Serial Number Lookup |General Discussions & Questions|Forum|Winchester Collector

Cilrah said
I was wonder why I’m not able to look up the manufacture date for my rifle. It’s a Model 94AE in .357. Number one, i don’t see a model category for the 94AE’s. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

  

There are several reasons why it is not listed here on the WACA website.

1. The Model 94 AE was not manufactured by Winchester.  Instead, it was manufactured by the U.S. Repeating Arms Company (U.S.R.A.Co.) using the leased Winchester Trademarked name.

2. WACA’s primary focus is on the collectable (pre-1964) production Winchester firearms.  The Model 94AE was first introduced by the U.S.R.A.Co. in the mid 1980s.

3. The U.S.R.A.Co. did not ever release any of its manufacturing records to the public before being shut down and dissolved by F.N. Herstal (the final owner of the U.S.R.A.Co.) in March 2006.  Fabrique National (F.N.) purchased the U.S.R.A.Co. out of bankruptcy proceedings in 1992.  In 2006 F.N. shut down and shuttered the manufacturing of all firearms at the old New Haven, CT factory (in a dispute with the EPA, the commonwealth of Connecticut, and the Unionized work force controlling the former U.S.R.A.Co. factory operations.

4. The current company that has the active lease to use the trademarked Winchester name (which is still owned by Olin Industries) is the Browning Arms Company (a wholly owned subsidiary of F.N. Herstal). BACO does not have the U.S.R.A.Co. records.

Cilrah said
Wow Bert, thank you for all that info. I didn’t know all that. I knew about F.N.Herstal but not in that depth.

It looks like we’re actually not to far from each other. 

  

Apparently, we are geographically very closely located… I really abhor the “Gorst Gauntlet”

Bert