Quote:
Originally Posted by DONALDG-HOG
Would someone PLEASE help me with a few Q's, as follows:
Under the checkered (medallions) wood grips there are the letters "R-SB" - the number 678 is over it. There are two "X" on the bottom of the butt under the grips. What do these mean?
There is half a round thing with what looks like a piece of a wing on the bottom of the butt to the left of the lanyad hole - the lanyard ring is missing. I'm wondering if the grips are original (I suspect not).
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Donald:
Your Victory has been refinished, and perhaps more than once. The R-SB marking is one that is applied by the S&W factory when it refinishes a gun. The RSB usually refers to "Refinish Standard Blue". The date of the refinish was June, 1978 (678). The stocks that are on it now may have been added at that time. The originals were, of course, smooth walnut.
What is odd is that the current finish is a phosphate type, a form of what is generically referred to today as "parkerizing" (lower case p is deliberate). S&W was not set up to provide a parkerized finish after the end of WW2. However, when the Model 76 SMGs came out in the late 1960s they had a parkerized type of finish. I believe that this finishing was out-sourced by the factory. Perhaps your revolver was refinished in this manner.
The X markings are of no consequence.
Hope this information helps you.