Quote:
Originally Posted by powerplantpete
I am new to the Forum and recently acquired a Victory model in .38 Special with the serial number V5094xx. The gun does have flying bomb ordinance mark on the heel near the "V" of the serial number but does not have other military marks. The major parts match by serial number and it has the appropriate smooth grips. Any ideas on date of production and who it was shipped to? I gather after reading this Forum for a while that it probably saw war plant guard duty.
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Pete,
First, your gun shipped on the 1943-44 cusp, probably January of 1944. In addition to the mentioned Ordnance 'flaming bomb,' revolvers of this period commonly had "P" proofs found at the upper left frame, the rear face of the cylinder and the underside of the barrel.
Second, if you're assuming your gun was a DSC "guard gun" because of some known provenance, great. If you're making that assumption simply because it has no "U.S. PROPERTY" top strap markings ("military marks"), be advised that there are other possibilities of varying probability that may induce you to request a factory historical letter. At this point in the V.M. production, there were two interesting things going on: examples without any top strap markings were being shipped to the U.S. Navy *and* some few of them were earmarked for the OSS. Either of those would considerably effect the value. Even if it was a DSC gun, letters for guns of this period of the war will often list the specific end-user and not simply the generic "DSC" destination.
HTH!
Steve