Winchester Model 1902 serial number — why there isn’t one
The Winchester Model 1902 is a single-shot, bolt-action .22 rimfire rifle produced from 1902 to 1931, an improved Model 1900 with more than 640,000 made.
- Produced:
- 1902–1931
- Action:
- bolt-action
The Model 1902 has no serial number
Winchester never numbered the Model 1902. Like its other low-priced single-shot .22s and utility shotguns, it left the factory with a model or caliber marking and patent dates on the barrel, but no serial. Federal law did not require serial numbers on rifles and shotguns until the Gun Control Act took effect in December 1968, and by then the Model 1902 had been out of production for years. A Model 1902 with no number is exactly as it left New Haven. Nothing has been removed.
The references put the total at roughly 640,000 to 667,000 rifles over its 29 years.
An improved Model 1900, identified by the trigger guard that sweeps back into a pistol grip. The bolt does not cock on closing; the cocking knob is pulled by hand. The stock is stained gumwood, not walnut.
There is no record to search and no factory letter to order. The Cody Firearms Museum, which issues Winchester factory letters, works from the factory’s serial-number records, and it cannot document a gun that never had a number.
If your Model 1902 has a number on it
Numbers do turn up on these guns. Most were added after the gun left the factory: an owner’s identification number, a hardware store’s stock number, or an importer’s marking on a gun that traveled abroad and came back. Some are factory marks that are not serials, such as inspector or fitter stamps and, on several models, a two-digit year stamp hidden under the barrel. Patent dates on the barrel are mistaken for a serial number too. None of these can be looked up in any record.
How to date a Model 1902 without a serial number
Winchester changed the Model 1902 over its run, and the published references date some of those changes. Together they bracket when a particular gun was made:
- A barrel marked for .22 Short and Long only is from before 1914, when .22 Extra Long was added.
- Winchester shortened the barrel marking from “Model 1902” to “Model 02” in 1919.
- In November 1927 .22 Long Rifle replaced .22 Extra Long and the designation became Model 02A. Rifles marked 02A run from late 1927 to the end of production in 1931.
- The No. 32A rear sight, when fitted, was a factory option introduced in August 1916.
Feature dating gives a window of years, not a date. Parts were used up across changeovers, so a gun can show an older feature later than the reference year.