The U.S.-purchased ones will have “US Government Property” roll-marked on the topstrap, along with the flaming bomb ordnance mark and the inspector’s initials. The ones made after the design change have a “VS” as the prefix. Navy had a corpsman die from a dropped revolver discharging, and S&W underwent a crash program to redesign the hammer block. The serial number is on the bottom of the frame, with the V sometimes on one side of the lanyard loop, and the serial number on the other. So, they added a “V” as a prefix and started over, with the Smith & Wesson Victory Model revolvers all being parkerized with smooth wooden grips.
Well, that, and S&W had hit the million-number-mark in serial numbers early in the war, and they had to do something. Why “Victory” model? Really? You have to ask? There was a war on. Oh, and it’s all rare collectible ammo, as well. The Smith & Wesson Victory Model and the Enfields can take full. 38 S&W is held to a paltry 13,000 psi, out of deference to the old top-breaks. 38-200 ammunition, or the later FMJ version of it, do not-under any circumstances-fire it in a clanky old Iver Johnson or other top-break revolver … even a S&W top-break. Now, a brief aside here: If you do find any actual, real. The British adopted the same cartridge case, but loaded it with a 200-grain bullet at 650 fps. loading was (and still is) a 146- or 148-grain round-nose lead bullet at a nominal 650 fps. had been kept mild in deference to the original black powder revolvers and the later top-break “bulldog”-type revolvers. 38 S&W date back to 1877, and since that time, the loadings here in the U.S. Note the four screws holding the sideplate on. They still put their logo on the sideplate. It may have been made for Lend-Lease shipment, but S&W made it, and they were proud of it. The British revolvers of the time, the Enfield, were chambered for the cartridge the British had adopted in the 1920s, the. The production of revolvers by S&W for the British was easy. Meanwhile, the British had also been busy. But the need for wartime production rates and a more durable finish soon had the revolvers sporting parkerized finishes and plain wooden grips. The first production batches shipped to eager military buyers were simply the same M&P revolvers that S&W had been making, in the same high-polish blue, because that’s what they made. They were set up to make revolvers, and there were plenty of uses for firearms that didn’t necessarily call for something chambered in. Smith & Wesson didn’t drop everything and begin making 1911s, machine guns and artillery pieces. (I’m sure the next time we have a big war, we’ll have the exact same problem.) With all the services mobilizing and expanding, we needed guns. Oh, we’d been here before-the one they had called The Great War. Both have seen honest wear since then.Īt the start of WWII, we had a problem. 38 Special and started with a high-gloss blue finish.
Below is the pre-war revolvers S&W made for its customers. The top revolver is the Lend-Lease Smith & Wesson Victory in. Of course, there are other collectible handguns as well, such as the ones made for Allied use in World War II. They’re the hot, sexy redheads of the handgun world-and good for those who have them. Ones made for Commonwealth often have markings from British services.As well as the flaming bomb ordnance mark and the inspector’s initials.U.S.-purchased guns have “US Government Property” roll-marked on the topstrap.They have a “V” prefix in the serial number.A wartime version of the original Model 10, the Smith & Wesson Victory model is a class WWII collectible.