If I recall my conversation with the historical department at Winchester, those with the cursive font style pre-dated the XTR. I've had a few over the years and to the low information buyer, they are a XTR Fwt.. As to specific date and number of units, a person would have to call them to see what their records reveal.
The featherweight's were re-introduced in late 1979 with them showing up in catalogs in 1979 they were all XTR Featherweight's. My classic stainless featherweight made around 1994 had featherweight in cursive on the barrel.
Also if you call Winchester now inquiring about when a rifle was made etc they wont tell you. Once the move to SC took place there are couple of stories on what happened to all the paperwork concerning SN from the NH plant the one you hear about the most is Winchester turned it over to the ATF to other stories they were destroyed etc.
