Winchester 94 - Dates of Manufacture

[salvo]

Just wanted to bring this to the attention of all you Winchester buffs, the online date of manufacture sites and even well known reference books may not be entirely correct!

I was showing off my recently acquired (From Victor) Model 94 on another site, it is one that according to most references put it in the early period of serial numbers from 1943-48 when the Winchester records were lost.
A gentleman named Bert H. posted that my rifle #13386XX was positively manufactured in the middle of 1942 I PM'd Bert with the following response and his response follows. Check out the first link, I think a few of you will want to make a copy for reference.

Originally Posted by salvo
Hi Bert H.
Thank you for the information on my Model 94 Serial #13386XX
The online references that I have found show the # as 1943-48 range.
I sure would appreciate the source of your reference showing 1942 it would be great to be able to put an exact year of manufacture on this rifle.
Thank you, I really appreciate the help.
Scott

Hello Scott,
My reference source is the Polishing Room record books held at the Cody Firearms Museum (CFM) in the McCracken Research Library. 1942 is positively the exact year of manufacture.
For what it is worth, I am a long time member of the Museum, and David Kennedy (the CFM Curator) is a personal friend of mine. The ladies who work down in the research department (Connie & Jesi) are also well acquainted with me. Serial number 1,343,183 is listed as the last Model 94 made in the year 1942. 1941 ended with serial number 1,308,373. That puts your gun in the second half of the year's production.

If you would like to read more interesting information about the Model 1894/94, go to this link - http://forums.gunbroker.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=245213

Also, please come visit the single best Winchester forum on the internet - http://www.winchestercollector.org/forum/index.php

Bert

Pretty interesting stuff, I thought you guys would like to know about.

Here is a picture of the 94 if you missed it the first time

[J Miller]

Scott,

Thanks for posting that. I did make a copy of it as Bert suggested. I'm glad to report that my 1950 is still a 1950. So all is well in that dept.

Joe

[Old Time Hunter]

Well ain't that something...my Dad's '94 Win Spec's serial number is 1183XXX and he claims it was ordered in 1941!

[salvo]

Joe, I was so exited about finding the actual year of the 1942 I did not even check my 53 and 54, well it looks like they are both 53's

Two rifles changed dates in one day!

[Griff]

I can't speak for any other reference works, but Madis has been proved to be off before. One factor may be that at the time of the 1st edition of "The Winchester Book" was 1961, prior to transfer and organization of information @ the Cody Museum. In fact, in one of the later editions, he corrects some data, and admits that his numbers might be incorrect.

IIRC, the only way to categorically state that a rifle was built in such & such a year is to know the date it moved from production into the warehouse ready for shipment. And, we KNOW they didn't move there in serial number order. Not being familiar with the production cycle, I'm not sure where in the production cycle the polishing room would have moved a receiver from their operation into final assembly, assuming that would have been the work flow.

But, that is good info to know and narrows down some of the anomolies, or gaps, in Madis' work.