A Glock Guy's First Revolver...

[Ptrlcop]

Ok, so I am by no means a gun collector but I shoot a lot. Recently, I've gotten an itch to get a revolver for no real reason. I've looked at a lot of cool guns that had a lot of "collector" qualities and I can definitely see the appeal of those guns.

As I looked I realized that stock guns don't really tickle me. Currently, all my shooters are Glock 17s with my own mods for each gun to include chopping grips for 19 mags, stippling, sites and trigger jobs. Those guns are pretty ugly but Very purpose driven and cool to me. I also have a 1911 that I fit a beaver tail too and gave it a heavy "soap bar" dehorning.

As I was cruising Gunbroker I found this oddball. It is a victory model that I assume somebody chopped the barrel on and gave it a nickel finish with fake stags. For whatever reason this gun kind of "spoke" to me as being my kind of gun. It is likely the guy that modded it was my kind of shooter. I scooped it up for $350 which is probably a little high, but I'm tickled. Would I be committing any Cardinal sin if I bobbed the hammer?

Anybody know what the BHP mark with the crown over it means?

Am I going to have any issues shooting this little baby?

 

[JP@AK]

You can't hurt this gun by further modifying it. Bob the hammer, if it pleases you to do so.
This was originally a British Service Revolver and was chambered for the .38 S&W cartridge, not the .38 Special. It has been heavily modified and refinished. Do with it what you want - no sin will be involved.
Have fun!
Glad you saw the light, btw. Glocks are very functional pistols but completely lack charm, in my opinion. Now you can have fun with a revolver. You may not be able to avoid buying more of them as time goes along . . .

 

[Alpo]

That's not BhP, that's BNP. Birmingham (England) proof house, nitro (smokeless) powder proof.

That 3 1/2 Tons is what it was proofed to. British tons are bigger than American. 2200 pounds, I believe. So 3 1/2 would be 7,700 psi.

You've got a Victory that was sent to England, then after the war was surplused out (somewhere on that gun should be two arrowheads pointing at each other -><- ), proofed so that it could be sold on the civilian market.

It started out as a 38 S&W, and could either still be, or was "rechambered" by having 38 Special chambering reamers run into each chamber. That was done to make it 38 Special, which was easier to sell on the American market - 38 S&W being pretty obsolete here in the late 40s/early 50s.

The bobbing the barrel from the original five-inches, the shiny nickel plating and the fake stag grips were also done to make it sell easier.

 

[Ptrlcop]

How would I verify if it has been "rechambered"

 

[Arik]

Make sure you have the right smmo for it

 

[Otreb]

It looks like he grinded the ejector rod lug off the bbl, since it once had 4 or 5" on there.

 

[bruner1981]

Interesting score! As you said, the price is a little high, but if it suits you, more power to you. Welcome to the addiction! The BHP mark with the crown over it makes it sound like it was originally a British Commonwealth gun. As such it is probably chambered and barreled for 38 S&W, and since the barrel was cut back past the original caliber stamping, it's hard to tell. There is a difference between 38 S&W and 38 special: it's shorter and slightly wider. It's possible that the cylinder was rechambered for 38 special, that was actually pretty common. If so, it will chamber a 38 special, but the barrel will want a slightly larger diameter bullet and will not be very accurate with 38 special. Best way to find out now is to take it to a gunsmith and get the barrel slugged. Hope this helps, and congrats on the new gun!

 

[Alpo]

How would I verify if it has been "rechambered"

38 special is longer than a 38 S&W. If you drop a standard 38 special into a gun chambered for 38 S&W, it will not go all the way in. About 1/8" will stick out.

So, if a 38 special will actually fit into the chamber, it has been "rechambered".

But, a 38 S&W is larger in diameter than a 38 special. So in a "rechambered" 38 S&W, the first 2/3 of the chamber is slightly oversize. And when you shoot a 38 special in one of these "rechambered" cylinders, the brass swells to fit the actual chamber size.



It's not dangerous - you should not get ruptured brass. But if you reload, you should only get a few loadings out of each case.

And, as someone else mentioned, the bore should be oversize, so your accuracy might suck. My way around that is to load hollow-base wadcutters, which expand to fit the oversize barrel.

Also, with one of these "rechambered" cylinders, you can still shoot 38 S&W in it.

 

[kthom]

For the large majority of serious social encounters, that revolver will be plenty accurate enough to take care of business. It is at longer ranges where the accuracy will likely be less than you'd like. But it should do nicely to repel boarders and serious predators if necessary!

 

[Cyrano]

Will the lack of a front locking point for the cylinder be a problem?

 

[Muley Gil]

Will the lack of a front locking point for the cylinder be a problem?

Probably not. Colt revolvers don't have a front lug, though the center pin is usually a bit larger.

I had a M625 with a 5" full lug barrel. I wanted a 4" Mountain Gun barrel for it, but the factory was out at the time (late '90s). I fitted it with a 3" barrel. Couldn't put my hands on the front locking lug assembly either and wound up shooting without it. I had no problems with accuracy or with excessive wear in the frame.

 

[sodacan]

Bobbing the hammer won't hurt that gun. It already looks like a Saturday night special!

 

[Ptrlcop]

Whelp... It's not even here yet and I bought another one.

28-2 I scored for $475. Feel like I did ok on this one. Should be a great shooter

 

[DocB]

You did a lot better on that 28-2! From here it looks like it is in a lot higher grade than a shooter; but, it will definitely shoot good too. They tell me the going rate for one of those is between $600 and $700, so you really did OK.