Winchester Model 1200 serial numbers by year
The Winchester Model 1200 is a pump-action shotgun documented in Winchester catalogs from 1964 through at least 1984, with later continuation reported for some security-series configurations.
- Produced:
- 1964–1984
- Action:
- pump-action
What year was your Model 1200 made?
Where the serial number is
Left side of the receiver, above the trigger guard.
Where these dates come from
Winchester's original factory records do not cover every model. For the Model 1200, the dates come from one published source, Winchester's own customer-service list. It was typed up long after production, so treat any year as a close estimate rather than a factory record.
Sources for this model: Winchester factory/customer-service range · Published shared-family year-end table
Winchester Model 1200 serial numbers by year
The full Model 1200 serial number chart, one table for each published source. Each row gives the serial numbers that source assigns to a year. Find the row your number falls in.
The tables agree with each other for every serial range.
Winchester's own customer-service list
A year-by-year list Winchester's customer-service desk typed up to answer owners' letters. Partly real records and partly estimates, as the list itself says.
Cited as: Winchester factory/customer-service range
| Year | Serial numbers |
|---|---|
| 1964–1972 | 100,000 – 739,617 |
- 1964–1972: Numbers with no letter begin at 100,000. The L prefix was added within the same run of numbers after November 1968. So a number without an L dates from 1964 to 1968, and an L number below 739,617 dates from 1969 to 1972. The records for 1964 to 1971 are stated to be unavailable, and no reliable year-by-year table exists before 1972.
Published shared-family year-end table
| Year | Serial numbers |
|---|---|
| 1969–1972 | through L739,617 |
| 1973 | L739,618 – L828,677 |
| 1974 | L828,678 – L898,065 |
| 1975 | L898,066 – L967,242 |
| 1976 | L967,243 – L1,063,788 |
| 1977 | L1,063,789 – L1,163,671 |
| 1978 | L1,163,672 – L1,202,123 |
| 1979 | L1,202,124 – L1,235,083 |
| 1980 | L1,235,084 – L1,269,765 |
| 1981 | L1,269,766 – L1,320,354 |
| 1982 | L1,320,355 – L1,434,776 |
| 1983 | L1,434,777 – L1,567,997 |
| 1984 | L1,567,998 – L1,755,346 |
| 1985 | L1,755,347 – L1,894,542 |
| 1986 | L1,894,543 – L1,983,657 |
| 1987 | L1,983,658 – L2,075,117 |
| 1988 | L2,075,118 – L2,178,816 |
| 1989 | L2,178,817 – L2,306,558 |
| 1990 | L2,306,559 – L2,386,211 |
| 1991 | L2,386,212 – L2,498,813 |
| 1992 | L2,498,814 – L2,599,825 |
- 1969–1972: The published table starts with the last serial number of 1972. L numbers below that date from when the prefix was introduced, after November 1968, through 1972. The table is headed Model 120/1200/1300. The run of numbers is shared and does not tell you which of those models a particular serial number went on.
What to know about Model 1200 serial numbers
- Watch the prefix. Numbers with no letter begin at 100,000. Winchester added the L prefix around the time of the 1968 Gun Control Act. One source states that the L prefix was added after November 1968. The family table from 1972 onward uses L-prefixed numbers.
- No reliable year-by-year table is known for 1964 to 1971. Any date in that span was worked out by spreading the numbers evenly across the years, so it is an estimate, not factory data.
- The published table is headed Model 120/1200/1300 and covers one shared run of numbers. It does not tell you which of those models a particular serial number went on.
- Do not subtract one serial number from another to work out how many were made. The run of numbers is shared by the Models 120, 1200 and 1300.
Related models, and why
Shared serial sequences, successors, and look-alikes — each link says why it is here, straight from the record notes.
Other Winchester shotguns
Winchester shotguns that never had a serial number
These have no serial number to look up. Their pages explain why, and how to date one from its features.
No factory letter is available for the Model 1200
The Cody Firearms Museum, which holds Winchester’s surviving factory records and issues factory letters, does not list the Model 1200 among the models it can search. The published tables on this page are the best evidence available for dating one.
Which Winchester models can be lettered, and what a letter shows →