Model 1897 date of production|Winchester Shotguns|Forum|Winchester Collector

417908 – June 1908 

915757 – October 1940

1010601 – May 1953

tdnathens said
Thanks Bert for the information. Are these dates when they were made or when they were shipped from the factory?
Thanks, Tom
  

They are the manufacture date.  There are no surviving records to tell us when or where they were shipped.

tdnathens said
Hi; I keep reading that for Model 1897’s the factory records before 1904 and after 1949 are missing, and the missing years are just estimates. Is this true?
Thanks; Tom
  

Where are you reading that? NO, that is not the truth!

The real truth is this; 

(1) The serialization (Polishing Room) records exist for the entire 60-year production run (July 1897 through December 1957.  The PR records provide the exact date that the serial number was stamped on the receiver frame, which is per Federal law, is the official date of manufacture. 

(2) The original factory warehouse ledger records exist up through serial number 377999 (serialized on July 8th, 1907).  The warehouse ledger records provide the specific configuration details and the date the gun was received in the shipping warehouse from the Proofing Room.  The typical time differential between the PR date and the received in warehouse date was less than two weeks.

Both the PR and Warehouse records are used by the Cody Firearms Museum (CFM) records office to create a Factory letter when ordered.  If the serial number is in the 378000 – 1027401, you can request a “SNA” (Serial Number Application) letter. This is a standard CFM factory letter:

What is known, is that nearly all of the previously published Model 1897 date of manufacture information in books and on the internet are grossly inaccurate.  The only known accurate DOM look-up information for the Model 1897 is the one found here on the WACA website (I created it) – Dates -Winchester Collector

Further, I just recently published an informative article discussing the entire 60-year production run for the Model 1897, and in that article, I provided the annual production table listing the year ending serial numbers.

2026 Spring (winchestercollector.org)

Bert