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September 22, 2011
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What is the earliest manufacture, serial number, and/or ship date of such a rifle, in 1895? And the serial numbers of each, assuming this rifle is not one and the same?
April 15, 2005
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All of the information you are asking about is in the ARMAX Vol 5.
The attached pictures are scanned copies from the ARMAX document.
First by S/N
First by Date
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
September 22, 2011
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Thank you! And so the first .30-30 rifle, serial number 3314, was received in the warehouse and shipped on 29 May 1895, which predates it appearing in catalogue No 55, August 1895. I was curious as to the earliest Winchester 1894 rifle chambered in .30-30 cake out after or before the first Savage Model 1895 in .303 Savage. Savage Arms Company was founded on 05 April 1894 and I’m not sure if, or if not, their first Savage 1895 rifle shipped before or after the first Savage 1895 rifle. Not that it matters, as neither was the response to the other and both were intended to be smokeless powder rounds chambered in .30 caliber.
December 21, 2006
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Winchester obviously did something right, going by how popular the ’94 30-30 became in comparisson.
W.A.C.A. life member, Marlin Collectors Assn. charter and life member, C,S.S.A. member and general gun nut.
November 7, 2015
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Cool thing about the Armax tables (at least for me) is that they suggest the possibility of a large batch of receivers (maybe 5000?) produced or at least started before production of the complete rifles. Even more interesting is that they apparently didn’t finish applying all the serial numbers before the second variation joined the party. It seems odd both variations were in production at the same time with some second variation guns bearing very early serial numbers. Someday I hope to have a first variation serialized after my somewhat early (5310) second variation.
Mike
April 15, 2005
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TXGunNut said
Cool thing about the Armax tables (at least for me) is that they suggest the possibility of a large batch of receivers (maybe 5000?) produced or at least started before production of the complete rifles. Even more interesting is that they apparently didn’t finish applying all the serial numbers before the second variation joined the party. It seems odd both variations were in production at the same time with some second variation guns bearing very early serial numbers. Someday I hope to have a first variation serialized after my somewhat early (5310) second variation.Mike
The Polishing Room records do not show (suggest) any “large” batches of serial numbers for the Model 1894 in the early production years. Typically, the batches were 20 – 40 receiver frames per day, and were not always that large, or produced on every single day.
The first known 2nd variation receiver frame I have documented is serial number 510 (PR date 11/5/1894), followed by 543, 545, & 547. Thus far, I have documented (10) 1st variations with a serial number > 5310.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
