Mossberg 22 LR NWSC US Property 44 Information

Originally posted by Douglas on CSP Smallbore Forum thanks to Cass for the repost

10/17/09    Craig Johnson reports he has received NWSC0002 from the CMP on the latest round of US44 sales.  So they are still out there!

NWSC research complete
Posted By: Douglas
Date: Tuesday, 29 May 2001, at 11:22 a.m.

After almost six months of trying to find out the providence of the Mossberg M44 rifles with NWSCXXXX serial numbers, I am happy to finally report my results. I wish to thank the following people for their assistance in this endeavor: Mr. Jim Scott, the Manager of the Weapons Department at NSWC Crane, Ms. Kay McKelvey of the Defense Logistics Information Service, Ms. Marla Faulkner at CMP, and last but not least everyone who provided me with known serial numbers.

NWSC stood for Naval Weapons Support Center. Crane (Southwestern Indiana) was originally a Naval Ammunition Depot from 1941 until 1976 or 1977 when it became NWSC. That name stayed until the early 1990's when it became part of NSWC, Naval Surface Warfare Center. They track all Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard small arms by serial number. The majority of their overhaul work is for Navy customers but they do occasionally provide support for the other services.

It is believed that Crane took possession of these rifles before or shortly after the Gun Control Act of 1968. Before this Act was passed, there was no requirement for .22 caliber rifles to be serial numbered. At the time, the only record kept was an inventory of how many they had, no serial numbers were recorded. Center fire arms were treated in the same manner. Don't forget, this was before the widespread use of computers and this type of record keeping would have been a monumental task. After GCA'68, all this changed, .22s were required to have serial numbers and record keeping by serial number was required.

These rifles were reworked at Crane sometime before 12 September, 1977 when they were sent to DRMO, Defense Reutilization Marketing Office. At the time of rework most were parkerized, and since there was no record of M44s by serial number, it is believed that the decision to grind off the existing number and start from scratch was the easiest and most cost effective thing to do. So they just started with NWSC0001 and continued consecutively through the entire quantity at hand.

I have documented as the lowest number NWSC0002 and the highest number NWSC3565. Based on that, I believe at least 3565 M44s were at one time in Crane's possession and reworked there. Unfortunately, I ran into a brick wall in trying to find out the exact number and where they went after they left Crane. This kind of information can only be obtained from the Freedom of Information Office, and it is not free. This information is not on computer and must be manually searched for, looking through boxes. I gave the FOI a few serial numbers to research and they told me my expense would be at least  $136 for just these few. They also told me I would probably be disappointed with the result. I chose not to spend the money. I asked FOI the following questions:

What is the date Crane first came into
possession?

From what customer did Crane receive them?

The serial number range that went to DRMO?

Where did they go when they left DRMO?

From what banch of service did CMP receive them?

In conclusion, it is a pretty safe bet that Crane had at least 3565 M44s that were renumbered and that the rework was done sometime around 1976/1977. It can also be said that they had less than 9999 since all the known numbers are four digit. Also of interest is the fact that before 1968, small arms in the military were not tracked by serial number, just quantity. While some units or armories may have recorded serial numbers, it was not common practice or required.

I hope this helps to determine what NWSC stands for and how they came to be.