wra barrels

[latigo 1]

As for pad length time frame. It clearly did not make it to the 1.2 million period. I would say it dropped off more in the 123,000 range if even that late but I may be way off base so maybe Bodyman can give more details on this. Rick B

Rick, Here is the information I have in my notes after talking to a couple of knowledgable collectors and gathering what info I could from discussions on the forums. Early WRA barrels, up to about serial #125000, were consistant in that they all had long pads and the drawing number was readable from the op rod side. After that they still had long pads up to the early 1.2 mil rifles, but the drawing number could either be op rod side or clip latch side. The short pad barrels started showing up in the early 1.2 mil series, but an occasional long pad barrel could still be found clear up into the 2 mil series with the drawing number still being randomly stamped. I don't know if this is totally correct information or whether anyone really knows for sure since there have not been a whole lot of original Winchesters found. If anyone else has any info I hope they will join in.

Information

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[Bodyman]

Below 125,000 everything 'seems' to be oprod readable and long spline/pad. After that the direction of print is both directions. Shorter pads and splines 'seem' to begin transitioning in around the change in contract or right around the 1.2 million mark. As with all almost all the earlier parts at WRA, they can show up at random on later rifles. With regard to these earlier profile barrels, while they may be less common on the midwar rifles, they do show up all the way thru production and quite a few have even been seen at the very end on Win-13's.

The earliest data is terribly thin, but that is basically what the observations (of many) support to this point.

[dbarn]

From my 2.4 million pictured below in another thread. TE 3.5 ME 1.5 hth.