I bought a Victory some months ago in a well-worn Navy marked shoulder holster. Not one of the newer ones you see mated up with a lot of Victory revolvers. The guy I bought it from said it belonged to an older gentleman who had owned it for decades. No claim to origin. It was US Property marked with GHD stamp. I wondered if it was in fact a Navy Victory. Letter arrived from S&W and SN V373779 was shipped on 12/3/1943 to the US Navy in Oakland, CA. It went with 200 other revolvers and our ancestors paid $20.50 each for them.

I am wondering how S&W decided to stamp some models US Navy and others did not get this marking but still went to the USN? Perhaps due to amount of revolvers in the order?

No. A matter of legalities and when they shipped. The US NAVY marked guns until 1943 mostly shipped on Navy-direct contracts. From 1943 on, all military Victorys, regardless of who got them, were acquired through the Army Supply Program. From that time on, all of those, and also the Lend-Lease guns which were technically Army property, got the same US PROPERTY stamp.

The stamps were not at the discretion of S&W, by the way. They were part of the ordnance inspection process. Thus the GHD, the initials of the chief of the Ordnance District. The change happened in the upper V 200-thousands; yours is above that. But the main Victory customer remained the Navy until the end of the war.

I believe you will find that the "U.S. NAVY" topstrap marking stopped well under s/n V300,000.

My latest "U.S. NAVY" topstrap marked example in my Victory accumulation is s/n 219624. (Of course there are higher serial numbered "U.S. NAVY" marked examples than this.) It has a mismatched s/n right side stock that is 6500 serial numbers newer in the 226xxx s/n range. Most likely it too came from a "U.S. NAVY" marked example and was swapped during cleaning, maintenance, etc...

I also have another Victory in the 274xxx serial number range that is topstrap marked "U.S. PROPERTY G.H.D.". I have been told it too falls into a known serial number range delivered to the U.S. Navy, but without a factory letter I guess there's a chance it did not.

If someone has a "U.S. NAVY" topstrap marked example with a s/n above 300,000 please chime up as IIRC that stopped happening somewhere closer to the 250,000 s/n range or so. (Please correct me if you have more accurate s/n info with regards to the latest s/n "U.S. NAVY" marked examples.)

Attached Images

	U.S. NAVY topstrap Victory sn 219624 with butt ord bomb mm HDL stock (3).jpg (72.3 KB, 27 views)
	U.S. NAVY topstrap Victory sn 219624 with butt ord bomb mm HDL stock (8).jpg (125.1 KB, 22 views)
	U.S. NAVY topstrap Victory sn 219624 with butt ord bomb mm HDL stock (5).jpg (82.0 KB, 25 views)
	US PROPERTY GHD Victory V274223 matching butt bomb (3).jpg (50.5 KB, 24 views)
	US PROPERTY GHD Victory V274223 matching butt bomb (4).jpg (85.6 KB, 20 views)

Thanks guys. I appreciate it!

I dug mine out of the safe. U.S. Navy marked top strap, sn on butt is v142556, sn on cylinder is 160025, and sn on star is 426480. I'm guessing an in-service repair.

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Kevin in Oregon