New Acquisition: S&W Victory Model .38 Special!

[imarangemaster]

Well the Victory came in today. I like it. Lots of honest wear but no pitting. The bore is strong with a little frost on the cylinder end. May clean up. The cylinder timing is good and lock up perfect even when holding pressure against the rotation. Finish and wear on cylinder matches the rest of the weapon. Head space appears good. I didn't have my feeler gauges but if the gap was any less I think it would be too close. The grips are replacement, I am guessing, as they are oversized. I checked inside the grips: no serial number, and condition is MUCH better than the rest of the weapon. I have another set of used grips that should be a better match. I also checked and the serial number on underside of barrel and bottom of grip frame match. V 8657. Very early for a Victory, as I understand, but not unheard of. All in all, well worth $300!!!! Oh, BTW, I picked up a really nice shoulder holster with 12 leather cartridge loops on the strap from Great War Supply. Very cool. It will look great with my Inland M1 carbine.

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[browningautorifle]

I didn't have my feeler gauges but if the gap was any less I think it would be too close.

I've never seen that be an issue.

[imarangemaster]

A collector on the S&W forum speculated that the headspace might be off since the cylinder had been replaced. I can maybe get a thin business card trough the gap, but that's about it. I shot an old Model 3 S&W in .44 Russian, and it had a huge gap (relatively). Still shot well enough, at least minute of bandit at 25 yards! The nice thing about revolvers is that as long as lock up is good (and the chamber fairly well lined up with the forcing cone), and the firing pin hits the primer, they usually work as intended.