Hi Ray, Welcome. That serial number makes DOB as Feb. '98. Is the barrel 22" or 30". All the listed numbers for many thousands, in both up and down ,are all listed as rifles? Have fun.

I have a correction! I just rechecked my s/n under a better light with a magnifier, it's NOT 87587! Actual # is 67537. That would explain the cartouche date, this is doubtless 1897 production. Still have trouble deciphering the cartouche script, though.

Thanks Dick, that helps a lot. I'll put that into my record. Adams doesn't show on my list of inspectors, so even if I had read the script correctly I would still have been in a blind alley. Thanks again!

The comment about numbers being "mixed" is, IMHO, somewhat less than accurate, if one construes "mixed" as meaning 'anything goes - there was no order, and any number is as good (likely to be a carbine) as another.

SA very definitely made rifles and carbines in (large) "blocks", mostly due to having to change over the stock-making machinery. We do not yet have the exact beginning and ending numbers of these blocks, and there ARE a few overlaps, as well as a VERY few absolutely unexplainable anomalies. But, it is quite easy to make broad generalizations as to what probably IS a carbine number, and what is probably not. The boundary numbers ARE being refined on an ongoing basis.

This gentlemen solved his own problem - by his first reading, there was a definite "problem", but his new info made it disappear instantly - that 20000 made all the difference in the world.