New Model Army Serial Questions

[LJ Rice]

Quite a few years back now, I had a couple Remington New Model Armies handed down to me, but never really looked all that close at their SN's. From what I have gathered poking around quickly on the net, the SN's should start somewhere in the 12000-15000 range? So, the first one I looked at the other day is marked "12" very faintly on the barrel, and "12" on the frame beneath the grips. My immediate reaction is that somebody buggered with it not realizing that the SN isn't possible. So I strained my feeble eyes looking for some sign of tampering, and finally break out the micrometer and find that the frame width is almost identical the entire length. I squinted and decided to open up the other New Model. SN 9007 on the barrel, and 9007 on the frame... again, not in the stated starting range. On this second one, there is a "6" before the 9007, but it is more separated than one would expect, and there is no sign of a "6" on the barrel. So I break out the micrometer, and find that this one tapers ever so slightly, wider towards the backstrap. Hopefully the photos will be useful to somebody and they can point out what my fading eyes aren't seeing, or if there some oddity that would explain this situation. The one with "12" on it lacks all the little marks I presume to be military, while the 9007 has the little letter stamps. Funny that of the three I have, only the conversion shows a serial in the range expected!

In this post, attached is the "12", in my next post, "9007".

Anyhow, all thoughts welcome.

[LJ Rice]

9007

[Swede68]

Strange to read about this now, just a few hours after talking to someone with a similarily "misnumbered" Remington revolver!

I´m a Swedish collector and shooter, and Remingtons are not my main interest, so I´m not as knowledgeable about them as I would wish.

Yesterday evening I talked to a person who just bought an antique revolver from me. He told me about another Remington NM Army he had, which had a very strange serial# way out of the published range. If I recall correctly, his was numbered 396 or something like that, with matching # on frame and barrel, nu number on cylinder (or at least he didn´t tell me about a # on the cylinder). This person, just like me is not an expert on Remingtons in particular, but is knowledgeable enough to tell whether a gun has been restamped or otherwise messed with.

He asked me whether I knew anything about serial#´s out of the usual range, and I had to tell him that I didn´t.

Now, taking into consideration that I haven´t seen the gun in person, I still have to wonder what is up with this.
1. Might there be a separate serialnumber range for guns set aside for some special reason (employee buys, or gifts/promotions for instance)?
2. Might this be something similar to the "lunch box specials" Colts, which I have witnessed in person being a fact (these are however usually totally lacking any markings, including the barrel adress)?

Hope someone might be able to clear this up, it would be very interesting to know. I have told the person that called me to compare the screws, and the nipples from the "odd" numbered gun to one of his "normal" Remingtons. This should rule out that it is a replica. However, I find it hard to believe that he would be fooled by a modern made replica, he sounded like a pretty experienced collector to me, even if not an expert on Remingtons in particular.

I will point him in the direction of this thread!

Anders Olsson

[LJ Rice]

I appreciate any thoughts. I recently spotted another NM Army, being sold by a very reputable seller, that has a SN well beneath the numbers I've heard should exist. It is a strange situation that I would love to have an answer for!

Lee