Howdy from Phoenix.....My latest purchase is a Victory conversion by C&H of London.

Serial is ...V77043. It has been re parkerized, and converted to 38 special. It was not bored out to that caliber but they placed a different cylinder in the gun. Serial on cylinder is....63361. Does this change ruin it as a collectable?????

I Love this pistol, and it shoots like a dream with 158 gr. lead round nose in 358. 3.6 gr of unique gives me about 715 fps. It's in my ww2 flap holster, and on my side always.. I am an old Desrt Rat, and spend most of my time on horse back in the desert. It's guarding me as it did some soldiers in WW2.

Well, in the pure sense of the definiton, it has been altered and is no longer original. That does detract significantly from it's interest for most military collectors.

On the other hand, many of these were modified by Cogswell & Harrison and a few other firms after the war. They were sold in gun trade publications well into the 1960's. In and of themselves, they represent a post war aftermarket, peculiar variation. I would suppose someone collecting Victory models might want to include one as an example in their collection as a representative piece or just a peculiarity.

However, generally speaking, most of the conversion revolvers are thought to be just shooters and have been long criticized as poor performers foe one reason or another. There have been several threads posted here concerning those reasons. If as you say, your particular revolver shoots very well with your handload, then you've got a decent shooter. But, I seriously doubt anyone would attach any value as a collectable revolver, because of those alterations. Best of luck with it. Shoot it and enjoy it!

As a serious Victory collector, I don't look down on these after market conversions, regardless of what the purests may thnk. Victory collecting has several catagories, all of which contribute to the overall picture. A full Victory display should include Pre-Victories, V prefix wartime military (US and Lend Lease), V prefix wartime civilian defense guns, Military altered "S" guns, VS prefix guns, Post WW2 VS & V prefix guns, Victory VIP Presentation and the catagory of the after market conversions, which can range from the C&H jobs, the Parker-Hale jobs, etc. to Bubba's BBQ gun. Just my humble opinion!

Well.....I really don't mind that it has been altered. In fact I am glad that it has not been reamed out to 38 special. They have a history of bulging or ruptured cases. This one is axactly what I wanted a WW2 SHOOTER. It looks new with the parkerized finish (re finish)and a cut down barrel to 3 1/2". It's tight, in tune and gets shot as often as I can. THANKS FOR THE INPUT....mulehide9