I have told the story before but I'll repeat it. About 15 years ago I saw a 1942 Victory Model in 38 Special in a pawn shop tagged at $100. Seemed like a good deal...until I looked at it. The barrel was bulged. The shop owner admitted it was damaged (after I commented on it) and asked me to make an offer if I was interested. Before giving it enough thought I blurted out $60 and he said "Sold!" Should have said $40.
I found a commercial 5" barrel on ebay and bagged it for the starting price of $5. The serial is from around 1939 so not far off from my VM. I asked a couple of gunsmiths and the estimates were around $150 to do the swap. I didn't want to have that much invested in the gun so I decided to do it myself.
I stripped the revolver and put the frame/barrel in a pan of penetrating oil for 24 hours. I have a large vise mounted to my workbench in the garage and I put to thin pieces of wood in the jaws and tightened it down on the barrel. Drove out the barrel pin with ease. Came right out. Then I put a hammer handle through the cylinder window, keeping as close to the barrel as possible to reduce the risk of twisting the frame. The pinned barrels were not screwed in as tightly as they are now and the oil bath likely helped loosen it up. Anyway, the frame turned off the barrel easily with very little pressure required. I was lucky in that the replacement screwed in and snugged with the front sight right at 12 o'clock. B/C measured at .004". No fitting was needed.
The only problem was getting the barrel pin back in. You have to get all those holes lined up perfectly and I fought it for 30 minutes before I finally tapped it in. Total time for the swap was 35 minutes. Everything other than the pin took 5 minutes.
It shoots fine. No troubles have arisen even after firing 500 rounds of Remington +P and 600 rounds of my own +P+ through it.
Here's my $65 Victory Model.
