BLR Early Japanese Serial Numbers: A Theory

[Xare358]

Hi everyone, my first post.

I own have three pre-81 BLRs in .243, .308, and .358. I am just fascinated with them, as much as I am with the pre-64 Win 94's. Must be the engineering, metal and wood. Just great stuff.

After reading the very excellent BLR article by Bruce Hamlin, I could not help but note a couple of comments on the possibility that early Japanese BLR numbers got somehow transposed, i.e. XXXXXK74 was accidentally punched in as XXXXXK47.

Since I have one such model in 308, I wonder my rifle is a "typo" rifle, typos in the early years after the move from Belgium and prior to Browning's standardization of serial numbers in 1975.

I have a theory I wanted to share and see what you guys think and whether the serial numbers out there can either prove or disprove my theory. My theory is this: once production went to Miroku, the same numbering convention was used as in Belgium. However, the two years following the "K" were stamped in the traditional Japanese way of presenting the year of date. This way is the count the year of the current emperor.

In the early 70s, the reigning emperor was Hirohito, who ascended the throne in 1926. Counting 1926 as year "1," a XXXXXK49 model would translate to 1974, which would confirm it as a early Japanese BLR. This might explain the seeming oddity of the two numbers following the "K."

An example of dating convention can be found in Japanese coins http://en.ucoin.net/coin/japan-10-yen-1955/?cid=2358. The coin year is 1955, but it is stamped on the coin in the form of the 30th year of Emperor Showa (Hirohito).

Of course, I may be completely off. If we can get more examples, photos especially, of the transition years, we can test whether this theory is robust.

Thanks for listening.
X.

[gamekeeper]

Welcome to the fire I will be interested in the answer but sadly cannot help.

[AJMD429]

Fascinating...! It sounds good, anyway.

Welcome.

[M. M. Wright]

Well, I have six or seven of them in the safe, both Belgian and Japanese so I'll see if I can add anything to your theory. It is interesting.

Welcome to the fire!

[Pete44ru]

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Welcome to the forum ! !

It's true, whomever was stamping the SN's in the Miroku factory during the early-to-mid 1970's transposed a LOT of SN year indicator numerals.

I have a .22 Auto made by Miroku that's SN indicates it was made in 1974 - Two years before Browning moved production from Belgium to Miroku.


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[Chuck 100 yd]

Welcome, sorry,no help here on the BLR.

[Xare358]

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Welcome to the forum ! !

It's true, whomever was stamping the SN's in the Miroku factory during the early-to-mid 1970's transposed a LOT of SN year indicator numerals.

I have a .22 Auto made by Miroku that's SN indicates it was made in 1974 - Two years before Browning moved production from Belgium to Miroku.


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Hey Pete,
The move from Belgium was well before 1976. Perhaps you are thinking about when the serialization was standardized in 1976? From what I understand the move was done in 1973. I also seem to recall that there may have been 1973 Belgians and 1973 Japanese. But I defer to experts on this question.

I have a BLR with SN "03XXXK47." Is yours also a "XXXXK47?"

So back to my question. Japanese are known to be extremely precise. To transpose the numbers---just hard to buy that explanation. A "K67" would of course slam the door on my theory, while a "57" would slam the door if there was no "56," "55,", "54," ...

[Pete44ru]

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Yeah, I was thinking about A-5 production switching to Miroku in 1976 - but I stand by my reply regarding the swapped SN date numerals.

There are many 1973's with their dating marked "37", and 1974's marked "47".

When Miroku first took over production of many of Browning's firearms they had a little trouble with stamping the correct Browning year code numerals in the SN's.

It's most likely because, in the Japanese language, the most important aspect is usually placed first.

So, in the Land of the Rising Sun, the third year of the seventh decade would be placed in the leading position (first) - hence (at Miroku), they evidently thought the correct designation for (19)74 would be 47 (which we translate to 1947).



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[Xare358]

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Yeah, I was thinking about A-5 production switching to Miroku in 1976 - but I stand by my reply regarding the swapped SN date numerals.

There are many 1973's with their dating marked "37", and 1974's marked "47".

When Miroku first took over production of many of Browning's firearms they had a little trouble with stamping the correct Browning year code numerals in the SN's.

It's most likely because, in the Japanese language, the most important aspect is usually placed first.

So, in the Land of the Rising Sun, the third year of the seventh decade would be placed in the leading position (first) - hence (at Miroku), they evidently thought the correct designation for (19)74 would be 47 (which we translate to 1947).

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Hi Pete, if K37s and K57s, then that pretty much sinks my theory.

On Japanese and Chinese numbering, do note that the numbers are not written that way.

If using the traditional dating within the Gregorian calendar context, we have the following syntax (right to left is simply reversed)
<Emperor/name of Reign><number of Year><Year Character><number of month><Month Character><Number of Day><Day character>
So for July 18, 1949 is
<昭和><二十四><年><七><月><十八><日> or 昭和二十四年七月十八日

Writing Right to Left this is: 日八十月七年四十二昭和

Leaving out month and day and using roman numbers this would be
年24昭和

In other words, within the roman numbers, Japanese does not transpose the numbers. What precedes the symbol for year, 年, is the number in question. It only appears to do so in Japanese. But when you actually read it, you are reading the number. 24 does not become 42.

Also, they do not chop up the year for decades and years when using roman numerals. Well, at least I have ever seen that in any context.

Back to the rifle question. I wonder if the factory purposely did that to indicate the rifles were Miroku made.

The unconventional of 37, 47, 57, 67, 77, 87, 97, etc. would give them a clear way to distinguish the Miroku from the Belgian and from any future manufacturing.

So in this sense, all the Miroku from 1973 through 1975 would be transposed, i.e. none were K74 or K75 (as opposed to a mistake)