I was just looking at old collector guns online, and saw an early 50s Remington 22 target rifle with no serial number.  What does an FFL do to transfer a gun with no serial?

It gets received like any other firearm and the serial number is recorded as “NSN”

In addition to ghost and zombie guns - these will soon be categorized as mummy guns.

From the instructions included with every 4473 form:

A friend of mine had a Stevens 12 Ga side by side shotgun with no serial number..

I have a Remington 510 TargetMaster that doesn’t have a serial number on it. Transferred like any normal firearm would.

Beware though you will run into fuckfaces that will tell you it’s illegal to have a firearm that doesn’t have a serial number on it. Just tell those people to fuck off, it usually isn’t worth the energy to try to educate those assholes. They already have their mind made up.

My niche is mid century collectible and custom rifles.

By bound books have hundreds of NSN entries.

Where it gets a bit interesting is the custom rifles.  Prior to 1968 it was also legal to remove serial numbers and it was done on a lot of custom rifles.

What was the purposed of removing a serial number?  Something like using a military action as the base of a custom gun, or some other reason?  

Only kind of related question, were there a lot of more or less boutique rifle makers back then that made guns completely to order?

What do they do with black powder revolvers that had a center fire cylinder conversion?  Considered PMF?

This one has no serial number, marked NSN in his logbook.
Attached File

Attached File

Check with your FFL first.  I’ve heard stories of FFLs engraving a serial number on themselves in such a case (with no notice to the owner), which would really suck.

"Boutique rifle maker"?  Yes, think of the gunsmith that was in every other town in the 30s, 40s, 50s & 60s.

Reasons I have seen.
1) Removing pitting.  
2) Unmarked surface for engraving.
3) Heavy hand on the sander/polisher.  

More of the custom/extreme version.
Weight cutting.

Ex:  Oberndorf German made 1903 Turkish Mauser actions had the earlier small barrel shank, but had the large ring of the GEW98.
Milling the front ring to small ring dimensions would removed 2-3 ounces.    Ounces are easy to add and hard to remove for a truly lightweight rifle.  
I have completely hollowed the stock from grip to butt leaving walls approx. 1/8 of an inch thick.  That only removed two ounces.

Later, the K. Kale 98s were imported with the same small shank/large ring, but that was post '68 so reducing the front ring now requires ATF involvement to move the s/n.  

There is also the simple example of having an old firearm refinished or restored.   In say 1965 you take Grandpa's rifle in that got left in the barn or whatever.   Local 'smith could grind and polish exterior without concern, then re-blue.  

The "tricky" part is knowing when that work was done.   So many Mauser rifles were built by Bubba, local 'smiths and true Gun Makers in the pre '68 era that I don't have a problem putting NSN in my bound book.   Others?   A firearm from a company that did use s/n's such as Winchester?   Case by case basis and I usually default to not buying them.

Nice!
Attached File

Slightly related...the 1980 22lr I bought from Cabelas wasn't stamped Miroku, the manufacturer, only Browning.

It gave Cabelas' already torturous process fits, and was only resolved when the senior manager threw up his hands and said, "Mark it as Browning, and sell him the damn gun." Or words to that effect. Singular case, but I can't imagine how they're working through guns in the library with no serial numbers.

Wow, it's in great condition.

I would love to see some of those old guns.

The reason I've heard the most is they thought it was ugly.

"Ugly" and unneeded.
A lot of the crests got removed for the same reason.   Personally, I like the crests.

You record what’s on the gun. You don’t bring your own knowledge into it. Some cop who recovers the gun after a burglary isn’t going to know what you think you know. He’s going to run a trace based on what is written on the gun.

Some of those pre 68 no serial number guns actually have numbers but they are not visible unless the gun is partially disassembled.

Remington Model 41 rifles have a serial number located on the underside of the barrel that is hidden by the stock when the gun is assembled. In those days the serial number did not have to be readily visible.