pre victory ?

[11e40]

just picked up a pre victory ? 38 s&w ctg. 6" checkered walnut grips #736xxx. Canadian crow foot mark. is this one a five shooter or a six shooter ? no "s" mark to indicate safety upgrade. I have several victory models & none have the "s" upgrade. five shooters I assume. thanks.

 

[murphydog]

The serial number suggests a .38/200 British service revolver, very common in 5" and less so in 6 and 4".

If you are certain it is a K frame, like your other Victory Models there is no 5 shot .38, unless there was a serious QC problem at the factory in 1940 .

 

[Mike McLellan]

I wouldn't worry about keeping an empty charge-hole under the hammer. That gun has 2 safeties in place. One is the hammer block operated by the hand (patent Dec. 29, '14). The other is the hammer resting on the rebound slide (Feb. 6, 06). The hammer block that was introduced in the '40s is a redundancy mandated by the government following a freak mishap. Just keep your gun clean & lubricated. It' safe.

 

[DWalt]

Your pre-V would have shipped sometime in early 1941, before Lend-Lease. And there's no need to keep an empty chamber under the hammer, except out of an abundance of caution. The later (1945) hammer safety modification was sort of a belt and suspenders approach to make a safe system even safer. It was alleged that the 1945 design change was the result of a report that a sailor dropped a loaded revolver on the deck, and it went off, killing him.

The only problem with shooting your revolver is finding ammunition for it.

 

[11e40]

ammo is no problem. I reload for the .38 s&w. I learned my lesson in 2008 about ammo, or lack thereof. thanks for all the info.

 

[DWalt]

You might already know, but if you are reloading for the M&P, you can safely approach .38 Special ballistics. You can't do that for use in the old top break revolvers.

 

[rduke]

We're close

just picked up a pre victory ? 38 s&w ctg. 6" checkered walnut grips #736xxx. Canadian crow foot mark. is this one a five shooter or a six shooter ? no "s" mark to indicate safety upgrade. I have several victory models & none have the "s" upgrade. five shooters I assume. thanks.

I read your post with interest, and noticed that your serial # is close to mine, within the 100's anyway.

My gun matches your description as well, and starts with #7367xx but no crowfoot.

 

[824tsv]

I believe your reference to the "crowfoot" is actually the "C Broad Arrow" marking denoting Canadian Government Property.

 

[Skeetr57]

All K frame, non target guns after about 1915 and all K frame targets after about 1925 have a hammer block safety, so all 6 chambers can be safely carried with a cartridge in them if the gun is inspected to insure that the hammer block is functioning.