I am looking at a mechanically decent 4 inch Victory, but the finish is worn pretty bad, butt swivels and stud are gone and grips are plastic replacements...It might make a decent restoration project.

To start with, who makes exact walnut replacements of the grips without going the $18 beat up mis-numbered original route? I think one of the Thai manufacturers make some that look good, but the price looks like they may be priced wrong on Ebay. They shouldn't be over $50 for the non-checkering and no medallion work involved.

I would imagine that with nearly every type of grip in the world being reproduced, the Victory grips would be the simplest of all to remanufacture, but yet they don't seem to be commonplace?

Her ya go. Sarco has these for $19.95.
S&W Victory & M10 Uncheckered - SARCO, Inc

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Ain't This Fun Though?

Those are used...I wonder if they are numbered? Probably so.

N.C. Ordnance has reproduction Victory model stocks for $55. Here is the link to that page: Smith & Wesson .38 Military & Police Victory Model Grips Unfortunately they are synthetic, not real wood,

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Gunsmithing since 1961

Thank you sir....Did you notice that those were made out of stainable "polymer" or plastic instead of wood? I mean how much harder is it to make these out of simple ungrained walnut?

This is a classic opportunity for somebody to create a niche market making and selling these exactly as originals were made.

Original Victory grips are going higher all the time IMO. A quick perusal of ebay shows even well-worn originals with numbers are going for $35 to $60, depending on exact condition. There used to be a seller on ebay that sold original USGI contract unnumbered unissued spare grips for a decent price, but I have not seen him selling there in quite a while. It would seem like there is a niche market for quality repros, but I suspect the sheer number of used originals probably deter anybody from producing them. Another drawback is that no matter how well a repro is made, it is still a repro.

Yes, those days seem to be in the past. Decades back there was a vendor at the Great Western gun show in Pomona who regularly had bins of these. I picked up a few pair (wish I'd bought more) and having them has "saved" some guns with mismatched (as in incorrectly numbered + poorly fitting) or altogether totally wrong grips. I recall fairly recently seeing reproduction Victory grips coming out of Thailand that looked pretty decent, but while they were wood, they were probably not walnut.

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SWCA #590
"Colligo ergo sum"

Yeah, I talked to the guy from Thailand in an email that has a pair listed on Ebay for several hundred dollars for a set. He assured me that price was to simply gauge interest until he can make a run of them. I told him I'd be interested in a set at a reasonable price. He said put in on my wish list and he'd start getting the messages.They looked really good...Original looking unfigured walnut and relieved correctly. Except for lack of a serial number, I wouldn't know the difference based on pics.