Serial numbers were not required prior to the 1968 gun control act
So I wonder if that was a federal crime prior to that

And if it was - did it date to the 1934 act

Looks like some was thinking "No one will buy this if they know it has Damascus barrels"

Jay is correct. However, I don't believe anyone back in the fifties through the seventies was mislead by those amateurish attempts to fake Damascus guns. There were even more uninformed and undereducated gunsmiths out there in those days than there are now, if you can believe that. I watched collectors who should have known better, cannibalize high grade Parkers by the dozens. Why, you may ask. Well, a Damascus AH grade gun in average condition was worth about $175. If someone thought the same gun could be safely shot, it was a $200 gun. If the same situation existed in DH grade guns, the figures were about $100 and $150. A properly sleeved and marked Lefever Arms Company job of Parker sleeving is the only legitimate "fake job" of the sixties other than some UK and Belgian sleeve jobs. Most guns with faked up ribs were not sleeved at all. They were just blued very dark and sold as fluid steel guns. It was a black day in shotgun collecting and we are still sorting out the residue of faked up guns today.

I believe that if a firearm has factory serial numbers, regardless of the year of manufacture, to remove or alter them is still regarded by the ATF as a crime.






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I would not like to find out the hard way, for sure. It is a crime against Parkers, at a minimum

Yes. Now it absolutely is

But my point was ----was it a crime if this was done 75 years ago?

I know I have heard of faked colt SAA's out there

and wasn't there a faked Bo Whoop getting passed around

Not everything illegal now has always been so

I have seen an otherwise nice original Parker that a federal agency took a grinding wheel to and removed the serial number.