New Victory Model

[blockislander]

Just picked up a Victory model at the Springfield Ma gun show today. It's a 5 inch 38 S&W. serial # 958937 WB flaming bomb and p proofs. It is marked "United States Property" and came with a British Canvas Holster with 6 rounds of ammo on the side marked .380 II R^L 40. Also it has a nice laynard and brass cleaning rod marked E.N.F.T. in the holster pocket. I will post a picture tomorrow if I can figure it out. It appears to be 99%. Any info would be appreciated.

 

[ButchG17]

Sounds great!

Does it have a 'V' in front of the serial number?

Photobucket is a good place to host pics, it's free, and it gives you an IMG URL to copy and paste right into your post.

 

[murphydog]

The VM database people will be around shortly, and Springfield, MA has a familiar ring to it .

Yours sounds to be a British contract gun, produced just prior to the change to the V prefix. The earliest examples were polished blue with checkered commercial stocks, then changed to matte blue, then finally Black Magic (similar to Parkerizing). Yours is late enough that I would guess it has the latter finish.

Here are the instructions for posting, just look for the "Upload video and photos" link on the home page after registering and logging in, and cut and paste the correct photo link:

http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-hand-ejectors-1896-1961/104980-photo-help-request.html

Looking forward to seeing the photos.

 

[ordnanceguy]

Block:

Your revolver is what collectors refer to as a "pre-Victory Model" since it does not have the V-serial prefix.

From the Victory Model Database, which is maintained by my pal LWCmdr45 and me, I can tell you that your revolver was likely shipped from the factory in the April, 1942 time frame. It was a Lend Lease gun and, as such, almost certainly shipped to the Hartford Ordnance Depot in Springfield, Mass.

Can you tell what the finish is and what type of stocks it has?

Hope this info is helpful to you.

 

[blockislander]

Finish

The finish is the Black grey finish and the stocks are smooth Walnut. The hammer and triger are case hardend. It appears almost unfired, but has a few handling marks and a little holster wear. There is a notch cut out of the right grip panel and some dents in the bottom of the same grip. The guy I bought it from said that the owner was on a a Navy LST #271 and got the gun shortly after DDay moving wounded british and soldiers fron soard beach in Normady. I don't know if that's the case, but it's a good story. The holster looks like it was used a lot. I will try to post some pictures later.
Thanks so much for the info.