What is SRS?

[Sliver Shooter]

Sorry for a silly question but what is SRS? I see guys are checking to see what is known about their rifles. Mine is serial # 234398 and I guess if I could get any info on it, that would be cool. Where is this SRS? Thank you

[JimF]

SRS=Springfield Research Service

[dave]

They once published books and had an internet site which gave serial numbers of guns that they found referances to in Govn. records. Some of these went back to the civil war. It was not the habit of our armed forces to keep detailed records of such info, however info will show up in various records. For a fee you could get copy of the full record that mentions your gun. The books and site just told you they had something and gave a 'hint' as to what it was. But you must remember that any info that shows up is just a "snap-shot in time", not a complete record of the gun.
That has all changed, you now have to be a member to get any info at all. Many people have the books (I recently sold mine) and will answer such requests.

[Sliver Shooter]

Oh Wow. That would be fun to get that info. Like everything now one must pay the fiddler

[mannparks]

http://springfieldresearchservice.com/

here is a link,-

[Tom Trevor]

There is no isting for 234398. The closest is 234391. Issued in 1898. All on either side of it were issued to the same unit for the Spanish war.

[Sliver Shooter]

Tom, Thank you for that information. I find it so facinating. Mine was most likely to be in that same bunch issued to that unit. Wow. Do you know what unit it was? Thank you Thank you

[Tom Trevor]

20th. Kansas. Only Kansas unit to go overseas.

[Dick Hosmer]

Tom, Thank you for that information. I find it so facinating. Mine was most likely to be in that same bunch issued to that unit. Wow. Do you know what unit it was? Thank you Thank you

Ummm - Tom didn't give his usual caveat, leaving me to dispense the potentially sad news. Contrary to what one might think, just because a number is "close" does NOT mean that a common usage was "most likely", or indeed, even likely at all. In fact the more numbers there are in the cluster, the more likely that it would have been listed IF it had been there. SA did not assemble, pack, ship, or issue, arms in rigid sequence. Numerous chest packing lists have been audited, showing spans of several thousand within the 20 rifles. Bottom line - in tracking serial numbers, only exact references count - beyond that, it is all "maybe". Very sorry to rain on the parade.

[Sliver Shooter]

Hey Dick, I kinda wondered about just what you explained. The other question is, with each model did it have their own serial numbers or did the numbers just keep going on. Don't know if that made a bit of sence. My rifle, an 1873 model, made in 1884, with serial # 234398, was there a model 188? that had that number too?

[Dick Hosmer]

Yep, it's the old joke - close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades!

No, numbers in the *main .45-70 "M1873 to end of production sequence" started at 1 in 1873 and ran out at around 568000 (marked since around **1886/7 as M1884, of course) in 1894.

*But,
Model 1868 .50-70 rifles had their own separate run, 1-52500 or so, 1868-70
Model 1869 .50-70 cadet rifles ditto, 1-3450 or so, 1870-71
Model 1881 20ga. "Forager" shotguns also had their own sequence, 1-1380 or so, 1881-85
None of those should ever be confused with a 'plain' .45-70 rifle, however.

** explains your 1884-made "M1873", as the older-dated breechblocks were used to exhaustion, there being no difference beyond the marking.

[Sliver Shooter]

Thank you for your great knowledge. I am just facinated with this history and having a piece of it to hold. I look at the wood on this rifle and ponder that it could very well have been a growing tree around the time of the Revolutionary War. It's now somewhat altered from the original rifle, from some Bubbaing beyound my control, but I am happy how it has turned out with the changes I have made to make it look like a respectable Trapdoor.