Thanks for all of your input on this. My whole reaon for asking is that I want to assemble a 1944 rifle for my collection.
Sure....it will still be a "parts" gun, but aren't ALL of them "parts" guns. I could never try to inflate it's value by
saying that it is all original, but it would be worth the sum of it's parts. There is a March 1944 stripped receiver
available, so I might just go with that one, as I have a very good barrel that would be ok for both.

Based on the information available and being in between the serials published, it could be said that it is a 1944
receiver, I suppose.


Quote Originally Posted by Bob Seijasicon View Post
You really can't say when it was assembled with any precision. There was always a LARGE dispersion of serials in the assembly process at all times, and NO attention was paid to serial order in putting rifles together. In addition, a lot of rifles were recycled for deficiencies and skipped machining operations like no grooves cut for elevation, clip latch cut too narrow, etc., etc. Others were set aside for a contingency reserve and then used much later, like the time the SA steel order was cancelled by mistake and the whole reserve of older receivers was used up. Serial tables will only give you a theoretical date to use as a guide. Barrel date helps, but even that can be three months off. On the other hand (and for the same reasons) nobody can say it WASN'T built on the date shown in the serial tables. Be happy with a good guess.