Dating Remington Firearms

Remington Arms Company, LLC came up with a clever way to mark which month a Remington firearm was manufactured. They’ve been using this code since 1921 and are pretty thorough when it comes to telling the customer the history of their rifle or shotgun. This includes the date manufactured, date repaired, testing marks, inspections, and other ways to tell what your firearm has gone through. For months of the year, the code is B–L–A–C–K–P–O–W–D–E–R–X. For example B=January, L= February, etc.

The markings on left side of the barrel show the month and year of any repairs that occurred on the firearm. Next to that, the month and year of actual production, including the assembly line number and final inspector marking. On the right side of the barrel the markings show any proof testing that has been done to the Remington firearm. On the Remington Society of America website (RemingtonSociety.org) you can find what each letter means as far as month and year produced and any testing.

Remington has also publicized their factory record book which shows how many firearms were sold in certain years and in total. For example, the Remington Model 121 Fieldmaster. In 1949, the year that the most Fieldmaster rifles were sold, sales topped at 18,692 rifles. In 1959, only eight were sold, bringing the total Fieldmasters sold to 199,891 in all. org) showing how to easily identify certain markings on your Remington firearm.

Beginning on 8/9/1999, Remington decided to stop stamping barrels with the date code and only mark the code on the end flap of the shipping box. Thankfully, on 10/1/2001 they decided to restart stamping the actual barrels with the date. Therefore, if your firearm falls within these two dates you may not see a stamped date code. I’ve included some photos of a friend’s Remington 870 that he acquired directly after use in the Ohio National Guard.

This model has been used during National Guard activations in response to Hurricane Katrina and the reactions to the Lucasville Prison riot in 1993. From the markings it shows that this specific shotgun was produced in June 1971. The barrel is the manufacturer original so the Remington dating system show the firearm’s manufacture history.

This means that if the barrel has been with the receiver its whole life this firearm was made in June 1971. While these markings are accurate when it comes to rifles as Remington doesn’t replace many barrels when rifles are sent in for repair, there may not beaway to know if a shotgun barrel is original to that gun. Of course, rifle barrels do get replaced, therefore, that barrel may not have been mated to that gun for its entire lifespan.

This information can be referenced at Remington Society. org/manufacturedates AG