Victory Model .38 Special Serial Numver V352716. 4" barrel, butt swivel, "black magic" finish, smooth walnut correct stocks, marked on left top strap "U.S. PROPERTY G.H.D." with ordnance flaming bomb preceeding the roll mark. Matcing numbers throughout.
Letter confirms United States Navy Contract, caliber .38 Special. Was shipped from factory July 9, 1942 and delivered to U.S. Navy, Oakland, CA. Shipped with 4" barrel, military black magic finish, butt swivel, and smooth walnut non-monogrammed grips. The shipment was for 2000 units and they were billed at the contract price of $20.50 each. The accompanying invoice also gave credit for a charge for 12,000 cartridges used in test firing as furnished by the government. This reduced the total cost by $218.04. Shipment was in cases 36 to 75 inclusive.
No telling what this little gun did between the U.S. Navy in Oakland and Gun Broker seventy-eight years later. Wish I knew the whole history.
Last edited by grendelbean; 05-28-2020 at 02:41 PM.
Thanks for posting this info for the Database, Grendelbean. I will get it added.
One comment. I think your ship date is off by one year. I believe that the correct date should be July 9, 1943, not 1942. Does your Invoice bear the 1942 or 1943 date? I suspect that it will show a 1943 date.
If it’s technically feasible, would you mind sharing a picture of the invoice?
Not too many people letter military Victorys, and Roy has only recently started including invoices when available, for members, so we haven’t seen a lot of original wartime documents. And we LOVE original sources
For the Forum data base below is pic of both the LOA and the invoice. Of course the Letter was regular letter size but the invoice copy sent to me with the Letter was very small, like 3"x 4" so I had to copy & enlarge, then enlarge again and scan.
This is about as good as it gets, but anyone can PM me if needed and I'll try and redo it.
I agree that something is off on year for the OP gun as mine is s/n V 192216 (No S on sideplate or s/n) and shipped to Oakland December 17, 1942 in a lot of 1000 guns.
Maybe the OP's invoice is correct in that his is not a "Navy" victory, it is a GHD US Property that was shipped to the Navy.
According to the OP's invoice 2000 guns shipped in July 1942 and the cases were numbered 36 to 75, whereas my Navy (on the Navy Contract) was shipped 6 months later and the cases were numbered 1031 to 1050.
OP's cost was $20.50, 6 months later the unit cost was $21.38
All plausible except that serial number V 352716 seems almost half-way between the approx. 850,000 cranked out.
My Victory Model, serial # just a few shy of V335,000 shipped to the Navy Yard in Oakland on 6/22/43. It seems odd that a Victory Model in the mid- V352,000 range shipped almost a year earlier. I would think that they were being manufactured and being used to fill contracts almost as fast as they came off the assembly line. Maybe mine was at the bottom of a stack somewhere and got missed for almost a year.
Thanks for posting this info for the Database, Grendelbean. I will get it added.
One comment. I think your ship date is off by one year. I believe that the correct date should be July 9, 1943, not 1942. Does your Invoice bear the 1942 or 1943 date? I suspect that it will show a 1943 date.
Invoice Date follow-up: Right you are, Sir! Invoice clearly marked July 9, 1943, I should have noted that earlier, thanks.
The letter does say shipped July 9, 1942, but I agree, it should be 1943.
Thanks again.
If it’s technically feasible, would you mind sharing a picture of the invoice?
Not too many people letter military Victorys, and Roy has only recently started including invoices when available, for members, so we haven’t seen a lot of original wartime documents. And we LOVE original sources
At the extreme limit of my technological capability - here goes....
Invoice Date follow-up: Right you are, Sir! Invoice clearly marked July 9, 1943, I should have noted that earlier, thanks.
The letter does say shipped July 9, 1942, but I agree, it should be 1943.
Thanks again.
I thought so. I list five nearby SNs, all were July 1943 shipments.
I'm trying to imagine receiving 2,000 revolvers. What 's the largest single delivery?
If it doesn’t have to be from the factory, I’m offering 7,904 revolvers delivered by the US military in one shipment to the Bavarian government in Munich on Feb. 2, 1946
Lettered Victory for Data Base
Linear Mode
