Info on markings and model

[Justandy101]

help with info and model please

 

[DT75]

BNP with crown over is the Birmingham Nitro Proof mark.
The crossed swords are also a british proof, deciphering it should give you a proof date.

 

[erikpolcrack]

Victory Model made for WWII lend lease for British Commonwealth forces. Should be chambered in 38 S&W, not 38 Special. 38 S&W was the British service cartridge at that time. They had their own nomenclature for the cartride (.380-200?). Barrel has been shortened from the original 5 inch.

 

[MelvinWalker]

The gun started life as a .38 S&W, (not .38 Special)...It would have had a five inch barrel, (not the 2 inch cut down one it has now). It would not have been nickeled like it is now... It also would have had a lanyard ring in the center of the butt splitting the "V" from the rest of the serial number, (which has been removed and the hole has been plugged). it would have originally had smooth walnut grips, but most K frame M&P grips from the period would fit.

These were bought by the literal boat load by wholesalers after WW2 and into the early 60's and converted this way to make them sellable to the public who had now been reaccustomed with prettier guns on the market after the war ended... Placed like "Hunter's Lodge", "Klein's", etc routinely converted and listed these at $29.95 in places like "American Rifleman" pre 1968 GCA....The wholesalers probably paid $5 or less each for them when they bought them wholesale..Maybe even less because they then had to cut the barrels down, ream the chambers, chrome the entire gun and then usually put faux plastic stag grips on them....All for a retail price of less than $30.

If it shoots and ejects OK, it is a nightstand or truck gun.

 

[DWalt]

No collector value. Might be OK as a truck gun or a throwdown. Enormous numbers of the chopped and rebored revolvers are out there, country was flooded with them as surplus imports from England in the 1950s-60s. One much like yours was allegedly used by Lee Harvey Oswald to kill Dallas police officer J. D. Tippitt after the JFK assassination.