New member south Florida

[toptechx6]

Old geezer here, not new to 870's but just found your site and forum while researching one of my old barrels. I knew it was pretty old because I bought it in 1969, I did not realize how old until checking out the date code here which is AWW which I interpret as March 1950?
When purchased it was 27" long, plain with no rib and had a Polychoke installed. Sometime in the 70's I sent to Simmons in Kansas to install a vent rib and also had them lengthen the chamber to 3' since I wanted to use it on a Magnum receiver purchased around the same time.
Simmons reblued the barrel when they did the work and it still looks great even after years of hunting for ducks, geese, pheasant, grouse and no doubt a rabbit or two.
Also of interest is the number 3187V stamped on the barrel near the date code, have to wonder if it could be the serial number of the gun that wore the barrel when it left Ilion. Does anyone here know if early barrels perhaps included the firearm serial number?

[Scorpion8]

Howdy and welcome from South East Alaska!

Does anyone here know if early barrels perhaps included the firearm serial number?

That I do not know, but someone might.

[Synchronizor]

Welcome to the forum.

An "AWW" date code does indeed point to March 1950. Some early barrels were stamped with serial numbers to match the receiver, and a SN of "3187V", with a "V" at the end and no letter or letters at the beginning indicates an early 1950-1968 non-magnum 12ga 870. Does your receiver have the same serial number?

[toptechx6]

Thanks for the welcome and both replies! I do not have the receiver for the AWW barrel, it was originally purchased as a spare for the first 870 I ever owned, barrel and gun were both purchased in 1969. That first gun had 2 3/4" chamber and came with a 28" plain barrel with modified choke.
The Polychoke was the reason for purchase of the spare barrel, understand this was prior to the era of threaded choke tubes.
A local gun shop had the barrel, the owner had left it for installation of the Polychoke but failed to return and pay for the work so the gun shop sold it to me for that price.
Polychokes probably seem strange to shooters today but I still like the concept, much quicker to change choke constriction in the field while hunting by simply twisting the choke collar with no need to carry spare tubes or wrenches. I doubt that they pattern as nicely as good quality tubes, but my experience using it for hunting was good.
I did find another thread posted here that indicates some early barrels were stamped with the serial number of the gun so I suspect my AWW barrel came from # 3187V, pretty amazing considering the guns now number in the millions!