Are all sweet sixteen guns marked sweet sixteen?

Answer 1

99% of the sweet 16s will say as much on the left side of the receiver. There was a 3 year period from 1937 until the German occupation of Belgium in 1940 that they were produced and most of these do not specifically say Sweet 16 on the left hand side. On these few and far between pre-war guns, you will find most noteably, a gold plated trigger. All of these 'pre-war' 16s were chambered only for 2 9/16" shells.

After the war ended and production and import resumed in 1947, all the Sweets I have ever seen have had it plainly marked.

The other sure fire way is to inspect the serial number and product ID code.

Browning started identifying sweet 16s in 1953 with an S prefix before the serial number. So, as an example S123456 and so on. The standard 16s had an R prefix, R123456 and so on.

They switched up for a year in 1957 and the sweet went to an A prefix and the standard went to a T prefix.

In 1958, they went back to the S and R system, but put the last didgit of the year of manufacture BEFORE the prefix. This went on until 1967 went they realized they needed TWO didgits before the prefix letter. So the serial number a sweet made in 1963 would look something like 3S123456. The standard weight 16 was discontinued in 1964. So if you have a 16 made after that... it is a sweet and a sweet only.