Manufacture Date for Remington 870

[Mustang11]

Hello, new to the forum.

Ive acquired my first Remington shotgun, an 870 Wingmaster 20” 12ga police trade in. I’m having some trouble deciphering the markings on the barrel to determine the manufacture date.

The serial number is 125XXXV. I believe according to the online tables, no letter prefix indicates a 1950-1967 manufacture date.

The problem is I can’t really decipher the markings on the barrel for a month/year code. I’m attaching a photo of the five characters on the left side of the barrel near the receiver.

IMG_9667.jpeg (593.47 KiB) Viewed 3488 times

I’m hoping someone with a little more experience dating these guns can help determine what I’m looking at. I’ve looked at numerous photos of repair codes, inspectors marks and month/year letter codes but I’m not sure how to make sense of mine.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Brian

[Webs86]

I am thinking the date code looks like O R or O P

O being July

P would be 1967
R would be 1968

[Ron]

Hard to read but I am leaning towards R. When researching mine I found that the year code is reused for several decades. You can find this on-line (see link below) and on this site. Basically the P can be 1923, or 67 or 95 and the R can be 1924, 68 or 97. You have to use descriptions of the shotgun to get it to the right year, if possible.


https://www.firearmsguide.com/index.php ... Itemid=167

[Researcher]

How about OB O = July B = 1955. A picture or two of the whole gun will narrow it down.