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Is the spent/test shell date on the envelope indicitive of when a gun was made.

On my latest purchase the test shell date is 3+ years old.

As popular as this handgun is i'm kind of surprised by this date on a 2011 purchase.

The shell case is because some states require them to be provided upon registration. They claim it is for the ability to trace the gun should a case be found at a crime scene, I have a vision of a huge room with shell casings being stored..... Just another "do good" law with no logical reasoning behind it...........

Rugerboy50 wrote:Is the spent/test shell date on the envelope indicitive of when a gun was made.

On a European gun (for example, my Walther PPS) the EU requires the manufacturer to prove that the weapon works as designed, i.e. fires a cartridge. The spent cartridge case is included as proof, along with the vendor marking the gun with their particular avatar. The proof date was late in November, 2010 and the gun's manufacture date code shows it made in 2010.

YMMV.

I cannot say if the shell casing date would be when the gun was manufactured or not, but I feel confident it gives a minimum for the age. It would be hard to fire it for proof testing before manufacture. I would guess it is actually pretty close tot he final manufacture date since it gives proof of both the police requirement and the manufacturing test. That test would probably make a logical final step after manufacturing and before packaging for warehouse or shipment.

Three years from manufacture to first sale does sound long for a popular gun, but I never looked at the dates on mine to see how long it was. I usually just throw that envelope with the casing away as a waste of some state's time and a little bit of my money (cost of doing it added to each firearm).

I would like to think a test fire date ought to give you at least a ball park idea of the build time. As someone pointed, you know it is at least that old.

I imagine some firearms end up setting on shelves somewhere in a factory warehouse, distributers, and on occasion for whatever reason they put new stock in front of the old, instead of pulling the old stock out and putting the new stock to the rear. I say that as it seems grocery stores and the like have forgotten the proper way to stock shelves, so I suspect some gun dealers have forgotten at times also.