Originally Posted by dian
First, I believe that the "corn cob" fore end would indicate post-war. Pre-war fore ends are small checkered.
The 30's and early 40's have a smooth finish on the top of the receiver while post-war has the rough (phosphate like) finish.
Serial number is on the front face of the receiver. I'm not aware of the serial number anywhere else.
I'm only able to reference 20 gauge guns that are 1941, 1946 and 1949 vintage.
You can verify the age using the serial number.

Thanks, that seems to be consistent with the condition of the piece when i saw it. The beater i have from the original run of 1937 does have that beautiful checkered forend. I must have interpreted wrong from the source i looked at, because based on the items you mention, this was def post-war.

Later on they started calling them 'featherweight' and replaced the bead with the gawdy orange plastic thing. No offense meant to any that have that version, just not my cup of tea, and not one I would collect.

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