Despite development with Fry's etchant, the visualization, documentation, and photography of the restored serial number proved difficult because of the deep "pock" type of obliteration. Explored as a technique for examining the restored serial number, the SEM successfully provided a simple means of visualizing, documenting, and photographing the restored serial number. Although the SEM did not provide absolute discrimination of the entire serial number, it greatly enhanced the visualization and the documentation and easily accommodated the firearm size of approximately 7.5 inches in length. 6 figures