I saw a gun at a local store today. It was a 38 S&W and the finish was Nickel. The serial is V370XX. It was marked Government Property on the top and xx" ss" 16 and 19 maybe, and 3 1/2 tons on the barrel. Couldn't really make out the "
I believe the gun has been refinished but not sure about that.
This was in pretty good shape not excellent but definitely shootable with a tight lock up.
Is this a victory model and what year was it made.

Thanks

As described, with the V serial number prefix it was a Victory Model. "Was", because it has been refinished in nickel. Given the stampings, there is a good chance it was a .38 S & W British service revolver from 1942 that was sold on the commercial market post-war.

Many of these were also converted to fire the longer and narrower .38 Special by reaming the chambers longer. This will cause .38 Special cases to bulge and occasionally crack with firing.

Finally, if it has less than a 5" barrel (cylinder face to muzzle), the barrel was probably shortened at the same time the caliber alteration was performed. If the ejector rod doesn't have a front locking point under the barrel, it is a shortened barrel.

__________________
Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

In agreement with the concern above, checkout:

Training4lifellc bad guns chopped k-200

it is an article worth reading

Thanks for this link to a good article.
The gun I looked at was definitely one of these guns.
The barrel was not shortened and the finish was nickel.
The " marks I couldn't make out on it were the .38" x .767" still would like to know what the 3 1/2 tons means. The gun was also not marked 38 spcl. and there was a hole not covered where the lanyard ring was, but this was definitely the gun. I'm going to go back and more closely inspect the cylinder.
Thanks for the info I appreciate it a lot.

3 1/2 tons was the pressure of the proof test load. I don't know how this translates to modern PSI but someone here does.

__________________
Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

The .38 x .767" defines the .38-200 cartridge by caliber and case length.

This is really interesting to me just knowing that the gun was made before I was born.
Overall the gun was not in bad shape and the nickel refinish was
not bad.
Thanks for all the info.