The mailman just rang the bell and dropped off this VICTORY MODEL. It was on GB and had no bids, I offered the seller $300 and he accepted. It came with Pachmayrs and was missing the swivel. I have grips and swivels so that problem was remedied in 5 minutes. It is serial number V 674689. it is all matching (except grips) and finish is all original. Top strap has USP and GHD markings. That brightened an otherwise dreary day here in PA

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Gary Grace
S&WCA #1837

Congratulations! Those Victory Models will shoot as well as a commercially finished M&P. And they're a part of our national (and world) history.

T-STar

Gary, very nice looking Victory, I assume it is a 38 Special. As the previous poster mentioned it probably shoots very well, while S&W certainly reduced the cosmetic work on these guns they took no shortcuts with the mechanics. I have quite a few Victory's and they all function as well as their earlier commercial counterparts. Perhaps Ed or Charlie will be along soon with an estimate of the shipping date, I'm thinking it was a Navy gun.

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John. SWCA #1586

What's the USP marking mean? I knoiw about GHD: Guy H. Drewry (sp?), a military inspector.

T-Star

I think he abbreviated "United States Property".

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John. SWCA #1586

That was my presumption, too, although the markings of that time would have been "U.S. PROPERTY" (bracketed by the Ordnance Dept. 'flaming bomb' and Gen. Drewry's initials). FYI, I'd estimate it shipped ca. Sept., 1944.

TGIF-- tomorrow's range day! Let us know how it shoots.

Steve

Great looking victory M&P. The long action revolvers are to me the smoothest action revolvers S&W ever made.

Congrats,
roaddog28

Congrats on a great buy; it is a fine looking revolver.

You could not go wrong at that price. Without taking into consideration that you already had the parts to make it right, I think you came out ahead on that deal. Nice gun.
Chris

When I was young I used to see these things in the surplus stores laying around untouched and gathering dust for $50.00. I thought they were ugly then and I guess lots of other folks felt the same way. I started as a LEO in 1969. Side arms weren't issued then by my department but the old chief there had a box with 12-15 surplus Victory's in it and he would "lend" you one until you could buy your own. The one I got was stamped U.S. Navy and I took the lanyard ring off of it. Little did I know. A couple of the guys carried them all the way to retirement. I couldn't wait to get my first shiny new model 10. The cost was $90.00 and I was so broke then I had to get it through a finance company. I upgraded to a 19, a 27, and was carrying a 58 when we were issued 66's. I wish I still had all of them even though they have since been replaced.

Good looking Victory!

Deals can be had on GunBroker if you keep your eyes open.

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