Dating a Nylon 66

[Marbles 427]

Hi all ,
Recently picked up an early decent condition Nylon 66 MB.
Was just curious on dating the rifle.
It doesn't have the common barrel date code ie: 2 letters but does have an actual date-
1959.
There is an RD preceding this but that would put the date at 1957.
2 years before production.
Is this simply a first year (1959) rifle.
Thanks in advance

[600RemGuy]

Fair pictures, but we need one of the top of the barrel ahead of the rear site. RD is not a date code

[Marbles 427]

Ok,
Here's a couple more pictures
Is that the date code at the top?
I always thought they were on the left side of the barrel

[Mainspring]

The Made in Canada stamp changes things a bit. The rifle appears to have additional stamps, these might be a Canada only method of marking and cataloging. Most of the Canadian made rifles happened in the 1960's, the 1959 stamp might indicate year but I just don't know enough on that topic to say for sure.

[Marbles 427]

I thought the Made in Canada might throw a wrench into it.
I appreciate the feedback

[600RemGuy]

Is the first letter an F or a P? Look close for incomplete stamping

[Marbles 427]

I think you're right.
Initially I thought it was an F but I think it could be an incomplete P

[600RemGuy]

I think maybe P as well. so...P B M

P could be June, but B is 1955 and there was no rifle model to assemble in Canada at that point. And the practice ended long before 1981. So that is out.

B could be January and M could be 1965. This is the only feasible solution. In this case, the P (and hell, maybe even F) is likely the assembler-Stamped opposite of what happened normally.

I'm unaware of exactly when Canadian stamped rifles stopped being produced but it may well have been into the mid 1960s

[Marbles 427]

So we are looking at a 1965.
I'm inclined to agree.
Would have been nice to be a first year model though

[Marbles 427]

After further research it appears that the early Nylon 66's (1959 - 1967) assembled in Canada all had the 1959 stamp on them.
This wasn't a date but a model reference number they used for these rifles.