I have a Belgian Browning 16 gauge auto that I inherited from my parents. The Serial number is 1048 59 with the 59 stamped in smaller numbers that the 1048. Barrel length is 29' and it is a full choke.

1930 is the correct year for the receiver. That's the easy part. Auto-5 serial numbers ran concurrently for the 12 gauge until 1957. After that Browning imports used letter prefixes to differentiate the various models.

Sometime after 1957 FN also changed how they marked World Market guns. But for any pre-1957 12 gauge or pre-WWII 16, this is a useful reference: I doubt the S-prefixed number on your barrel is the serial number. If your barrel has a serial number, it will appear in the barrel ring like this: FN stopped matching the barrel's serial numbers to the receiver's in 1953, and I believe later barrels had no serial number. They had numbers, but not serial numbers. Powerquest partition magic 9 walkthrough. Another way to date a barrel is with the date code. In the following picture you can see the letter 'h' in script.

According to this source, my '1930' Auto-5's barrel was produced in 1929. The ring on my barrel has a serial number matching my receiver, but I also have a number on the barrel that I cant explain using any resources I know of. I can date the gun and barrel with the serial, so the suggestion that the first two digits are a year doesnt hold up in my case. The markings which have me stumped are the ones on the face of the receiver, the number on the barrel as mentioned above, a '1' on the barrel and an 'infinity' or 'lazy 8' on the barrel and finally 'T196' on the barrel and barrel extension - Im making the assumption that this is a torque setting in Nm. Sorry Rudolph, my bad. I should have reread before posting. You are bang on the year for my gun.

It is a 1954 and it does have a Lambda mark, although a Lambda is an upside down 'Y'. I checked the year codes and couldnt find the lazy 8 anywhere. Another interesting thing to note is that it seems to be scribed rather than stamped.

I have no concept of torque having never used a torque wrench. It's just a guess. I have not measured anything, it could be a length? There is a straight mark on both the barrel and extension, which allows them to be lined up perfectly.

Whether this is applied before or after the parts are mated would tell us whether it is to aid initial fabrication or reassembly. Thanks very much for you replies Rudolph. I'm really enjoying this research. Donald, Your guess is as good as mine, but I doubt that number is a length as it's on both the barrel and the extension.

I occasionally use a torque wrench on nuts and spark plugs and am used to seeing inch-pounds; foot-pounds are pretty big. But a quick search on the internet came up with 35 ft lbs of torque for an AR15 barrel nut, so who knows?