New Victory and unknown stamp on backstrap

[JH1951]

The wealth of information among Forum members is amazing, and the willingness to share that information even more so. It is this that makes this Forum the most informative on the Interweb. (And my thanks to the administration for keeping the place tidy!)
My thanks to all members who are willing to contribute to the common good.

 

[MelvinWalker]

None of you'se thought to ask me? I'm hurt!

Thats Nathan Manas's gun. He came on 'da Job December 1945. He bought that gun out of the Equipment Bureau on 16DEC45. Thats his shield # on the back: 10771.

Probably retired to Florida like most of the Dinosaurs and when he shuffled off to that Eternal Footpost In The Sky his family probably sold it.

It is, of course, a DSC supplied Smith & Wesson Victory .38. NYPD took in about 950 or so during The War.

I'd be interested in it.

If you want it lettered, PM me your email address and snail mail address.

Best,
RM Vivas

(most verily, I rocketh!)

Yes, this place is awesome. I have followed your NYPD threads for several years now. I am so glad that this gun now has a full roundabout history from DSC to NYPD to me.

I know how serious you are about NYPD handgun collecting, so let me think about this. I really jonesed for the gun over the weekend mainly because of the condition and the added fact the gun store didn't like it because it wasn't a Glock, of which they had hundreds.

If I had a Navy marked one in the same exact condition, I would trade.

I have a newspapers.com annual subscription which is worth its weight in gold for stuff like this, (once you know a name)..

I have found several entries about Nathan Manas while with NYPD and then, (as you noted), he DID end up moving to Florida...Probably after he got his 20 years in with NYPD. He rescued a baby and stopped a kid from pulling an emergency alarm too~ It was surmised that after Officer Manas took the child to the station, his parents were called, upon which "his dungarees were warmed" probably by his parents for climbing the pole and pulling the alarm multiple times.

It looks like he was very active on the building commision in Surfside FL and him and his wife didn't want too many high rises built around them when they moved here.

 

[DWalt]

But it remains unexplained how it ended up with a ramped front sight. Maybe done by the NYPD armory? Are there other known examples of NYPD Victories with similar front sights?

 

[MelvinWalker]

But it remains unexplained how it ended up with a ramped front sight. Maybe done by the NYPD armory? Are there other known examples of NYPD Victories with similar front sights?

Another good question....Could it be with the "S" marked frame under the grips, it was sent back to S&W for an "upgrade" later in its life by Officer Manas? I didn't know the "S" was there until last night when I took the grips back off to inspect for more stamps under the grips. That could also explain the NYPD shield number being "under" the black magic.

I looked at that sight very closely with a loop...If it's an armorer job, it's factory quality.

 

[Bald1]

I’m interested in value. $650 seemed high to me. But now that it’s origins are known. What’s it worth?

 

[DWalt]

Does the barrel SN match? Can you determine if it has the improved hammer drop safety? At that SN it should not, but it is remotely possible it could have been modified at the factory.

 

[MelvinWalker]

I’m interested in value. $650 seemed high to me. But now that it’s origins are known. What’s it worth?

$650 seems cheap to me, NYPD aside....Every Victory I see has 50% finish, beat to heck grips, loose action and they want and seem to get $800+

 

[MelvinWalker]

Does the barrel SN match? Can you determine if it has the improved hammer drop safety? At that SN it should not, but it is remotely possible it could have been modified at the factory.

From the firing pin test, it seems to have the hammer drop safety possibly during S&W refurb?. I don't see any serial number on the barrel.

 

[Com 45acp]

Open the cylinder and look under barrel, should be there if it’s serialized.

 

[MelvinWalker]

Open the cylinder and look under barrel, should be there if it’s serialized.

Nothing there...Just minor milling marks under the finish.

 

[DWalt]

If there is no SN on the barrel flat, it is likely a non-factory replacement barrel and it may well have been done at the NYPD armory. Just why is difficult to say.

 

[cruiserdan]

If there is no SN on the barrel flat, it is likely a non-factory replacement barrel and it may well have been done at the NYPD armory. Just why is difficult to say.

Maybe the original barrel got bent... Sometimes a gun, sometimes a hammer.
A tool of law enforcement.

 

[MelvinWalker]

If there is no SN on the barrel flat, it is likely a non-factory replacement barrel and it may well have been done at the NYPD armory. Just why is difficult to say.

i don't know that it would be "non-factory"...The lettering and font look like a factory S&W barrel to me..

"SMITH & WESSON" on left side of barrel and ".38 S&W SPECIAL CTG." on the right side?

 

[Tijeras_Slim]

Great thread… Love the one’s that discover a gun’s history. Shotgun World in the Browning Forum had a couple similar. The “Boudinot Gun” about an A-5 shotgun made for the officer who liberated the FN factory in WWII, and one about a pre-war Superposed that was originally owner by Major Charles Askins (father of the Unrepentant Sinner himself).

 

[DWalt]

i don't know that it would be "non-factory"...The lettering and font look like a factory S&W barrel to me..

"SMITH & WESSON" on left side of barrel and ".38 S&W SPECIAL CTG." on the right side?

It would have been a new factory made barrel but not installed at the factory. Therefore a “non-factory replacement.” S&W normally stamped the correct matching butt SN on the replacement barrel flat if they performed the replacement. A non-factory gunsmith (such as at the NYPD) would not be expected to bother doing that. The ramped front sight suggests that the barrel was probably not made before the early 1950s.

 

[Muley Gil]

i don't know that it would be "non-factory"...The lettering and font look like a factory S&W barrel to me..

"SMITH & WESSON" on left side of barrel and ".38 S&W SPECIAL CTG." on the right side?

The barrel was produced by the S&W factory, but most likely, it was not installed in Springfield, Mass. The factory usually, but not always, would have stamped the serial number on it. As others have noted, it was probably done by an NYPD armorer.