I 'rescued' this revolver from a local pawn shop. From some on line reading, it raised some interesting questions. First off serial numbers:
The butt has V1675xx, with the GHD initials, small flaming bomb and a small f. the barrel is about 2 inches with an apparently original sight, no lug and V2043xx, and the cylinder has a serial number of V4373xx. There is no evidence of a lanyard ring hole. Top strap is marked United States Property. It's apparently a parts gun, but the finish matches all over (photo lighting shows differently but it matches), it is pretty tight and shot acceptably. Didn't know they made Victory revolvers w/o lanyards. The ejector rod is knurled to match my Brit gun, but shorter.

That one looks like a cut down and modified surplus gun to me. They did a lot of that to make them sell a bit better. The grips are late. . .post 1968. Of course, your other gun appears to be an old original Victory. Some of our experts will be able to tell you more.

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Dr. B

A few things:
First, the caliber. Is it .38 S&W, .38 S&W converted to .38 Special, or an original .38 Special cylinder?
About the lanyard hole: with that serial, there is no way it doesn't have one. It may be well-plugged and the outline camouflaged by a refinish; I can't tell from the photos whether the finish is still original. If you take the stocks off, you may be able to tell by looking at the inside of the frame.

No lanyard hole is evident internally or externally. Could this be a 'back of the bin frame from previous runs? The cylinder will not chamber a 38 S&W round and I see no ring or mark where it may have been rebored, so I assume it's a 38 special cylinder.

If you look at the photo of the frame butt you can see where the hole was next to the V.

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Get off my lawn!

I stand corrected! Thanks. It actually showed better in the photo.

As jsfricks says, the lanyard hole plug is quite obvious if you've seen them before (this was professionally plugged). But I can't make any sense of those markings to the left of the plug.

Correction: I can now . I was looking at it from the wrong angle. GHD, a partial flaming bomb and a P, all possibly to be expected there, although just like the serial, the shapes seem off somehow.

It's a refinished parts gun on a Victory frame as the SNs don't match. The short barrel has been cut down from a longer one. The SN on the frame would indicate probable original shipment sometime in 1942. I hope it was a cheap rescue.

I knew it was a parts gun, and it was sold as such. I did pay $250 for a functional, reasonable looking Smith, probably the upper end of shooter, and I've ordered a replacement barrel from Sarco. Deeply appreciate all the information.

Order an ejector rod too.

Sorry but I cringed and gasped out loud at the price.

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No life story has happy end.

The extractor rod on it should be correct for a genuine 2" barrel, but not for a longer barrel. So if you ordered a longer barrel, you will need a longer extractor rod. Note that extractor rods can come with either clockwise (right hand, pre-1961) and counterclockwise (left hand, post-1961) threads. The aforesaid gasp was because most would not have paid that much for a revolver like this.

Understood, and thanks, I didn't know about the different threads on the extractor rods. Around here a functional smith at that price isn't too far off. (N. Florida). Respects.

I couldn't talk the LGS out of a similar chop job for $200, and it had a big imperfection in the muzzle crown. Otherwise, it was mechanically sound. He wouldn't budge off $300 out the door, but admitted that he had been a little too generous on the trade for it, and had too much in it. Nothing at all wrong with a revolver like that. Good back of the truck guns . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Your revolver's extractor rod has RH threads, so if you buy a longer one, it should also be threaded RH, i.e., from pre-1961.

Howdy from the Wiregrass, neighbor. Ejector rods are readily available on eBay. Are you going to rebarrel it yourself or have a smith do it? If you are doing it yourself, you probably know they aren't just screw in and go. Especially not since the barrel, cylinder and frame all have different serial numbers...they weren't fit together.

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Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629

Found a holster that fits it pretty well and took it out to the 'back 40'. At least for now, I'll keep it as is. It came out clean and pointed nicely for me, so given the choice of a nice little piece as is, or a put together image of a Victory I'll just enjoy it. I'll file the extremely valuable advice garnered here, and perhaps collect the needed parts for future reference. Thanks all.