This whole thing about guns with no serial number is just beyond absurd.
As it turns out primarily guns without serial numbers are overwhelmingly those marketed by Sears Roebuck under the name JC Higgins. And those were reputed to be mostly .22 caliber. Sears stopped marketing guns in 1962.
Numerous American manufacturer provided guns to Sears. Sears didn't make guns, they only sold them under their brand name. You would not actually know who the real manufacturer was.
The manufacturer used serial numbers on their guns made and sold by them. It was first a manufacturing/inventory control procedure and second a way to know how many guns were actually produced.
I don't know if the manufacturers kept an internal log or accounting of guns made for Sears/JC Higgins but I would surmise that they did. They probably didn't want their own production run serial numbers co-mingled with the Sears guns.
When we talk about building mountains out of mole hills this is a colossal example. It all boils down to predominantly one marketer - Sears/JC Higgins and principally one caliber .22 rim fire.
All of the kibitzers , interlopers that get their jolly's sniping and making mean spirited insults belong in one particular class. When you look at any given thread the numbers of "views" are huge compared to the actual count of respondents. That means that the majority are lurkers who read but don't actually post. Thus the numbers of kibitzers/interlopers is really very small.
That's the way it has been for as far back as I can remember. It's that segment of the population that has been around and always will be.
