52B Sporter|Winchester Rifles|Forum|Winchester Collector

These markings were commonplace on the early guns, both on wood under buttplate as well as the stamping on the buttplate. For example, I have s/n 5829, stamped "69", 6145-"81", 8041-"59", 9846-"8", etc. My thought on this has always been that the rifles were made in a certain size batch. Since each buttplate was fitted to each stock, when it came time for the stock to be sent for finishing, and the buttplate to be blued, each rifle from that batch had its own sequential number added, so the respective parts could be matched back up. I have seen numerous colors on the stock, including red, yellow, green and blue. The markings look to be chalk. The buttplates were stamped with steel stamps prior to blue, so will always have blue down in the impressions. Since it didn’t matter which rifle the stock/buttplate assembly went onto, there was no need to use the rifle s/n.
As far as your other numbers, I really have no clue.
Hope this helps.
Steve

There was never a factory 52 sporter with barrel band offered to the public. I hesitate to say never, but in this case, unless some type of Engineering prototype, I feel safe in saying never.
Many times early standard target rifles are by mistake referred to as sporters because of the smaller profile stock and lighter barrel. Also, many 52 targets with barrel bands have been customized into sporters.
Steve