Two Victory questions

[donaldw870]

A dealer at a gun show today had an excellent condition 4" .38 S&W Special M&P Victory Model for sale for $600. It was marked "rare variation". I asked why. The dealer explained that this model was produced in 4" and 2" barrels. He said that when the war ended, they were all rebarreled with 5" barrels and sold to police. So, he said, this one must have come back in someone's vest. There's no mention of this in SCSW3 that I can see, so I thought I'd ask the experts here. Is there any truth in this, or is this gun show BS?

Second question: Another 4" .38 S&W Special Victory that another dealer had for sale was marked "VEGA SOC" (or something like that) just below the cylinder, on the right side. Serial number is 178xxx. I was curious what that mark might mean. This was also in excellent condition and appeared to be possibly unfired. Price was $495, I think.

Thanks for any help.

Donald

 

[donaldw870]

A dealer at a gun show today had an excellent condition 4" .38 S&W Special M&P Victory Model for sale for $600. It was marked "rare variation". I asked why. The dealer explained that this model was produced in 4" and 2" barrels. He said that when the war ended, they were all rebarreled with 5" barrels and sold to police. So, he said, this one must have come back in someone's vest. There's no mention of this in SCSW3 that I can see, so I thought I'd ask the experts here. Is there any truth in this, or is this gun show BS?

Second question: Another 4" .38 S&W Special Victory that another dealer had for sale was marked "VEGA SOC" (or something like that) just below the cylinder, on the right side. Serial number is 178xxx. I was curious what that mark might mean. This was also in excellent condition and appeared to be possibly unfired. Price was $495, I think.

Thanks for any help.

Donald

 

[mikepriwer]

Yes - BS.

Vega Sac was either a store, or an importer, named Vega, in Sacramento, CA.

Its VEGA SAC, not SOC .

Later, Mike Priwer

 

[Texas Star]

The dealer's claim is patently false, and amounts to fraud, in my book. His price is also too high.


T-Star

 

[Rute Boye]

Regarding the "rebarreling to 5 inch" claim, this is completely false. Don't believe it. The 38 Special gunsalmost all had 4" barrels. The British issue 38 S&W guns had 5" barrels.

Regarding the "VEGA" marked gun, I'll bet that this is one of the Australian issue guns that had a Factory Through Rebuild/Repair" (FTR) in the mid 1950s. However, to my knowledge they are all chambered for 38 S&W and have 5" barrels.

If the "VEGA" gun has a 5" barrel, and is chambered for the 38 S&W cartridge, and is marked "FTR" on the sideplate, these can be very nice guns..... for about $150.00 to $200.00 less than what the seller is asking. You might try offering about $325.00 and see what his response is. Or, given his dishonesty and/or ignorance of his own merchandise, you might want to avoid him altogether!

Regards,
Doug

 

[donaldw870]

Thanks guys. Glad my BS detector was on yesterday.

The "VEGA" gun was in 38 spl, and I'm pretty sure had a 4" bbl.

Thanks again for the information.