your time and look through our inventory, because once it's gone, it's gone! This sale is limited to the stock we have on the shelves. Everything is shipped USPS Priority, so if you order now, we can get it to you in time for Christmas. One more question: I'm thinking of buying a Browning Safari in.30-06 that is supposedly made in 1965. The owner said the serial number is L94XX. Should there be a 5 before the L in the SN?I've been away form this thread for a while and just got urged back to it recently.

I like tapping about one of my favorite rifles. The pics you have here are of a commercial FN Mauser.maybe you know that. It was only the FN made Browning rifles that had the year prefix in the serial number.

Maybe I didn't say that correctly the first time. If you have found a 1965 Browning gun it will have a 5L 1234 serial number.

I don't think they were at 9xxx in 1965.hmmmm. FN's will be from two to five digits. FN made and marketed rifles at the same time as they made the slightly modified guns for Browning. I think the serial numbers were just block (groups of s/n's set aside for Browning guns) for Browning, but overall the numbers represent total number made. I am not home now and cant find my number reference for FN's commercial guns but 5500 numbers are most likely mid 1960's.

FN ended their commercial rifle sales, except special orders, when the Brownings stopped the Safari line with FN. This was officially 1974 but they also made for Browning special order guns, rifle handgun and shotgun, such as the Superposed, for many years after that. In Belgium, there is the Mauser manufacturing plant that makes the actions, parts and barrels.

Next door is a hand made custom gun shop.My name for the way they made rifles back them. It was old school, they were gunsmiths that took orders, either in quantity from companies (Sears, Browning, SAKO or others) or one at a time from an individual (usually through an importer) and had fitted guns to customer specs. Sears asked for the barrel to be screwed on and some wood on the rifle.This was the low line. Browning asked for many extras.

This operation began about 1948 and generally all these guns will have no thumb cut (post 1948 manufacture) in the receiver but I have seen a few that have, using up the excess military receivers. This was the only Mauser manufacturer at the time. The gun would be made in any caliber you want. The most popular of the era, of course, made up the majority of chamberings. The 257 Roberts was very popular for a time. Remington made the 720 and 721 in 257 R.

All guns and actions were Belgium proofed. Sights were as specified. All Browning Safari rifles I've seen were drilled and tapped for scope mounts.

Some commercial FN rifles were drilled and tapped for scope. I don't think Sears rifles were D&T'd.

SAKO rifles were not D&T'd but had other differences and were made form 1957 to 1960-ish. There were many of these FN made Mauser actions imported to this country and many guns were made here on those actions. If the gun was Belgium made the barrel will show Belgium proof marks as well as the receiver. There are exceptions to every rule but when you look at a few hundred rifles and take notes about them you get a good idea of how things were made and see some continuity in the system. As I said it is just a study, I'm no expert. Another misunderstood aspect of the Browning rifles is the use of the so called Mauser claw type extractor.

All non belted cartridge chamberings were made with the Mauser claw, or so-called long extractor (CRF). Belted magnum calibers were changed form claw to the short FN extractor, making it a push feeder, about 1965. I don't know the exact date for the change nor do I know the reason. I can only speculate, but think it has to do with smoothness of feeding. The belt seems to catch on the belt of the cartridge below when feeding. As the cartridge rim slides up under the claw, and the belt catches, there is a herky-jerky motion when the rifle loaded slowly.

Just my theory. I've been away form this thread for a while and just got urged back to it recently. I like tapping about one of my favorite rifles. The pics you have here are of a commercial FN Mauser.maybe you know that.

It was only the FN made Browning rifles that had the year prefix in the serial number. Maybe I didn't say that correctly the first time. If you have found a 1965 Browning gun it will have a 5L 1234 serial number. I don't think they were at 9xxx in 1965.hmmmm. FN's will be from two to five digits. FN made and marketed rifles at the same time as they made the slightly modified guns for Browning.

I think the serial numbers were just block (groups of s/n's set aside for Browning guns) for Browning, but overall the numbers represent total number made. I am not home now and cant find my number reference for FN's commercial guns but 5500 numbers are most likely mid 1960's. FN ended their commercial rifle sales, except special orders, when the Brownings stopped the Safari line with FN.

This was officially 1974 but they also made for Browning special order guns, rifle handgun and shotgun, such as the Superposed, for many years after that. ~snip~Thanks for the info, but I'm talking about two different rifles. I have an FN Commercial Mauser in.257 Roberts that I posted pictures of. It has a serial number in the 55XX range. Thanks for dating it in the 1960s, previous information I had leaned towards the 1950s.

It has a Lyman Challenger scope and no iron sights. Here are pictures of that rifle: I have since bought a second rifle that is an FN Browning Safari Grade in.30-06. The previous owner said it was made in 1965 but he didn't buy it until 1970 and was the second owner.

I'm curious about it's date of manufacture since it does not have the year/date code before the letter in the serial number. Serial number is L94XX.

The number on the bolt matches the barrel. Here are some pictures of it and it shoots sub-MOA groups. It is fitted with a Leupold 4X scope and Weaver pivot scope mounts so that you can use the iron sights. You can remove it and install a pad.

If you don't cut it you can reverse the procedure to maintain value.Thanks, Here is some more research I did on these guns and the production dates. By looking at auctions and other sites with some SN information filled in. Every Safari I could find from 1959 to 1965, except one from 1962, did not have the number in front of the L and they were all 4 digit numbers after the L (i.e. I have not seen a Medallion or Olympian grade gun without the date stamp on the gun from these years. In early 1966 they apparently started the 5 digit serial numbers in the 30,000 range.

Every gun I have seen from 1966-1968 had the year before the L and a SN between 35000 and 45999 (i.e. In 1969 and later production they all had the L and two digit date code at the end of the serial number (i.e. This was probably so that they avoided confusion with the 1959-1968 production even though the serial numbers were now all in the 60,000 range and up. My rifle is chambered in.30-06 and I was told by the prior owner it is a 1965 gun.

It has the L94## style SN with no preceding year digit. So far I have found a few 1964 rifles with SNs in the L92## range and a 66 with a 6L355## (5 digit) SN so I think the dating is probably right and that the year number was not commonly stamped on the Safari grade rifles from 1959-1965. I found only one exception to this in a 1962 gun. All the Medallion and Olympian grade guns I have seen had the year stamped in front of the SN. What are your thoughts on this?

TexasEd, I'm abit taken back by what little I could find on actual dates on these Browning Safaris.mine reads L35xx and I supposed it to be between 59' and 61'. Strange that such low numbered serial can date up to 65' in the 4 digits, you'd figure the serial numbers would range quite high due to many production rifles in the mainstream.

Don't matter, this rifle is pretty well designed for sure, mounted a M8 3x on Talley bases, done some loading just have not done any shooting. May look for another this summer, it is a nice rifle.

I agree that it is very hard to find SN information on the Browning High Power Rifles. 1959-1965 is 6 years to make 9999 rifles which would be about 1650 rifles per year assuming they started at 0001 and went to 9999 before switching to the 6 digit number. If yours is L35XX (ca. '59-61) and mine is L94XX (ca. '65) that might make sense. It puts about 5,900 rifles between us or about 3.5 years worth of production still makes sense. Mine is less than 600 from going to 6 digits which they apparently did in 1966.

BTW, L35XX is the second lowest I've seen out of 20 serial numbers I've researched and the other was L321X and is not known what year it was made. I have two instances of L41XX reportedly from in 1959. Browning added the Safari, FN made rifle to their line officially in 1960. They then used serial numbers that were in the normal run of numbers being used by FN for their rifles and those made for others.

So serial numbers on early (no'L') Brownings will fit in with FN commercials. Also Browning added the 'L' and their own S/N block in about 1961-1962. Likely some regular S/N runs were made with the Browning 'L' numbers both in Safari rifles. This is speculation but I'm sure it's correct based on serial numbers of rifles I have owned. The FN rifle actions were also imported into the U.S.

At this time. Also for a couple of years FN market their Deluxe action along with the Supreme design and I think these numbers were mixed.

As for Salt wood, I think it first showed up in the Superposed shotgun about 1964, then the little T-22 then the Safari bolt rifle in 1966. I have not seen salt in the Safari before 6L. Not all guns were salted. Just those using salt dried California Walnut (French) from about 1964 to 1972. Browning became the only company for which FN made Bolt rifles in 1964 (there were exceptions). No other FN commercial rifles or FN actions used on rifles for other manufactures were sold. The commercial (Browning Safari rifle stopped production in 1974.

But in the 1990's you could still get a custom commercial FN made rifle or Superposed shotgun made to order, if you had the money. As for Salt wood, I think it first showed up in the Superposed shotgun about 1964, then the little T-22 then the Safari bolt rifle in 1966. I have not seen salt in the Safari before 6L. Not all guns were salted. Just those using salt dried California Walnut (French) from about 1964 to 1972.I thought the Salt wood was a little later than that, maybe 1966 or 67.

My father has a 65 Superposed that is not salt wood, It could be something that came in mid-year but I always heard/read 66. For the Browning High Power Rifles, the salt wood was reported to affect a higher percentage of the higher grade guns and that the Safari grade guns were not as heavily affected because they got stocks from a different source.

I was hoping to get the various web (or other) sources of firearm 'date of manufacture by serial number' gathered together in one place for future reference, as I think it would be a really useful thread for all of us with collector interest. (I tried the search function and did not see this done already, although I did find some info in various threads which referenced a few individual sources of this type of information.) So, I was hoping the knowledgeable folks here would add to this thread with whatever web sources - or even reference books - they use to determine firearm date of manufacture.

I'll start by listing the ones I have so far: Has Browning, some Colt, Winchester, and some military info/links: Marlin: Weatherby rifles: Colt's Website (seems to have lots of missing serial numbers?) Browning (this is different from the one accessed through Proofhouse.com): So, please post the links to the ones you find most useful, and/or let us know which reference books are great sources for this type of information! One of the reasons I started this thread was in the hopes that eventually a lot of people would provide links to various websites and/or other forum threads/lists that are frequented by collectors of various makes of guns. The actual manufacturer's websites - like those of Marlin, Browning, Colt, Beretta, and likely others - while providing some information, often contain erroneous data or are incomplete for older guns before a certain manufacture date.

And quite often, there is a wealth of info tucked away in other corners of the internet, not associated with manufacturer's websites, but typically provided by collectors who specialize in one type of firearm or another. (I will post one example shortly, in another post.) Anyway, if the admin deems this important enough for a sticky, that's fine. I'd just hope that anyone who is able to, will post their links to whatever sites they are familiar with, if such info would be useful to others for determining date(s) of manufacture by serial number. [Also, if any of you are aware of any good printed books which provide this info, I think many of us would like to know about those resources as well.]. Link to Info on Argentine.45 Colts and Sistemas For instance, here is a link to a discussion on another forum which has a huge amount of historical information on the Argentine.45 Colts and Sistemas. I found this while researching a gun for a buddy.

Amongst other great historical information, there is also data on dates of manufacture for a variety of these guns. This is the kind of info that I think a lot of collectors - and even casual gun owners who just want to get a bit more info on their particular firearm - would find very useful.

Though I'm kinda new here, so I don't know how big collector/historical interest is amongst the THR readership! Программа Для Создания 3d Моделей Людей more. But in any case, my request is that if you have this type of information/link/written resource close at hand for whatever make of gun, would you please share it here?

Click to expand.On MOST Marlins made 1972-present subtract the 1st 2 digits of the SN from 100 to get the DOM. The code doesn't work on all rifles, especially limited runs of specific rifles, but is accurate on most. Remingtons made after 1921 use a date code on the barrel that is pretty accurate, but numbers do repeat. It shouldn't be hard to tell the difference between a gun made in 1932 and 2005 though even though they may have the same date code.

The link is posted above. There were no date codes stamped between 8/1999 to 10/2001.

Since shotgun barrels are often swapped it is not always accurate with shotguns, but would be for most rifles. IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER Although The High Road has attempted to provide accurate information on the forum, The High Road assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of the information. All information is provided 'as is' with all faults without warranty of any kind, either express or implied. Neither The High Road nor any of its directors, members, managers, employees, agents, vendors, or suppliers will be liable for any direct, indirect, general, bodily injury, compensatory, special, punitive, consequential, or incidental damages including, without limitation, lost profits or revenues, costs of replacement goods, loss or damage to data arising out of the use or inability to use this forum or any services associated with this forum, or damages from the use of or reliance on the information present on this forum, even if you have been advised of the possibility of such damages.