Browning semi auto .22 rifle coincidence?

[mick53]

Hi,

I am currently considering buying another Browning semi-auto 22 takedown.

The serial number of the one I have is xxxxxT47. I am in contact with 3 different people, none of whom are selling on an auction site, that have one of these rifles to sell.

Every one of them has a serial number or xxxxxT47. This can't be a coincidence.

I read that Miroku, the Japanese manu. for Browning starting in 1974 was not very consistent in assigning serial numbers and the T47 almost surely means mine was made in 1974, the manufacture date being reversed to "47" instead of "74" for some reason.

My question is why are there so many "T47" rifles out there? Did they just make a ton of them in 1974? "T47" serial numbers seem to be very common on GB and other auction forums too!



Finding all these "T47" serial numbers just strikes me as strange.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[rangerruck]

avoid that, and get a browning, or find an old remmy 240, or 241, I have a 241 gs, which is a short only model, and it actually will cycle cci CB shorts!!!! simply amazing...

 

[dmazur]

My serial number ends with MR212, so I have no idea what Miroku was up to.

 

[JohnBT]

The T means LR. An E would mean Short.

From Browning's site:

Example: 1000T74 = A 1974 22 Semi-Auto rifle in 22 Long Rifle Caliber with a serial number of 1000.

 

[mick53]

Yep, the question about how to interpret the serial number has been answered.

So now does anyone have any idea why there are so many of these rifles out there that were made in 1974?

MIke

 

[JohnBT]

IIRC, the Miroku gun was $100 or so cheaper than the FN gun that lots of people wanted, but couldn't afford. IOW, there was a lot of pent up demand back then. I'd call my uncle and doublecheck my memory, but he's watching the Masters. Same deal with calling my father.

It's funny that so many of the gun books - the Blue Book for instance - list the Miroku model as being introduced in 1976. Maybe they used that '74 serial number for more than a year.

John

 

[mick53]

Thanks, John. I think my seeing all these rifles with the same suffix at the end of the serial number is more than coincidence.

Yours might be one explanation, that they used the "T47" for a couple or three years.

I have had some people telling me on other forums that Miroku didnt' start manufacturing the .22 ATD until 1976. They see that info in the Browning site and take it as gospel. And it's wrong. They started making them in Japan in (T)47, I mean '74.

It's a great little rifle but it is rife with confusion and little mysteries, isn't it?

Mike

 

[mick53]

I just double checked. The Brownings site says manu. of the rifle was started in Japan in '74.


I was told it was '76 by someone who said he saw it on the Browning site so Browning has it right and they should know. So he must have seen it in the Blue Book which says "1914-1976 manu. by FN" and "1976 - present" by Miroku in Japan."

Of course, on the next page, the Blue Book goes on to give a date code of
"RV" for rifles manu. in Japan in 1975!

What a mess! Not an exact science by any means, eh?

Mike

 

[JohnBT]

Could be they started making them in '74, but didn't really import them into the U.S. until a year or so later. Who knows. I'm old enough to remember, but don't, since I really wasn't paying attention to Japanese-made guns - my uncle had a FN model and I had a Mountie.

John