How to date your 40X

[donws2]

I've had several people ask me how to date a 40X. Short is it's the same as all Remington rifles. Here's a copy of my PM I sent to a Hide guy today.

Remington rifles have a code/date on the left side of the barrel just forward of the receiver. When you receive your rifle there will be some letters and symbols on the left side. The symbols are the inspectors marks. The letters are the date. If your rifle is a Standard barrel it will be made between 1957 to 1964 aprox. The heavy barrel rifles started about 1959 and ended 1966 aprox. There's no hard and fast rules for GI guns.
Some times there's three letters on these rifles and I'm not sure if anyone has a good answer for that. There's no GI rifles "before 1957 as far as I've heard of. Your rifle can be marked at least four ways also. US, US Gov't Property, US Property and no marking other than the Remington 40X. If your rifle is a heavy barrel then it should have a B in the S/N. IE BXXXXXX or XXXXXB not sure why that is either. There does appear to be serveral Gov't agencies buying the rifles over about ten years so the markings are most likely Army, DOD, Navy and Air Force related. The Marines had thier rifles marked just USMC and no "property". Hope this helps. Donald

This is the code key for the date.

Month Codes: [first letter]
B - L - A - C - K - P - O - W - D - E - R - X
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12

Year:______Code: [second (and third*) letters]
1930_______ Y
1931_______ Z
1932_______ A
1933_______ B
1934_______ C
1935_______ D
1936_______ E
1937_______ F
1938_______ G
1939_______ H

1940_______ J
1941_______ K
1942_______ L
1943_______ MMZ
1944_______ NN
1945_______ PP
1946_______ RR
1947_______ SS
1948_______ TT
1949_______ UU

1950_______ WW
1951_______ XX
1952_______ YY
1953_______ ZZ
1954_______ A
1955_______ B
1956_______ C
1957_______ D
1958_______ E
1959_______ F

1960_______ G
1961_______ H
1962_______ J
1963_______ K
1964_______ L
1965_______ M
1966_______ N
1967_______ P
1968_______ R
1969_______ S

1970_______ T
1971_______ U
1972_______ W
1973_______ X
1974_______ Y
1975_______ Z
1976_______ I
1977_______ O
1978_______ Q
1979_______ V

1980_______ A
1981_______ B
1982_______ C
1983_______ D
1984_______ E
1985_______ F
1986_______ G
1987_______ H
1988_______ I
1989_______ J

1990_______ K
1991_______ L
1992_______ M
1993_______ N
1994_______ O
1995_______ P
1996_______ Q
1997_______ R
1998_______ S
1999_______ T
2000_______ U
2001_______ W
2002_______ X

 

[9H_Cracka]

Re: How to date your 40X

Wow Don you got me with that one - I thought it was a post about "how to date your EX"

 

[ker2222]

Re: How to date your 40X

thanks

 

[donws2]

Re: How to date your 40X

I learned along time ago not to date someone else's EX, LOL.
Could be a hazard to my health. Hope everone has a great new year. Donald

 

[OFIS]

Re: How to date your 40X

cool! mine was born Feb 65'

 

[n64atlas]

Re: How to date your 40X

The contracts actually started in 1955 with 30 heavy barrel 40X rifles going to Ft Knox. There were various contracts during the next 10+ years. The reason for the B is this is when the 722/40X action was phased out and the 700/40XB action started. The B is what makes it a 40XB heavy barrel. Both actions had standard and heavy barrel versions though most of the 40X's are standard and the 40XB's are heavy barrel. In Batha's book, he mentions the contracts stopped in 1961 with 20,000 rifles. We know that the contracts continued with the 40XB version which wasn't availble till 1964. You will find 40XB actions with 40X bolts and 40X's with 40XB bolts. As stated in previous post, the bolts are headspaced to the action they are now in. Best to leave them like this unless you want to have then re-headspaced to make them shoot well again. I have one with a mis-matched bolt that shoots as well as the one that matches.
It is said that the electro-pencil marks were added after the rifles arrived at the branch of service that used them. These are match target rifles that were used by ROTC,National Guard,Army,Marines and any other branch that had shooting teams.

 

[donws2]

Re: How to date your 40X

Yes I am saying some 40X rifles have three letters in the area where the date stamp is. Any Remington rifle made in the 50's and 60's should only have two letters by their own code. I've never heard a good reason for this and I have heard many. Examples are:

"The other letter may be an inspector mark or it could have been a mistake made by the guy dating the rifle. The rifle may have failed an inspection and went back through the factory for a repair and been dated again".

Who knows now as most of those guys have passed on. As you see Remington did use two letters for the year plus one for the month in the 40's but did not after then. All I'm saying is if your 40X has three letters it's not uncommon and you should not think your rifle in from any time period before the 50's or 60's or after that period either.

I agree that the B is when the 700 style receivers started to be used. But some Heavy rifles were assembled with the earlier receivers. Most likely as a cost saving to Remington. Also, not all B's are heavy rifles. Many commercial standard barrel rifles were made on the B receivers so they are not uncommon either. It seems though after the B receiver was used all Government rifles are heavy guns. I've never heard of a standard barrel rifle with government marking on a B receiver. If you find one check the date on the barrel and I bet it's before the B were made and the barrel has been swapped.

Another tid bit. To the Government these are Model 12 target/practice rifles. As well as the Winchester 52's and H&R 1200's. All of these rifles have the same model number to the Government and were the same/interchangeable rifle. The TM that covers them has all three makers and the different types of rifles from each listed. I bet it was a major pain in the ass to get repair parts for them with each rifle having the same FSN.

Happy New Year. Donald

 

[gnfiter3]

Re: How to date your 40X

I've seen this chart before, and it confused me. That and the website that gives a history of the 40X. So I just e-mailed Remington, gave them the serial #, which ended in B. Mine was produced in 1972.

I know this is about Rimfires, but the Remington Code dates are not limited to .22. Mine is in .308.

What do you know about the year Remington introduced SS barrels, and went to a target crown, as we understand them today? Do they still have 7.62 NATO on the left side, forward of the receiver? It's not like you see a 40X in any calibeer on a regular basis.
I'm curious as to what mine is worth? You'd die over the story of what I paid for it.