A Scarce Victory Variation
- Thread starter Goony
- Start date
You said it had a 5" barrel and was chambered for the .38 S&W cartridge. That makes it a BSR. The U.S. Property mark merely indicates it was part of a Lend/Lease shipment. Serial number V381377 would put shipment in 1943, clearly within the L/L range.
There's really nothing particularly remarkable about it. Perhaps the observation could be made that the added "S" is more deeply stamped than the "V" and that this was apparently done before refinishing.
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Every single BSR I've seen has at least a broad arrow, or some other acceptance mark from whatever country it ended up going to; this one is clean of all marks other than the ones I mentioned. I would not be surprised if this one could very well have taken a little detour somewhere along the way from point A to Point B... not like THAT ever happened.
mod57
Member
My BSR has British proofs on it which shows it left the country, but it does not have any Broad Arrows or any unit issue marks.
kwill1911
Member
Lend-Lease guns do not have a Broad Arrow which indicates MOD ownership. They didn't own them.
DWalt
Member
Technically, the L-L BSRs were on loan to the British, they were not crown property. As was an enormous quantity of other types of L-L war materiel supplied to the allies, including Russia. BSRs purchased by the Commonwealth prior to L-L will have national property stamps. Distribution of L-L revolvers began around October 1941.
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mod57
Member
So if the British didn't own them, why weren't they just returned to the US? Why the commercial proofs, sometimes modifications and sale of them?
kwill1911
Member
Britain continued rationing until the mid-1950s and finished paying off their debts to the U.S. in 2006. Since they were paying for war materiel as quickly as they could we let them keep it.
I have a Navy marked Victory with V127XXX serial number. Is there a visual way to tell if it has the safety modification? Another question, there was a mention of Govt. acceptance marks, where would they be on the (Victory) firearm? I have a 1917 S&W Army with an Ordinance bomb just forward of the hammer left side and a little stamp to the rear of the trigger guard also left side that has some symbol and what looks like S21 below besides the "UNITED STATES PROPERTY" under the barrel.
Here is mine marked US Navy, with the SV serial. I have wondered about the finish as I was originally told it was refinished. Yes it is more parkerized, and looks similar to the one in the first post by Goony. After the 39k went back for modifications, were they refinished to this parkerizing. I recall reading that some of the Victories were parkerized. The last pic is it with my BSR for comparison, although the pic doesn't really look right.
The V on mine is on the right side of the lanyard. Don't know if that means anything.
Yes. The retrofitted guns will have that "S" prefix added to the serial number on the butt, as well as another smaller "s" on the upper left corner of the sideplate.
DWalt
Member
You can also look down into the hammer slot in the frame. Or remove the sideplate to see everything. But if it does not have an S, it has not been modified.
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DWalt
Member
Very few Victories were factory Parkerized, and none of those few went to the military. The official military specification finish from 1942 was bead blasting (I believe 120 grit) followed by Black Magic, a proprietary chemical process from the Hubbard-Hall Company (and still available today). That was a hot dip black oxide bluing, very similar to today's hot tank gun bluing. In other words, they all were blued, not Parkerized. There were some earlier revolvers which were wire brushed instead of bead blasted. Even though by now there should be no confusion about the Victory blued finish, it still exists.
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What finish does yours have? It doesn't look black magic in the photo but looks closer to mine, which is parkerized to an extent.
DWalt
Member
Why do you say yours is "Parkerized to an extent"?
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I'd judge the finish on my overhauled Victory to be the standard Black Magic, indistinguishable from what S&W was applying in 1945 to their newly manufactured ones.
The parkerizing seems off to me. Maybe light parkerizing. I don't know. Comparing it to other parkerized guns this one seems like it has "less", if I could describe it as that. Seems weird to me, and the cylinder has a more blackish color to it. A lot more noticeable in the photos though.
DWalt
Member
Did you read my #35 above?
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