Locating Date for Model 700

[Cduncan1206]

Hi All!

I stumbled upon this Model 700 in 7mm Rem Mag for $300 at a local Cabela's Gun Library. It's a little beat up, but seems to be in fairly good working order, and it was a good enough deal I couldn't pass it up.

Out of pure curiosity, I'm trying to hunt down information on how to date the rifle. There seems to be some mixed information online about using a mixture of barrel markings and the serial number to do this, but a lot of that information seems to not fit this rifle or conflict with other information I've seen online. Any recommendations on identifying this?

The serial number on the rifle is 125163, and there are some letter markings on the barrel (as seen in the pictures). I've seen a couple other pictures and videos of rifles with similar patterns on the stock, but not sure if that's important or not.

Appreciate any help anyone can provide here! Thank you, and happy shooting!

[600RemGuy]

Barrel markings indicate built/assembled in march 1965. Receiver serial number sorta shows earlier BUT sometimes receivers needed to be tweaked and fall out of sequence. I believe the barrel should be a true 24 inches, rather than the 23.5 as built earlier in the 700 lifeline

[rembo]

It appears your barrel is marked STAINLESS STEEL. I've had 4 of these 7 Mags through my hands the latest dated to 1970 and they were all 23-1/2" long. Receivers are built in batches and some might sit in inventory for a few months or longer until being barreled and assembled.
Very nice ADL with a steel Weaver. You got a heck of a deal.

[54bullseye]

From what I have seen in the Magnum caliber guns only the first and possibly second year guns had 23.5 inch barrels and those barrels were not marked "Stainless" under caliber designation. From then on they were 24"
John Taylor