On the end label of my 696 box, there are two code numbers I am curious about. One is hand written under "features" HR191-4. Maybe grips/stocks?The other is under Spec Ord. 7009

Anyone know what these mean?

99.5% of the time, the SPEC ORD is the date of manufacturer.

Your firearm was manufactured on January 9th of a year that ends in 7.

Other information like the Model, configuration and serial number would tell us the decade the firearm was manufactured

A photo of the end label might help on the HR191-4

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"Acta non verba"

Thanks, what you said about the Spec. Ord. number , makes sense as it is an early 696. As I understand they were made from 1997 to 2002, so Jan.9 would make it one of the first.

I will try to post a pic. of the label later.

It's called the Julian calendar. 1 through 365/366. Handy when you have a 30 day or 90 day, etc. inspection schedule.

The hand written stuff on my boxes is the sellers stock codes.

Exactly - had written letters and numbers are from the distributor that may indicate salesman’s code, dealer code or other internal routing information that a consumer will never know.

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S&W factory revolver armorer