The only Victory I currently have is a Navy. I have an opportunity buy another one at what I would consider a fair price but have questions about the markings. I only looked at the briefly, but numbers match and it is a 4" .38, parkerized with original grips and does not have the safety upgrade. What is interesting is there is no inspector mark or property markings but there is an ordnance bomb on the left of the "V" of the serial number on the butt of the frame. I don't have the serial number in front of me but it would be an early '43 gun. Are there others with these markings? I assume it means it went to organizations other than the DoD, but why would it have a military acceptance mark on it? Thanks in advance,
Lee

Lee, At the time the gun was made, S&W was turning out around 1000 Victory Models a day. As they came down the assembly lines the inspectors were inspecting each revolver and stamping the necessary stamps, approving or rejecting each gun they inspected. They did not always know where, nor did S&W, the guns would be eventually shipped - military or civilian - at the inspection point. Therefore, a stamp applied during the assembly process, up to final inspection, is not a 100% guarantee where the gun would be shipped. Having said that. a gun sent to a military destination should have the military stamps. A gun sent elsewhere could have received a military inspector's stamp, even though it was sent to police dep't or a US defense plant as a civilian guard gun. Ed.

When I started as a LEO in 1969 my department had a dozen or so Victory models in the safe. I don't know where they came from. They all had different markings. They were temporarily issued to rookies until we could buy our own gun as we weren't issued guns then. I used a Navy marked Victory until I could afford a model 10. I took the lanyard ring off of it while I carried it but put it back on before I turned it back in. I wish I knew where those guns were now.

The San Diego County Sheriff's office received a large batch of Victory Models from Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corp ( Convair) shortly after WW2. These were guns sent to Convair during the war, by the DSC, for the San Diego B-24 Assembly plant guards. The were used on the practice ranges by trainees attending the Sheriff's Academy to be hired as Deputy Sheriffs or local LEOs. I remember the Range masters were very happy to get them as the wait for S&W to fill orders and get back up to civilian production levels was discouraging. I know some of these guns were still in the inventory when I retired in 1985. Ed.