I am new to this so bare with me. I have come in possession of
a 38 S&W and know absolutely nothing about the gun.

It is a hand ejector with a 4" barrel, Fixed sights, And the
serial# is V 73XXXX found on the butt of the gun, Under the barrel and on the cylinder.

I want to make sure I get the correct ammo?

Welcome to the Forum, lots of great information to be found here. Use the "search" button at the top of the page and query "victory" and you'll pull many previous threads on the S&W Victory revolver. It is probably in 38 S&W but many thousands of these were modified after WWII to shoot 38 Special. Pictures?

Jeff
SWCA #1457

A 4" barrel on a late-1944 V-prefix gun should normally be marked .38 S&W SPECIAL CTG. All the .38 S&W CTG marked barrels at that time were 5" in length for the British Service model.

So if yours indeed says .38 S&W CTG and you did measure your barrel length correctly, it must have been shortened, and a gun so modified has highly likely also had its chambers lengthened to fit .38 Special, as Jeff mentioned above. Usually these modified guns were not marked as such. It wil shoot both calibers. You can simply test it by inserting a live .38 Special round and see if it goes all the way in.

Welcome.

This is a Victory revolver. Is it a .38 S&W or a .38 special? Barrels are measured from the front of the cylinder to the end of the barrel. Most of the 4" Victories are chambered in .38 special and the 5" Victories are chambered in .38 S&W. The 5" revolvers were built for Great Britain and its Commonwealth countries.

The .38 S&W cartridge is shorter and slightly larger in diameter, compared to the .38 special. After WW II, Great Britain surplussed their Victories. Many of the ones that came back to this country had their chambers reamed to .38 special, due to popularity of that cartridge. Some were also cut down to 2"-3", nickel plated and had their grips replaced with plastic stag.

Pictures are always welcome.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

It is marked 38 S&W. The barrel is 4"

There are no other markings on the gun except
the letter P on the frame above the release, on the cylinder and under the barrel.

I will check the cylinder to see if it excepts the 38 special cartridge.

Thanks for the feedback.

It would be very unusual for a 4" barrel to be caliber-stamped as .38 S&W CTG. The normal stamping would be .38 S&W SPECIAL CTG. The BSRs of that period (.38 S&W) had 5" barrels (measured from the front face of the cylinder to the muzzle). If a .38 Special cartridge can be fully inserted, use .38 Special.

My Victory is a .38 SW cartridge. The only one I own.

upload pics

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Mike
S&WCA #3065

Welcome to the forums from the Wiregrass, Patch! The stamping of a 4" Victory and its front sight will look like this:



If your stamp reads .38 S&W CTG check to see if the front sight has been reshaped or moved and soldered. That indicates your barrel has been cut.

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Guy
SWHF #474 SWCA LM#2629

Thanks for all the info, I will check sight to see if it has been altered tonight when I get home.

I checked everything suggested last week and the barrel
was cut down to 4", And the sight was brazed back on. It covers
the first portion of the where it was manufactured.

The cylinder was also modified to except the 38 special
cartridge.

The work looks to be done correctly but there are no markings
for the modifications.

The gun seems to be in good shape, So I am goint to take to the range and see how it fires.

If it has had the cylinder reamed out, then 38 Special cartridge cases may split when fired as the 38 S&W case has a larger diameter. What was done in some cases was to ream out the cylinder and then sleeve the cylinder to adjust the diameter to 38 Special. I have one that was converted like that and with w 4" cut down barrel but the front sight is a long ramp, not a half moon. The long front sight had "Cole Palmer" stamped on it. Dave_n