We are asking for the first few digits of you serial #, (A123xxx)and any info you have on the gun.(box label,date bought) I know there are a lot of members wanting to know the date of their Mossberg's without the hassle of calling Mossberg or Havlin. Pre-855,000 barrels used a helical thread and having the lead for the threads on the receiver and the same on the barrel starting in exactly the same spot on more than one receiver/barrel set is possible, just not likely.We are getting together a Mossberg serial number data base. There always is a chance but the odds are slim due to the guns being spread around the country/world. On the older guns, a barrel could have been fitted to the receiver by a gunsmith, but other than the possible few that simply had the sequencing get out of order, having a barrel from one pre-855,000 gun fit another pre-855,000 is like hitting more than a couple numbers of the lottery. I have not seen nor read about a -3, but I could look into my book and see if it exists (I have the history of the Ithaca 37 as written by Walt Snyder - the official Ithaca historian, he also wrote a book on the rest of the guns and Ithaca itself) Ithaca's 'dash nbrs, -1, -2 and -4) are improved cylinder, mod and full, respectively. I have Ithacas that are stamped both ways (part of, separate from) There are thoughts that there were a few that slipped out of the factory where the serial nbrs got out of sequence and then were caught, but the barrels were fitted to the receivers correctly, it was the nbr that was off.ĭepending on the year of the gun, the barrel serial nbr can have the choke designation as part of the nbr (with a dash) or the -nbr can be above or below the serial nbr. the receiver and barrel serial nbr 'should' match each other. The serial nbr was on the front face of the receiver, as has been found and discussed. these were 37's with some short lived mods that simply didn't work out. the 87 was subsequently changed back to 37. The 87 is simply a year designator when the company resumed production (after a bancruptcy - or sale to a new owner, I would have to go read which, I simply don't remember). Which leads into the fact that there are later production guns with '37' in the serial nbr, ie: M37xxxxxxx and guns with '87' in the serial nbr, ie: MAG-87xxxxxxxx, Ithaca added 1/4' to the receiver and selected components to allow the chambering/ejection of a 3' shell. measuring the receiver is another way to determine which shell the gun was set up for. In time the word MAG was removed from the serial nbr. You can identify the switch over to the 3' receivers by the word MAG- as either a suffix or as a prefix. A 3' chambered barrel will fit and work fine on a 2 3/4' receiver but of course, can only chamber 2 3/4' shells. This is an immediate identification method that the gun is an interchangeable barrel model, keeping in mind that there are 2 3/4' receivers and 3' receivers. These are at the bottom right of the receiver, above the trigger guard.

This is at the change to the way the barrels attached to the frame. Serial nbrs on Ithaca 37's should fall into this pattern

Ithaca 37 serial number dates