S&W U.S. Navy .38 special revolver / holster

I ran into an old friend last night. I had not seen him for several months. In the process of catching up I mentioned my new interest in vintage military firearms. He invited me by his home today to see if I would be interested in a "Navy pilots pistol" he had aquired along with some other sporting arms which are his intrest.
This is what he had. Attachment 34749Attachment 34748Attachment 34747Attachment 34746Attachment 34750Attachment 34751With the statement I was not buying for resale he made what I believe to be a very good price, and now I am the proud steward of this pistol.It seems in very good condidion as does the holster save a bad belt snap. I read some previous threads and am in the process filling out the S&W history request form.

Looks good, I was never able to find a 4 in bbl in Canada so mine always held a Mod 10. The belt snap is typical and it's just fine as is.

Now that's just beautiful!

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Originally Posted by ABPOS

Now that's just beautiful!

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Thanks.
I sure thought so and feel fortunate to have stewardship of it. I just wish I had more information about the owner. Lesson is, document family war relics as best you can in hopes the next generation will appreciate the history or at least add to the value if they sell it to someone who will.

fine looking examples - both , the revolver and the holster , i think you landed a keeper with this one

I believe I am going to purchase a $40 repo holster to carry and use the original as a display. The snaps are a bit fragile and the belt strap snap is toast. This is my first milsurp pistol and a good foundation for more. Mailed my S&W weapon history form yesterday. Next step is to come up with a shadow box for display of the pistol,holster & S&W letter.I have been very fortunate in my short time collecting,just hope I did not use up the rest of my good luck on this one.

I have been reading a bit on the Victrory model and noticed the VS saftey upgrade noted.
Mine does not have a VS or SV marking but appears to have been apart at some point. Is there a way to determine without disassembly if the upgrade was installed? The hammer will not protrude pass the breach face without the trigger being depressed to the full rearward position.

You didn't show the butt markings which would be the key to whether it had the improved hammer block. They all had a hammer block, but an improved hammer block was brought out late in production.

Look just like the one I was issued when part of a Navy Partol flight crew in 1955. Our holsters had a cartridge loops on the sholder strap, held 6 rounds of tracer ammo.. Nice pistol.