Remington 541S Date of Manufactur help

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hartmn
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Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2018 9:24 am

Remington 541S Date of Manufactur help

Post by hartmn »

My wife recently purchased a Remington 541S and I am having trouble deciphering the date of manufacturer and was wondering if anyone here could help. It has 3 letters before the serial number. The serial number leads me to believe that it was manufactured in 1974 and that is supported by the second two letters in the manufactured date code. I just can't figure out what the first letter means so that makes me wonder if any of assumptions are correct.

Thanks for any help! Picture of the SN and code is below.

Image

Thanks!
Eric
nambujim
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Re: Remington 541S Date of Manufactur help

Post by nambujim »

Looks like an "A" and a "Y" before the serial. March 1974

That appears to be a "proof" type mark before the "A"

Hope that helps!

Jim Peterson
Charlotte, NC
Jim Peterson
hartmn
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Re: Remington 541S Date of Manufactur help

Post by hartmn »

Jim,


My wife and I were scratching our heads on this one. Based on the the serial number and production numbers we figured it had to be in the 1974 time frame. But the “CA” then the “Y” had us stumped. What’s with the “C” before the “A”? And A1003836 serial number would place it into the first few months of the year assuming 3836 is the three thousand thirty eightieth thirty six hundredth 541 S coming of the custom shop line floor.

It sounds like it would be that easy to assume but one never knows.

Thanks for your response. March of 1974. The rifle is not home yet as my state requires me to wait ten days before they will release it to us.

My wife and I can’t wait to get it home and put some lead down range range with it! Pictures to follow!

Thanks again!

Eric & Nancie Hartman

Manhattan Beach, California
nambujim
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Re: Remington 541S Date of Manufactur help

Post by nambujim »

Hey!!!

In days gone by I was a pretty serious smallbore position rifle shot so much of what I throw at you will come from that point of view.

I'm sure you know that these rifles will group best using match grade ammunition like Federal Match or Green Box CCI, doubt the super expensive stuff like Eley would do any better.

I know ammunition and technology have changed since I was active in the sport but almost to a man................none of us cleaned the bore, finding all target rifles shot better when "dirty". We're talking Anschutz, 52 Winchesters, BSA Martini's, and even the 40X, all shot better when you left them dirty. The ammo even then was really clean and I'm sure today its even better. I would clean mine like once a year to see if there was any lead accumulation only to find it was insignificant AND then it would take 100-200 rounds of shooting to get it back to where you wanted it and could depend on it.

To this end, I fired a national record in the kneeling position using a rifle that had not been cleaned in 2-1/2 years using the old Western Xpert ammunition. Back in the late 60's and through the 70's we found that Western Super Match Mark III shot every bit as well as Eley and Xpert shot as well as either of those. I still believe the Mark III & Xpert came off the same line, they just put them in different boxes..........lol.

I have a gun writer friend who a few years back ran group tests on like 20 different brands of .22 match ammo, at my request he included a box of my 1972 Western Xpert................it came in third but there was hardly a difference between 1st and 10th, they grouped that well!

Oh well, its late and I had nothing better to do than ramble on. Enjoy you nice 541S............lovely rifle.

Jim Peterson
Charlotte, NC
Jim Peterson
hartmn
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Re: Remington 541S Date of Manufactur help

Post by hartmn »

Hey Jim,

Here are a couple of my .22's that you mentioned above!

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Image
hartmn
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Re: Remington 541S Date of Manufactur help

Post by hartmn »

Image

Love these old .22S

Eric
nambujim
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Re: Remington 541S Date of Manufactur help

Post by nambujim »

Nice stuff, really nice................nothing better than blue steel & wood.

Most are now used for bench rest shooting, not hardly what they were designed for but its a whole new world.

Enjoy them, glad I could be of some help.

Jim
Jim Peterson
hartmn
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2018 9:24 am

Re: Remington 541S Date of Manufactur help

Post by hartmn »

Thanks Jim! Check out this Unertl scope!

Image

Image

I love these old .22's!!!
nambujim
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Re: Remington 541S Date of Manufactur help

Post by nambujim »

Best damn scope ever made, used B & L glass whereas Fecker & Litschert used some other stuff that lacked the clarity, and I never cared much for the Lyman Supertargetspot!

In smallbore competition I used a 1.5" Unertl 16X with a Lee Dot, my scores went up a heap when I switched to the "dot". Have several Unertl scopes using a 14X for long range shooting on my high power target rifle. A little strong but I felt comfortable with it.

That is a nice bunch of rifles but your collection isn't complete until you find a Remington 37, far better than the 40X and every bit as good as a Model 52. The 37 had a bit of a creepy trigger but if you replaced it with a Canjar it was fantastic.

Take care and behave!
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Jim Peterson
hartmn
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Re: Remington 541S Date of Manufactur help

Post by hartmn »

Hi Jim,

I finally got the 541S home. I removed it from the stock and cleaned it up. After that I removed the crappy Busnell scope from the groved rails and backed out the screws on the top of the barrel and receiver. The ones on the receiver are stripped or cross threaded a bit. What can I do to repair this? Send it back to Remington and see if they and reem them out and possibly recover enough threads to mount a scope base I would hope. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated otherwise I may have to kick this one to the curb and count my losses. Are there different size scope bases screws that I could possibly use if I remember correctly I thought there were two sizes. Do you believe the Remington shop could drill them out to utilize Leupold scope bases or am I just done! This might be unrecoverable damage. Please advise.

Eric
nambujim
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Re: Remington 541S Date of Manufactur help

Post by nambujim »

I would take it to a competent gunsmith and have him look at the stripped threads, hard to believe someone could do that but then they had a Bushnell scope on the rifle. There are lots of ways to re-establish threads, many of which are no more than a temporary fix. Again, find a "competent" smith and explain the situation.

Jim Peterson
Charlotte, NC
Jim Peterson
hartmn
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2018 9:24 am

Re: Remington 541S Date of Manufactur help

Post by hartmn »

Jim,

I don't have or know of a competent gunsmith in California. For that mater, California is not a competent place! I have placed a call to the Remington Custom Shop and I am waiting for a call back because the phone taker didn't didn't know if this model gun was a custom shop rifle or not because of it's age and she had to ask someone! Sigh! So your response to me is you have no recommendation for a competent shop just to be clear?

Thank you for your time in advance.

Eric
nambujim
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Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2006 3:16 pm
Location: Charlotte, NC

Re: Remington 541S Date of Manufactur help

Post by nambujim »

Well, at least you haven't lost your sense of humor.

I am of an age where I have outlived all the people that did work for me, sad but true. Damn shame but truly this should not be a difficult fix for even a decent "smith", it is however beyond my current abilities. Have no other recommendation for you.

Jim
Jim Peterson
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