Hey everyone brought this Smith home today. Did a little research before buying but would still like to know more. From the Smith forum I think this one was made around the end of '41. My ffl thinks it may have been a lend lease model. It does have the Birmingham BNP marks, but it doesn't have the property of US Govt mark on the top. It seems to be in great shape overall. Mostly curious about what to shoot through it. The side of the barrel has 38 S&W Ctg, but the underside has 38 special. We inserted a 38 special when I initially looked at it, and it did fit.

It appears to have been reblued.

Only thing I can tell you is that Oh man that this is gorgeous.

My ffl thought it may have been, but I found this info on the Smith forum. Any way to know for sure if it has been?

Thanks. Yeah, I couldn't pass it up. He picked it up at an estate sale and showed it to me when I was picking up some rifles from him.

He did that to me again today, so I'll be taking another pistol home from him next week.

It's hard to say. It appears that way to me because of the washed out lettering on the barrel. You can really see it in your third picture. It looks like it was hit with a buffer with too low of a grit compound, or for too long. I'm not saying it's not possible that the factory did it, it's just not something I've seen. Smith revolver lettering is normally left nice and crisp.

My Grandfather was a Detroit PD detective back in the day and had one similar.  My older brother has it.  I will ask him for pics and info.

Ah, okay. That makes sense, and he was thinking the same because of the side plate. The S&W logo isn't really deap either.

Maybe this is silly, but contact S&W.  They can give you some pretty good info regarding how it left the factory and where it went.

A lot of the 38 S&W guns got rechambered to 38 Special in the 50's.  Which is not usually a good thing.  The S&W cartridge is tapered , the Special is straight sided.  The base of the S&W is slightly wider than the Special and bulged cases were not unknown.  

I second the reblue.  Also the grips don't look original either.

I collect Model Tens and am always looking for similar pistols.  In my experience the British Victory Models have always been beat to within an inch of their life.  Most went thru a rebuild process that gave them a black paint like finish.  If yours is original it is far and away the best British Victory I've ever seen.

A pre victory what is referred t as a BSR ( British service revolver sold to Britain prior to the entry of the United States into WWII. If bored out to special as was mentioned you could still shoot 38 S&W in it. ( if you don’t reload much harder to find and usually more expensive than special) if you stuck to
Light special loads like target wadcutters you will be fine, but expect swollen and in many cases, split cases from the oversized chambers. Likely reblued in the past but I can not say this 100%.

Correct. Now that I'm in front of my computer really looking this gun over, I'm positive it's a reblue, and I can note a few more things.

You saying that made me think about the .38 special marking as well. As noted, that gun was not originally .38 special. So whenever the barrel was stamped .38 special, it had to be reblued over because the inside of the stamping is blued.

You can shoot .38S&W or special out of your gun, but it won't likely do either particularly well. Expect spent cases to be in poor condition and accuracy to be below standard.

I'm curious what happened to the US Government property markings on the topstrap. Sometimes markings are wiped out on a buffing wheel, but that would be a lot of material to remove. I'm curious what that looks like up close. The finish does appear to have been done on a buffer, and I don't think the grips are original. The hammer and trigger are probably unaltered.

It's a nice gun, and still has plenty of character. I don't want to rag on it, just passing along some information.

Going to do that this week. Found the link to request info through there historical foundation.

Here is the top. I did notice that the grips aren't the same as most of the pictures out there. Really don't know anything about these, just saw a good looking pistol and decided to bring it home. I'll update when I hear back from submitting the serial.