November 7, 2015
Yours was probably toward the end of the run for the old stamp, I used to own SN 285474 and it had the later stamp. I was never able to learn the number of guns with the old stamp but I’d guess they aren’t as rare as some believe, based on your serial number and mine it could be as many as 7-8000.
Highest 61 serial number recorded in the Red Book and Schwing’s book is 349,000 but the records have been lost and that is an approximate number.
Mike
TXGunNut said
Yours was probably toward the end of the run for the old stamp, I used to own SN 285474 and it had the later stamp. I was never able to learn the number of guns with the old stamp but I’d guess they aren’t as rare as some believe, based on your serial number and mine it could be as many as 7-8000.Highest 61 serial number recorded in the Red Book and Schwing’s book is 349,000 but the records have been lost and that is an approximate number.
Mike
I own a NIB “WMRF” stamped Magnum 61. Serial #284081. Last I checked, it was the lowest recorded “WMRF” according to TwoBit’s Model 61 data research. I also own 8 other Magnums ranging up to #343645.
Perhaps a good indicator of quantity for the 61 Magnum marked WMRF would be checking with TwoBit for the lowest WMRF serial number and the highest recorded WMRF serial number. It appears that by the end of #285XXX they (Winchester) changed the caliber designation stamp. It is rumored that there was confusion amongst the public between WRF & WMRF. Page 56 of Schwings book on the model 61 discusses this in some detail.
Hypothetically, if they started the WMRF stamp at #284,000 and ended at #285,999, that would be, at the most, 2000 specimens, assuming they stayed with that caliber designation for that entire time or number sequence.
Just my “twobits” worth!!!
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