Winchester Model 250 serial numbers — what the records say

What to know about Model 250 serial numbers

• A Model 250 made after 1968 has a B in front of its serial number. Models 150, 190, 255, 270, 275 and 290 use the same B. The letter is not a year code. No year-by-year serial table for the Model 250 has ever been published.
• Federal law did not require serial numbers on rifles until the Gun Control Act took effect in December 1968. An early example may therefore carry no serial number at all.
• The Cody Firearms Museum does not list this model among the records it holds, and Winchester's own serial-number reference leaves it out. Winchester says that for models missing from that reference there is probably no further information.
• Production ran from 1963 to 1973 according to the Blue Book and GUNS Magazine. Proofhouse gives 1974, but that is the date the model was dropped, which can come after the last year of production. Deluxe versions of the 200 series came out in 1965.
• The Model 255 is the same lever-action rifle in .22 WMR. The Model 150, made from 1967 to 1974, is a plainer, cheaper version with a straight-grip hardwood stock and a barrel band. Checkering alone does not make a rifle a Deluxe. Pressed checkering appeared on standard stocks too.

Related models, and why

Shared serial sequences, successors, and look-alikes — each link says why it is here, straight from the record notes.

• Model 2701963–1973From the Model 250 notes: “The 270 is the slide-action gun in the 1963 rimfire trio.”

Other Winchester lever-action rifles

• Model 18661866–1898
• Model 18731873–1924
• Model 18921892–1941
• Model 18941894–present
• 94221972–2005
• Canadian Centennial1967

Winchester rifles 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.

• Model 471949–1954
• Model 581928–1934
• Model 601930–1939
• Model 60A1932–1939
• Model 671934–1963
• Model 681934–1945
• Model 691935–1963
• Model 72A1949–1959
• Model 19001899–1902
• Model 19021902–1931
• Model 19041904–1931
• Thumb Trigger1904–1923