johngoboom
Member
This gun is REALLY nice, and the price was out standing.
So, here's the story on this one...
This is a S&W Victory model that was made towards the later part of the war (I think! The serial number is 997XXX. The serial Number does not start with a "V" nor does it have the government proof marks...but here is the neat part. I did some reading about these guns, and it turns out a small number of them were turned out to a civilian agency in this form to be given to factories that were deemed essential to the war effort. This gun sat in the safe of one of those factories until 1978 when it was bought by a local police officer at an auction sale. The factory made Bliss stamping presses. He had the gun, but did not shoot it much for two years. He then traded it to the guy that I bought it from (who is a friend of his) for $75 and a broken rototiller.
I'm almost positive that this gun was given to the Bliss plant in our town, and that's why it has no "V" and government markings. Does that make sense to you S&W experts???
It's a real shooter too. I test fired it at the guys house that I bought it from, and dropped all six in a three inch group from around 15 yards in fairly rapid fire off hand.
The gun locks up TIGHT, and the action feels like new. The guy I bought it from said he has put maybe 200 rounds through it since 1978. He even gave me all his .38 brass including some of the really old boxes of Federal Monark Match ammo complete with the empties.
I got it all for $300! The holster I already had for my Model 18, and is a S&W marked retention holster.
So, here's the story on this one...
This is a S&W Victory model that was made towards the later part of the war (I think! The serial number is 997XXX. The serial Number does not start with a "V" nor does it have the government proof marks...but here is the neat part. I did some reading about these guns, and it turns out a small number of them were turned out to a civilian agency in this form to be given to factories that were deemed essential to the war effort. This gun sat in the safe of one of those factories until 1978 when it was bought by a local police officer at an auction sale. The factory made Bliss stamping presses. He had the gun, but did not shoot it much for two years. He then traded it to the guy that I bought it from (who is a friend of his) for $75 and a broken rototiller.
I'm almost positive that this gun was given to the Bliss plant in our town, and that's why it has no "V" and government markings. Does that make sense to you S&W experts???
It's a real shooter too. I test fired it at the guys house that I bought it from, and dropped all six in a three inch group from around 15 yards in fairly rapid fire off hand.
The gun locks up TIGHT, and the action feels like new. The guy I bought it from said he has put maybe 200 rounds through it since 1978. He even gave me all his .38 brass including some of the really old boxes of Federal Monark Match ammo complete with the empties.
I got it all for $300! The holster I already had for my Model 18, and is a S&W marked retention holster.
