Recent content by VictoryOwner

Well, the members of this forum are a skewed sample, because of course a lot of people don't own a 9mm. I don't. I've I always only owned .38 revolvers, plus a shotgun and .22 rifle. Now that I think about it, I have two brothers who own handguns, and both of them chose a .380. Why, I don't...

I should win this. I've been averaging 600 miles a year on the older Toyota I bought 3-4 years ago, and nope, I don't drive anything else. It's almost humorous. I drive so little that it's a constant challenge to find somewhere to drive to every couple of weeks just to keep the battery...

To the discussion of the date of the gun, let me restate that the initials G.H.D follow "U.S. Property." Elsewhere on this forum, I read that guns with these initials received their final inspection in 1942 through May 1943. This information may have been wrong, but if correct, this should be...

Thanks, this is becoming fun. The photo, I hope, shows four marks that may be what you're referring to. The two on the left appear to be identical, and while I wouldn't have guessed that the mark is an eagle, it very well might be an eagle. Below both is the letter N. On the far right is the...

Yep, same serial number.

Yes, original cylinder, or at least the serial number matches. Good point about Germany and Austria likely having had strict standards for caliber alterations. Do you know what a German or Austrian proof mark would look like and where I might find it? There are several other markings on the...

Pictured is the .38 Special Victory I recently purchased, and I'm wondering if it is one that was originally .38 S&W only to be modified to accept .38 Special. Making me most suspicious is that on the side of the barrel pictured, this is imprinted: .38 SPEZ =XX XXXX CTG Yes, that's a Z in...

Here and elsewhere I've read that it's best to use 158 grain lead ammo in these old guns because this is the ammo the guns were designed to shoot. However, I'm confused about the reasoning behind this advice. I certainly understand that it's unwise to use +P ammo in these guns, simply because...

Thanks all, lots of good advice here. Alas, I found out today that a government clerk screwed up one of many steps in my permit process. Until that's fixed, my gun shopping is on hold. However, as Matt X pointed out, I already have a very similar revolver, so I just went through most of the...

Long story, but the time has come for me to replace my 1940-ish 38 S&W, and I'm leaning toward buying a similar S&W revolver in 38 Special that is for sale in a local gun shop. My problem is that I don't know enough about guns to be able to assess the functionality of an older revolver. Since...

For starters, let me say that I'm a huge fan of automatic transmissions. Yes, I can drive a stick and have driven many of them, even back in the days when my left leg got tired from holding down the clutch. (Them little Japanese cars sure made clutches easier!) However, I really didn't like...

While I realize that this is a forum about guns as opposed to cycling (or perhaps common sense), and will defer to others on the gun question, I have to suspect that you may be expecting too much from guns while maybe not estimating risks accurately. Not only is it unlikely that you will ever...

Yeah, I have one (not Special) and the only bullets available are RNL, which don't have much stopping power and risk over penetration. Nowadays there's better self-defense ammo, but unfortunately no one makes any for this gun. Probably you could find someone to make better self-defense bullets...