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Below is my wife's 16 Ga. Eastern Arms Company Model 1017. My pic is not good, but the gun is in outstanding condition and the case colors are brilliant. I have been told that EAC is a Sears and Roebuck brand and the gun is either a Stevens Model 5100 or Model 311 manufactured in 1940. Can anyone tell me how to verify model # and the year of manufacture?

I don't believe you can determine year of manufacture if it's that old. Stevens (Savage) did begin using a date code in the late 1940's, but they were no longer making guns under the Eastern Arms name by that time.

Someone with a 5100 will confirm, but I can't recall whether those guns had the same action profile as the 311, which fits your gun. So does the 530, but those guns had checkered stocks, which yours does not.

5000 and 5100 were action types, used on a number of different Springfield and Stevens guns as well as numerous "trade brand" guns such as Eastern Arms Co. The 5000 and 5100 action types were introduced in 1936, replacing the old G.S. Lewis design action used on many Stevens, Riverside, Springfield and "trade Brand" guns from before WW-I. From parts lists it appears that the main difference between the 5000 and 5100 were a bit of action profiling and the top-lever and spindle. With the introduction of the new actions, the Stevens No. 330 became the Stevens No. 530, the Springfield No. 315 be came the No. 515, and very briefly J. Stevens Arms Co. made an entry-level Skeet Gun the No. 500 --



For 1940, J. Stevens Arms Co. introduced their Tenite stocks and forearms on a variation of the 5100 action, and called the gun the Stevens No. 530-M --



This gun was offered through 1946. As Savage Arms Corp. consolidated their arms making operations at their old J. Stevens factories in Chicopee Falls, Mass. after WW-II, this Tenite stocked 5100 action gun was called the Springfield No. 311 in the 1947 Savage/Stevens/Springfield/Fox catalogue --



By the 1948 Savage/Stevens/Fox catalogue it was called the Stevens Model 311 --



The Tenite stocked gun was offered through 1950, but by 1951 it got a wood stock and became the Stevens Model 311 most people know.

Also, back in 1940, Savage took the internal parts of the 5100 action/Stevens No. 530 and put them in a somewhat nicer profiled receiver, with a bit nicer wood and checkering, and introduced the Fox Model B in their 1940 A.H. Fox catalogue.

If the gun in question was made 1949 or later there will be a small oval on the bottom of the receiver, just back of the forearm iron with a number and a letter, beginning with A=1949, B=1950, etc.

Many of the pre WW-II Stevens/Springfield doubles had serial numbers, but the records are long gone and even the Savage Historian can't give you a date.

I have three Stevens that are stamped 5100; one is a Springfield, one is a Ranger, and one actually says Stevens. All three have checkered walnut; none has a date code. I had a 20ga stamped 311 that dated 1962; it too was walnut but was uncheckered.