Victory help

[1984Landcruiser]

Folks:

First post here but not new to S&W revolvers. Found a Victory model revolver (SN# V262325) with a 5 inch barrel chambered in 38 S&W. I'm curious as to a date of production (probably early 1943), and if we can find out if it was actually a lend-lease gun, and to which country it might have gone. It has no import marks, or anything other than the S&W factory acceptance markings.

Thanks!

 

[robertrwalsh]

I know a lot of those went to Australia. I have one like it myself. Can't help you much beyond that, but I am confident others here will be able to.

 

[JP@AK]

Welcome to the S&W Forum.

V262325 is probably from the first half of the year 1943 (1942 numbers end around V210000). By that time, it would have been lend/lease. Does it have the U.S. Property stamp on the top strap?

Absalom is usually very helpful on these. I'm sure he'll be around soon to comment.

 

[DWalt]

On my list are several Victory SNs very close to yours which shipped between March and June 1943. It is almost certainly a L-L gun, and should have the US property marking stamped on the topstrap. There is no way to tell where it went after it left the US. And it could have gone almost anywhere in the world - or numerous places. Have you checked to see if the chambers have been elongated to accept .38 Special cartridges? A lack of any proof marks, etc. indicates that it may well have been returned to these shores in some GI's duffel bag rather than being one of the typical imports common in the late 1950s-early 1960s when the British surplused out boatloads of them.

 

[1984Landcruiser]

should have the US property marking stamped on the topstrap.

Have you checked to see if the chambers have been elongated to accept .38 Special cartridges?

It is stamped United States Property and the chambers have not been elongated. I can't get photos to post here from my phone for some strange reason.

 

[Absalom]

…. and if we can find out if it was actually a lend-lease gun, and to which country it might have gone. It has no import marks, or anything other than the S&W factory acceptance markings.

As Jack and DWalt have explained, that gun in its configuration at that serial in 1943 had to have been a Lend-Lease gun.

The guns were shipped to a US Ordnance depot at Hartford, which is as far as the S&W historians know their fate. L-L authorities shipped them to England from there, where they were received at Weedon ordnance depot and then centrally distributed to British forces and other Commonwealth countries. Only Canada got direct L-L allocations if I remember correctly.

Some countries marked their guns, often post-war. Victorys from New Zealand, Australia, India, and some that served with foreign police can be thus identified.

But if yours has no other additional markings, no more can be found out about it.

 

[ordnanceguy]

The guns were shipped to a US Ordnance depot at Hartford....

Hello Absalom:

I hope this does not come across as nit-picking but I know that all of us here are interested in accuracy. The S&W Lend Lease guns were actually shipped from the factory to the Hartford Ordnance Depot (H.O.D.) at 95 State Street in Springfield, Mass, not Hartford.

The Depot was operated by the Army within the Hartford Ordnance District which at the time included Springfield, Mass. "Hartford" refers, of course, to Hartford, Conn. but the District included all of Connecticut and western Massachusetts. See the partial map below which outlines the boundaries of the District. The Number 17 item is the Springfield Armory. This map came from a 1941 issue of Army Ordnance magazine.



Regards,
Charlie

 

[Absalom]

Hello Absalom:

I hope this does not come across as nit-picking but I know that all of us here are interested in accuracy. ..

Thanks for catch, Charlie. I knew that. It was an unfortunate editing accident, and that I had thereby placed the depot in the city of Hartford escaped my attention.