Winchester Lee Navy

Not sure if I am in the right place, so please advise if not...Recently acquired a Winchester Lee Navy rifle (All are antiques from pre 1898) with all the metal surfaces buffed smooth, making the markings hard to read, and no visible serial number. My feeling is that it is one of the recovered rifles from the USS Maine, hence the work on all the metal.
My 2 questions...Do the laws making it illegal to own a firearm with an obliterated serial number apply to antique rifles ?...and
Does anyone know where I can take it to try and restore the number ?...hoping it is from the Maine.
Thanks

Any rifle produced during or prior to 1898 is an antique according to US firearms law. There are a few exceptions but these are machine guns, short barreled guns and other oddities of a similar nature. So they are not regulated by Federal law. Various states may have their own laws that regulate them but you would have to check these individually.

That is what I was hoping to hear, now I need to find out how to recover the serial number to see if I found a treasure.
Thanks again

well, to answer both this and your email to me..
ATF passed a new law making it illegal for anyone but a manufacture to change the marking or nomanclature of a firearm.
so..that being said,,, no i cant engrave the serial number...and no your rifle is not illegal.
if you can still make out the serial number, then you ar fine..even if its a ghost or partial.. if someone ground it off or changed it,...then you have an issue.
not matter the manufacture date..it is illegal to change or alter a serial number.

Chuck,
I am not looking to engrave a number, I am looking to recover the number that was there...Is there a way to do it ? I believe the metal was buffed after recovery to repair damage caused by being at the bottom of Havanna harbor in 1898, and finding out what the serial number is would tell its history.
Thanks

if its gone, its gone...if you can make it out a little, then engraving is the only way to restore it.

FINALLY got the answer.....Spent the last few days making several calls to the ATF. They kept directing me to another division, as no one was really sure of the correct answer. But a gentleman (who's name I will keep in my rercords) affirmed that if it is a positive antique (sometimes difficult to know without a number), as ALL Lee Navy rifles are, the buffed away number is not a concern, and there are no legal issues in owning the rifle.
Now I need a way to acid etch the area in hopes of a number appearing.

The SN can be acid etched to see what it was, but I don't know what the acid formula is. I did it once to an antique Winchester and it worked quite well. You have to polish the SN area to a near mirror shine before etching to be able to see it after the acid has worked. I got a small vial of the special acid mix (different acids are combined) from a forensic scientist. You might ask someone in the Sheriff office crimes division about it. Maybe you will be directed to someone who knows what the formula is.

HTH,

Emri

Thanks Emri. I have contacted several museums and numerous historical societies, and a few specialized gunsmithing companies.....trying to avoid law enforcement, but if nothing develops from my sent out feelers, nothing left but the local sheriff.

Emri--

Here's a link to serial number restoration kits and the different gels to use. I have use them to restore serial numbers on old Model 1873 Winchesters that were worn off.

Serial Number Restoration


--fjruple