Browning Sweet Sixteen, Belgian Made

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Cash Only Please

Picked this up years and years ago and it has just sat in my safe.  Here is what I have been able to look up:

Have a couple boxes of shells I will throw in as well, I have 5 boxes of them.

serial number 59704

Your serial number 59704 (no letter prefix) falls in the pre-WWII numeric sequence. Serial numbers 1 through approximately 228,000 were produced from 1903 through 1939, with very few serial number records remaining. Year of manufacture on pre-WWII production is strictly a guess. At 59,704, you’re solidly in the mid-range of pre-war production, suggesting manufacture most likely in the late 1920s to mid-1930s.

However, there’s a critical wrinkle: the Sweet 16 didn’t hit shelves until 1937. So if this is genuinely marked as a Sweet Sixteen, it would be from 1937–1939 (pre-war production ended when Belgium was occupied in 1940). Serial numbers in the high 50,000s are consistent with that window.

Key things to verify on the gun:

• It should have a gold trigger and “Sweet Sixteen” engraved on the side of the receiver to confirm it’s a true Sweet Sixteen vs. a standard 16-gauge A-5.
• Sweet 16s from 1937–1940 had a 2-9/16″ chamber, while guns from 1947 onward had 2-3/4″

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