The gun you show is a renickeled wartime Victory or Pre-Victory, categories that include all the British Service Revolvers I alluded to in my earlier post. These guns were provided to the British either as contract sales or lend-lease goods after that program was introduced.

The refinishing giveaway in the illustrated gun is the fact that the hammer and trigger have been nickeled as well. No standard production revolver ever left the S&W factory with blued or nickeled hammer and trigger; the standard finish was the coloring you got with their proprietary case hardening process. Notice also the small P at the top left corner of the frame in front of the hammer. That is a government acceptance mark. Lend-lease guns were cleared by the US Government before being transferred to Great Britain.

I didn't mean to imply that all .38 Special ammo would be problematic in a converted BSR, but that it might. Apologies if I misled you. Some conversions by the best British firearms companies (Cogswell and Harrison, for example) involved completely boring out each charge hole and then sleeving each one so that .38 Special ammo would fit properly. These guns would NOT be able to chamber .38 S&W afterwards because of the more precise conversion process.

Does the serial number on your gun have a V prefix? Can you tell us the serial number from the butt? Use xx for the last couple of digits if you prefer. The serial number on the butt should be repeated on the flat underside of the barrel and the rear face of the cylinder. (And a couple of other places too, but they are harder to see.)

__________________
David Wilson