Just acquired a S&W Victory model, serial no V614,333.
It has all the British proofs. US Property GHD stamp.
Bore is immaculate! can you tell me when she was made?
Thanks Terry

V614333 would have shipped in mid-1944. It should have a 5" barrel, smooth wood grips, and a dull phosphate finish, not blued. Proof marks were added before it was sold on the commercial market during the 1950s and 1960s. Main problem is in finding .38 S&W ammunition. Many of these had their chambers deepened to accept .38 S&W Special cartridges.

Terry,

Welcome to the forum.

That's a nice acquisition.

__________________
Jim
S&WCA #819

Thank you! Yes it has a 5" barrel. Dull phosphate finish, Smooth wood grips, and all the stampings from England being a Lend Lease. US Property GHD on top. Have not checked the cyl if it will accept 38 special or not. I have all the dies and (300) 38 S&W brass, waiting on boolits! I slugged the barrel and it has a .361 bore. Luv these old Smith's!
Terry

.361" diameter bullets are correct, however, even the .357"-.358" bullets for .38 Special will work OK. I have loaded thousands of rounds with the smaller diameter bullets.

It shoots FANTASTIC with a Lee 158 gr SWC .362 cast from my lee mold. Liquid alox lube. Shoots great with green dot powder. 2.6 grs. Any other pet load? How about 231 powder?
Thanks Terry

If that load works well, use it, but it's on the light side. In a Victory, you can load to almost .38 Special levels with no problem. 3.5-4.0 grains of 231 with the same bullet would be a little warmer.

Nice to know, Thank you! I was using lymans old cast bullet book. Somewhere from the 80's. I'll stiffen them up, out of curiosity!
Back to the bench!

The Lyman loads are a little conservative, as there a lot of the old top-break revolvers in.38 S&W around which are much weaker than the solid frame S&W revolvers. In fact, the British also used a top-break service revolver (the Enfield) during WWII, in addition to the S&W M&P. For a long time I used 3.5 grains of Unique (balistically very similar to 231/HP-38) with 158 grain bullets in an old S&W 38 DA 4th Model with no problems, other than the recoil was a little uncomfortable, owing to the tiny grip of the 38 DA. I later dropped back to 3.0 grains for that reason.