No V Victory

I love a gun with a story and thought I would share my new M&P.

My phone rings yesterday and its an old friend ,
He says his Uncle Tony has an old S&W "Victory" model 38 special for sale if I am interested....

I am expecting a beat up 4" park'd war gun with smooth uncheckered medallions,
When they arrive and hand me the old leather holster this very clean blued 5" M&P with lanyard ring comes out....

WOW...I am shocked and surprised !



Serial number is about 844,400 ( App. 1942?) matching serial # medallion service stocks, ...but no Victory V?



Uncle Tony says in 1976 he was working for a factory in MA. when they discovered 6 of these in storage with two sawed off shotguns and some dynomite,
The factory apparently had some labour problems in the late 50's ( Hoffa era maybe? ) but they hadnt seen the light of day since then.
His task was to dispose of them.

The factory apparently used to make torpedos for the Navy during WWII and these were for security at the plant (according to him).

The shotguns went to the local PD as a reward for disposing of the dynomite and 5 of the M&P's were advertised in house and sold.
This one was purchased by Uncle Tony .

He is in his 80's now and decided it was time for this gun to go to a new good home and,
After a final farewell session at the range they brought it to be reunited with some of its cousins.

Comparing it to an older 1930's era 5" M&P ( Top ) noticed some slight differences,
Both are pre slide bar safety and long action guns,
The earlier M&P has Reg US Pat Off. stampings on the hammer and trigger backs where the 42 does not.



Besides the lanyard loop the 42 version has a large S&W stamp on the Right side instead of small stamp on the Left.
Both have the onel line Made in USA.

Blueing is low luster polish like a Model 28 where the earlier one is high polish.
Holster was included and has no manufacturers markings but looks period correct.




A quick check in the Standard Catalog says these were provided for plant security during the scond world
war sans inspectors marks but surprised there is no Victory V in the SN#.....

Should there be ?

Havent shot her yet but they said it was a tack driver.

I love old M&P's....What do you think ?

Congratulations on acquiring a beautiful specimen of the pre-Victory. The wartime "V" prefix was not added until after serial numbers had reached 1,000,000, when the factory started a new number series with a V prefix. Your revolver shipped circa Oct.-Nov., 1941.

Steve

Nice specimen! Close serial numbers were shipped in mid to late 1941, which was before the Defense Supply Commission decided who of the civilian applicants for small arms got S&W revolvers, so I have doubts that you can classify this gun as a true Pre-Victory model shipped to a war plant under DSC rules. It's an M&P Model of 1905 , 4th change. My guess is that the gun may not letter as being shipped to Uncle Tony's factory, unless it laid in the back of the vault at S&W and did not go out until after the US entered WW2 and the DSC was handling requests for small arms. If you letter the gun, be sure to post the letter here and solve the mystery! Ed.

Beautiful gun! Love the leather, too.

I'll add a couple of footnotes to what has been said by others. There was an executive change order in 1938 to move the logo from the left side of the gun to the sideplate, and to make it correspondingly larger. All S&W revolvers made in this time frame will show consistency with this order.

Also, the REG.U.S.PAT.OFF. stampings on hammers and triggers were used through the 1930s, but were dropped for wartime production and did not reappear when commercial production resumed after the war. I'm not sure exactly when the last patent marked triggers and hammers were used, but it was clearly before your 1941 revolver was assembled. The patent in question was for the case hardening process that produced the vibrant colors on S&W hammers and triggers.

Thank you all for the information,

Would the lanyard loop have been an option on the M&P at that time?

I am in the process of trying to get more information about the business.

I don't know that lanyard loops were a catalog option, but it's my understanding S&W would "take requests" for anyone willing to pay for a special feature. Commonwealth contracts were already providing military revolvers with lanyard loops, so it would not have been difficult to find a properly drilled frame to build your gun on.

I have a "Pre-Victroy" S/N 83335X, Just 11,000 #'s greater than yours. It is in 38 S&W and made it's way to Australia. It was shipped Oct. 1941. Has the same grips, but now parkerized as part of a rebuild in Australia in the 50's.