As is typical, I assume, my Stevens Model 311A has no serial number. Is there any way to determine its date of manufacture? It has H J and a smaller G inside a circle, stamped on the flats and water table, and H J and what looks more like a C stamped in the end of the buttstock under the buttplate, along with a few other markings I can share if it helps. Hoping this is a date code and that one of you can break it. Varnished walnut stock with non-fluted comb. Dimensions are 14 1/4 x 1 5/8 x 2 7/8. A wand-like 6 lb. 14 oz. 20-gauge
I950-65 is my best guess, but I'd like to narrow that down. By the way, it says Stevens 311 on one side of the frame and Stevens 311A on the other ... what's the "A" for? Thanks for any guidance you can give, guys, and happy hunting. TT
All the Stevens factory guns made from 1948 till the passage of the Gun Control Act (requiring serial numbers) had a date code roughly stamped on the center bottom of the action either just in front of the trigger guard or just behind the hinge. The stamp is a letter for the year and a number for the month of manufacture, stamped inside of a circle or oval. "A" represents 1948 and each succeeding alphabet letter represents the next year. "O" and "Q" were not used.
I don't know what the letter codes on the action flats mean. The 311A is a model number; there were several letters used with the number 311 to identify the various small changes in the gun over the many years of production...Geo
Perfect, that's just what I needed. I've got a small 9M in an oval on the underside of the frame, just back of the hinge. That would put it at September 1960, which seems about right. Thanks for your help, George. TT
Those older Stevens 311's in 16ga and 20ga with walnut stocks are pretty nice guns. When I was in high school, I decided I wanted to switch from a 20ga Rem. mod 31 pump-gun to a sxs. A 311 was what I wanted, but instead ended up swapping for a Savage "Fox" model B 12 ga with vent rib. What a come-down! It ended all right since I swapped on to an L.C.Smith 20 and then into a Westley Richards 16, but boy, that Fox was a clunker...Geo
That Fox Model B came out of the same factory as the Stevens.
That Fox Model B came out of the same factory as the Stevens.
I know it did, but the 311 wasn't tarted up like the Savage Fox. I think my real problem was changing from a svelte 20 to a clunky 12; whatever, it ruined the model B's in my mind forever...Geo
I have to agree with George. My first shotgun was a Fox Model B 20-ga built in the early- to mid-70s (beavertail forend, pressed checkering, very heavy). As I said earlier, this 1960 311 is no "wand," but it still seems like a higher-quality gun than that Model B was. I figure that rising production costs and corner-cutting over the 15 years between the manufacture of those two guns is the main cause of this difference. I will also speculate that American demand for side-by-sides was at its lowest point ever right around 1975, and that Savage saw no reason to build a nicer gun if the market didn't want it anyway. My two cents. TT
The 311 is a great user gun and I carry a 410 in my Tahoe most of the time.I like it so well I had a single trigger put in it. Its a real shooter. Last Sunday at our vintage shoot where I ran 50 straight in wobble with my 21 20 after which I put my 410 barrels on and gave it to a friend.Then I got my 311 out for the 410 event and broke 21x25 for second place using AAs 1/2 oz.8 1/2s and 3" 7 1/2s in the second barrel.
To bad they didn't spend a little more money on them when they made them.They work.
AC
There was an old gun trader in my home town that had a Stevens 311 that he'd special ordered years before. It had 32 inch barrels, single trigger, 3 inch chambers, and even ejectors if memory serves. It had been his duck and goose gun for many years. He owned Parkers and Smiths, but used that Stevens for most of his waterfowling. I tried to buy it after his death but everything went to a niece and she sold all the guns to one guy for next to nothing before I ever called.
Destry
The early Model B's weren't so bad. Slim forends, not terribly clunky. They did indeed get "tarted up", and grew very fat in the forend, in the later versions. Kinda like putting more makeup on an aging streetwalker.
I could never quite figure the "Value" of a vent rib on a field gun. Just a place to gather debris & moisture should you get caught in a rain etc. I think the addition of the V-rib would be my cut-off point for buying a model B, unless it was Extremely cheap, as in paying me to take it.
As Larry said the earlier B's were better guns, all they really needed was a little more atention to detail, rather than adding Freu-Frau. Even so an early B with slim forend, two triggers & extractors is not a bad field gun & as I recall they all did have walnut stocks, even if rather plain wood.
Question: I know when 'classic' is mentioned one thinks of Parker, Smith, Fox etc. but do you consider the 311 a classic.
One of the dictionary definitions is ; 'enduring'. That it certainly is, 50 odd years in production and alot still being used and I've heard many say they hunt their old 311 once in a while for nostalgia and tradition because it had been handed down in the family.
I personally believe it is the 'working man's classic'.
This an aging hooker, actaully a Steven 5000.
I'm not sure if the upgrades were done at the factory or not,I imagine the cyanide colors are original but the wood, BT forend, Redhead pad and twin ivories?
Rob, who says make-up won't improve the view??? That is a great looking stock!...Geo
Don't knock the early Model B's. I have the first year's production 20 ga. with slim splinter forend, cut checkering, very nice but plain walnut woderfully finished, double triggers and NO VENT RIB. They really ruined this gun in later years as they started adding clubby, Browining style beavertail forends, vent ribs held on with phillips screws, single triggers. Mine Model B weighs 6 lbs. 7 oz. and handles worlds better than the later junk coming out of Westfield. Wish I knew how to post photos of it. And yes, the Stevens guns built before the 60's were pretty nice, too. Chopperlump.
I'm with Chopper on the earliest Model Bs--not a Fox by any means but a solid, well enough finished gun that worked. I had a 28" 16 that served me well for some years. Wood was even pretty nice; coarse checkering that did what checkering is supposed to do (That is not PRIMARILY to look good....).
Rob, who says make-up won't improve the view??? That is a great looking stock!...Geo
Looks good on the butt George but the grain flow through the wrist isn't great and the checkering is awful. I have thought of having the butt grafted onto another stock some day....
I shot Dad's 311 12 gauge on my first dove shoot of the year and borrowed Grandpa's 20 gauge for the second. Both still served the intended purpose very well.
Destry
A gal on my trap league had a 16 gauge 311 her father bought for her back in the day (she is an older gal). It hasn't had exactly perfect maintenance over the years, actually no maintenance would be closer to the truth, but, she has used it every season for league, followed by a healthy schedule of duck and pheasant hunting with her brothers in both South and North Dakota. She shot a deer with it, one year, but says sitting on her butt isn't hunting she enjoys.
It was far from new when she got it, about 1960, she thinks, and it has never acted up or failed to go boom. It is a nice handling double trigger gun.
I think her Dad did well by her.
Best,
Ted
Yes, it's a classic according to OED---"in the classic style, simple, harmonious, proportioned and finished."
What is OED?
Recoil Rob, my son has his grandfather's 5000 16 ga. and you can see under that old beat up finish there is some nice figured wood.
Oxford English Dictionary...Geo