I'm moving this into a new thread, rather than take over Dave Ross's post about his super-early Browning Explorer.

Dave, Pdiddly and I got speculating the other night about trying to decipher the old serial numbers...and I wound up staying up way too late and drinking way too much coffee; but I also made some progress.

The Brownings were pretty simple: first character is a numeral for the year of the decade; second character is a letter representing the model, and the remaining numbers are sequential... so a Browning s/n of 6D328 is the 328th Explorer made in 1966. If the first number is (let's say) a 5 and you don't know if it's a 1965 or a 1975, just look for the AMO designation with the length--bows before 1967 didn't have an AMO; bows afterwards did.

The Shakespeares are a little bit trickier: the first character is a letter, and I'm almost certain it stands for the month (with "A" being January and "M" being December; they don't use an "I" because it looks too much like a "1"). The second character is a number, and I think it's the year of the decade; just like Brownings. The next few digits are serial (and may also have a bowyer identifier; not sure about this yet), and the final character is a letter that represents the model.

The Shakespeare models I've keyed out so far are the Necedah (M), the Sierra (T), the Ocala (C), the Trident (L), The Yukon (H), and the Supreme (B). I still need to see a few more Kaibabs (R?) and Super Necedahs (S?), and I haven't followed too far forward into the 70's yet to see if it holds up. Again, if anyone wants to help and send some Shakespeare or Browning serial numbers, we can pin it all down pretty close. I won't be surprised if we also see some parallels between Gordon/Browning and Root/Shakespeare.

I neglected to list the Brownings that I know: Monarch was A, not sure what was B (maybe the Trophy?), Safari was C, Explorer D, Nomad E, Olympian F (until they abandoned the Monarch, and then the Olympian seems to have taken over as A), Apollo is G (and Diana is too I think...), Medallion is H, and Mohawk is K; Fury replaces Safari as C, Wasp is T, Challenge is Z, Nomad Stalker gets W...that's where I'm at for now.

Also worth mentioning that the serial digits in Browning's scheme seem to represent how many of that MODEL have been made YTD, but with Shakespeares I'm not yet clear on that.

The Monarch was made until at least 1968. I have photos of two: 6A75 70" (non-AMO), 44# cocobolo (I think) riser 8A193 70" A.M.O., 32# B. Rosewood riser

The Explorer retained its "D" serial number, even through the generations. 4D 1671-2 is an Exporer II, from 1974. 11 years later (than 2D27) it was still a 62" bow, but now has horns on the riser.

Here's my list.. Apollo

5G677

1965 44# 66” Two belly lams, one face lam-white glass

Cobra

1N542-1

1971 51# 50” One belly lam, two face lams-black glass

5N314-2

1975 50# 58” One belly lam, two face lams-black glass

Explorer

6D868

1966 58# 62” (actually 60” bow) No # suffix as this year preceded the I and II. Two belly lams, one face lam. Green glass on face and brown on belly.

2D1022-1

1972 50# 56” Three belly lams, one face lam-black glass

5D655-1

1975 62# 56” Two belly lams, one face lam-black glass

Nomad

4E997

1964 52# 54” Two belly lams, one face lam-tip wedges-black glass No suffix as prior to Nomad II

6E2510

1966 45# 54” Single lam on both sides-tip wedges-black glass

Nomad Stalker

0W2282

1970 52# 52” First year of manufacture One belly lam, two face lams-black glass. No suffix as preceded Stalker I and II

Safari

1C152-1

1971 59# 54” Two belly lams, one face lam-black glass

Wasp

4T13519

1974 55# 56” Two belly lams, one face lam-grey glass.

I think "S" is for the Prep. There's on on ebay right now; the seller has mis-read the S as a 5.

Fellas, I Think you're on to something with the Shakespeare #'s this bow was a 1966 Trident

March - 1966 - #216 - Trident Model ?

66-67

Yep, I think you're reading it right SDBravo. However, in the list of bows I've accumulated, I also see another Trident, with a serial number of C61746L. So think about that...another Trident, made in the same month, same year...yet the remaining digits, if they're all serial, are 1,530 higher than yours. That feels like an awful lot of Tridents in a month.

This raises an exciting possibility: What if the initial letter is month, the initial digit is year, and the following one or two digits is day of the month? That would make your Trident C6216L decode as: "March, 1966,second day of the month, and 16th bow made, a Trident". The other bow, C61746L, would read "March, 1966, 17th day of month,46th bow made, a Trident".

The neat thing about this would be that it would give us a bow's "birthday," so to speak. I'll check it with the other Shakespeare's on my list...at first glance, it seems to work.

Kaibab. Has the "R" designation as you mention.

crookedstix

The letter "T" would rule out the 12 month theory. "L" would be as high as it could go for 12 months.......if I understand what your theory was.

You're right that a "T" would be a serious setback to the month theory; I was working off a list of about 30 Shakespeares and had never seen an initial letter that was beyond A-M. Do you have a s/n that starts with a "T"?

Anything up to M for the first letter is not a problem, because as I said you probably wouldn't use the letter i since it looks like a number. But a T would be a serious setback!

Here is another possible wench in the theory. I have a mid sixties Custer x22 but it does not start with a letter. ???

Jaz, I just checked Larry Vienneau's blog. He has a database of about a hundred Shakespeare serial numbers; EVERY ONE of them has a first letter that falls between A and M (and none of them are I)...as do the 30 or so that I was going by. If you've seen a "T" as the first letter, I bet it was just a "J" that lost its lower curl somehow. I'd bet the farm on the letter representing the month it was made.

SD-- though I'm all for wenches (!) in any theory, my guess is that occasionally the person recording the numbers would space out. Your Custer has the "new deer" logo (looking to the side; the "old deer" logo had that scary straight-ahead, pig-faced look to it). That makes it no earlier than a '69, and more likely a '70...so I'm guessing the guy doing the writing just spaced out on the month, and wrote what year it was.

My guess is that serial numbering happened right after tillering and weighing (and obviously before spraying). As I told Larry, I wouldn't sweat a certain percentage of anomalies; plenty of room for the occasional mental goof-up when you're encoding five different pieces of information on a hundred or more bows a day.

Dang, Deer looking left and straight ahead I never caught that. ( Good Job) Late Sixties - Early Seventies "spaced out" ?? I'd find that hard to believe. Also I'd find that Hard to remember..........

Okay, I've done some pretty simple analysis and I think these are the patterns...at least through the 60's and early 70's.

Browning recurves: Year(digit), Model(letter), and then a string of serial digits indicating how many OF THAT MODEL had been made YTD. Then, if there's a dash followed by a 1 or a 2, it's just telling you if it's the shorter (1) or the longer(2) version of that model

Example: 9D426-1 is a 1969 Explorer, the 426th Explorer made that year, and it's the Explorer I (56").

Shakespeare recurves: Month(letter between A and M, but the letter I is not used), Year (digit), and then a string of serial digits indicating # of bows made OF ALL MODELS month to date; then finally Model (letter).

Example: L6383C was made in November, 1966; the 383rd bow made that month, and it's an Ocala.

If I'm right about the Shakespeare serial digits representing "month to date of all models", then it looks like Shakespeare was making roughly 5,000 bows a month in their peak years.

I used a sample set of about 50 Brownings and 125 Shakespeare bows to sort this out. See how these formulas work for your Brownings or Shakespeares; if they prove to be consistently right, then I'll make a final posting summarizing the patterns and all of the Model designations for both companies.

Shakespeare's in my collection.

Necedah's

Both red glass limbs with "Pig Deer" decal dates fit design.

D5915M- April 1965 915th bow that month and M for Necedah

M52339M- December 1965 2,339th bow that month M for Necedah

Ocala's

G01860C- July 1970 1,860th bow that month C for Ocala This was the later version with bumps on riser back so date fits. "Looking left deer" decal

H61965C- August 1966 1,965th bow that month C for Ocala That date also fits as it's the early Ocala without the bumps on the riser face. "Pig deer" decal

Super Necedah's

H1304S- August 1971 304th bow that month S for Super Necedah "Looking left" deer decal so date fits

K83153S-October 1968 3153'd bow that month S for Super N "Pig deer" decal so date fits

K81032S- October 1968 1032'd bow that month S for Super N (saw this one on eBay tonight)

Kaibab

E7200R- May 1967 200th bow that month R for Kabab. That date fits with design-green glass limbs and tigerwood sight window without riser bumps like earlier Ocala above. "Pig deer" decal

Cascade

G9889E- July 1969 889th bow that month E is for Cascade "Deer looking left" decal

I'll throw in some "Roots by Shakespeare" They don't seem to have a model letter designation but the rest of the number code fits.

Warrior

A6230 January 1966 230th bow made. Date fits as it looks like the 58" Necedah of the same year.

Warrior X-100

B0185 February 1970 185th bow made. This also fits as this is the 58" model that has the hand forward riser like the Super Necedah.

Predator X-114

E01159 May 1970 1159th bow made This bow is identical to the Warrior X-100 except it's 54" long with the hand forward grip. It's identical to the Super Necedah. Both have the same build year so numbers match date.

Conclusion is that the code fits with Kerry's theory! Well done!

SD..on the Custer he could have also had a brain fart and put the numerical value for the month of July...not hard to goof up on occasion.

Perhaps we should be kind and refer to them as "new deer" and "old deer," LOL! There's just something wrong about those glowing eyes on the earlier deer logo though...."scary clown deer" could be another possibility...

I suppose you're right...but it does have a pig's nose!

I forgot to add in my RH-300. The serial digits were L315.

Using the code that would be November 1963 and the 15th bow built that month with no model designation. That does not fit as they only made this model from 1959-1960.

I checked Larry's article and all of the serial digits I saw there began with the month designator followed by four numbers.

So the number must be the monthly quantity number. The Roots I listed had the build year but mo model designator unless the last number is the model but that would not be likely as it would be confusing.

So the 315th bow built in November.

I also made an error on the Warrior X-100. I wrote that it had a hand forward design like the Super Necedah but I meant to write the Necedah of that year, 1970. That was the first year of the"green glass" model with the hand forward grip.

How about "Meth Deer" and "Xanax Deer?"

So who is going to start a Browning Recurve blog like Larry V's excellent Shakespeare/Root website?

The serial number on this Super Necedah X-30 is E82491S which would make it the 2,491st unit produced in May of 1968 - if I understand the line of thinking. And I assume that's the old deer head logo. Pretty cool topic.

The serial number on this Super Necedah X-30 is E82491S which would make it the 2,491st unit produced in May of 1968 - if I understand the line of thinking. And I assume that's the old deer head logo. Pretty cool topic.

The serial number on this Super Necedah X-30 is E82491S which would make it the 2,491st unit produced in May of 1968 - if I understand the line of thinking. And I assume that's the old deer head logo. Pretty cool topic.

My apologizes for the multiple post.

Cool topic? Well, I agree.

I have 3 Shakespeares and all of them tend to follow the coding.

Nice work to all involved.

El Dorado...you read the code correctly...see my Super Necedah's codes posted above from the same year.

If this is the correct coding for Shakespeare numbers, and so far it seems to work, then it may lead to some slight changes in Larry Vienneau's excellent write-ups of the various Shakespeare models, in terms of the dates he had tentatively assigned to them.

Using this, you can even start looking for a Shakespeare that shares your birthday. Roughly speaking, in 20 workdays a month they made about 5,000 bows...so that's about 250 bows a day (I remember reading once that at its peak, Wing Archery was making 300 a day). So lessee here...I'd like to find a Kaibab with a serial number between C6000R and C6250R; chances will be good that it was made on March 1, 1966 (or at least on the first workday in March)-- the day I turned ten.

I picked up a very sweet Apollo over the weekend. The serial # was E2497 which varies from Crookedstix Apollo as his starts out with a number. Love these old Brownings. Used to think Bear was the only way to go as a collectable but boy was I wrong. This one had a slight twist in lower limb which I was able to take out. with these narrow limbs and tiny tips its easy to understand how the limbs get a twist. I had a hard time using a stringer with the tiny tips. I also filled 2 sight holes with softened crayon and was able to get a close match to the brown glass color.

TTT

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