Remington 541S Date of Manufactur help

[EricS]

Hi Folks, I recently purchased a Remington 541-S Sporter, it has many strange issues. The guy I bought it from said he purchased it from a Remington employee at the factory in Ilion, NY. The first issue is the rifle does not have the traditional engraving on the receiver and has a black wood fore end. This can be seen in the first picture and can see it is clearly marked "Remington 541-S Custom Sporter".

The second issue is a date, in front of the 1220xxx serial number on the receiver, I can see the barrel stamp of "EJ 5". Looking at the date paperwork you list a few places, the "E" would be for an October manufacture month, but the "J" would be the year, would make in 1989. But I see Remington only was in production for this riffle from 1972 thru 1983. I read somewhere the "5" does indicate an employee purchase. See this in second picture

Anyone have any suggestions or guesses?

Thanks
Eric