Ever seen a 5" Navy contract Victory Model?

S

SaxonPig

New member
I've told this story before but it's been a while.

About 13 years ago I bought a Navy contract VM from a local pawn shop. The barrel was bulged and the owner couldn't sell it. I looked at it and said that if I got it cheap enough I might be able to work with it. He said name a price. Without thinking it through enough I blurted out $60 and he happily replied "Sold!" He even covered the sales tax for me. What a guy.

The barrel had to be replaced. My problem was that the gun smiths I asked wanted $150-$200 in labor. The refinished revolver with a replacement barrel wasn't worth that much investment. If I couldn't do it myself it wouldn't get done.

I found a 5" barrel on ebay that I bagged for the starting price of $5. The serial on the barrel suggested a 1939 manufacture date so it was very close to the 1942 date on the gun. I stripped the gun down to the bare frame and barrel and soaked overnight in penetrating oil. Using the large bench vise in my garage, I clamped the barrel between two 1" pieces of soft pine. I had a punch that fit and drove out the retaining pin. It popped right out in 2 seconds. Then I put a hammer handle through the cylinder window up as close to the forcing cone as possible to reduce the twisting force on the frame and gently applied pressure. The barrel unscrewed like the lid off a pickle jar. It just came right off as slick as you please.

The new barrel went in the same way. I screwed it in until I ran out of threads with the sight blade at 12 o'clock. With a feeler gauge I determined the B/C clearance to be .005". Perfect. It was almost as if that barrel was made for that frame...which of course it was. God bless mass produced parts intended for assembly line production.

The pin reinsertion was a bear. It was very hard to get the holes lined up precisely. Everything up until this point took about 5 minutes. Seriously, from clamping the gun in the vise to being ready to install the pin took maybe 5 minutes. I thought about that $200 the smith wanted trying to calculate his hourly rate but I'm not good at math. But then I spent another 25 minutes tweaking the barrel back and forth trying to wiggle that darn pin back in. I finally got it but it wasn't a smooth operation.

I test fired the gun and it shot fine. It was wearing the late 1940s "sharp shoulder" Magnas and I liked them so they stayed where they were. Back on ebay I found an older Bianchi holster for a 5" K frame and got it for $5. Apparently I buy a lot of stuff on ebay for $5. I hated the hole in the butt for the missing lanyard ring so I bought a handful of them from a guy at a gun show for...yup...$5 each (I have used 2 and given away a couple to guys who needed one and still have a couple left just in case). Total investment is $75 for a cool 5" M&P in a nice holster. Plus a half hour of my time.

A few years ago I tested it with 500 rounds of factory +P and 600 rounds of my own +P+ (125 JHP@1150 FPS) to satisfy myself that all this nonsense about +P ammo damaging a pre-model marked S&W was...well, nonsense. It was. Nonsense, I mean.

Someday when I am dead and gone, and my wife has sold all my guns, somebody will be looking at the only 5" U.S. military Victory Model he's ever seen thinking "What the hell?" Too bad he won't know the story behind it.

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Great story! Thank you for sharing. :)

I also like bargains and don't mind making some minor repairs (though I have never installed a barrel).

People who claim that "you get what you pay for" should widen their horizons. I have a number of used handguns that I paid less than $200 for that are excellent shooters. I got them inexpensively due to careful shopping and being willing to roll the dice. I can't beat your $60 price yet, but I will keep trying! :)
 
Great story, Saxon....makes me regret the dozen or so Smiths I've passed on over the years based on barrel crown/bore condition and a few other issues. Now that I'm retired, maybe it's time to take on a 'project' gun. You've tweaked my imagination.....always wanted a 'Victory' model in .38 special too!

BTW, does it shoot to the sights? Just curious.

Rod
 
For anyone thinking of doing a barrel replacement, I'll pass along a tip from Hamilton Bowen:

Cut a long strip of duct tape, and fold it lengthwise so the sticky side is out, making sort of double sided tape. Wrap these strips around the barrel full length of the wooden vise jaw inserts, wrapping so each turn overlaps the previous. Use leather to line the wooden block inserts and clamp in the vise. As you said, a hammer handle or other piece of hardwood is used for a lever, keep the wood as close to the front of the frame as possible, even notch around the barrel extension.

This places no more strain on the frame than the action wrench.

Bob Wright
 
I have always found that rosin (available from Brownell's) applied to the wood blocks is an excellent "sticking" agent.

What is the approximate chamber pressure of the +p+ loads you were firing.
 
I just use a pipe wrench....
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LOL!! I actually did use a pipe wrench on a frowsy Luger that had a non-existent bore, and I mean non-existent. You could see (I think) shadows where rifling had once been, but that was about it. The pipe wrench worked very well.:D

I did rebarrel it with an aftermarket "Made in Austria" barrel and it has proved to be a pretty good shooter that you can't hurt. (And no, I didn't use the pipe wrench to rebarrel. I used my wood block barrel vise.)
 
What is the approximate chamber pressure of the +p+ loads you were firing.
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Saxon, I'd still like to know your guestimate on the chamber pressure of the +p+ loads you fired.
 
If you don't care about the barrel that you're removing, that's one thing.

The one time I did replace a barrel I made my own frame blocks out of some scrap hardwood and held them in place with a couple of Jorgenson clamps.
 
If you don't care about the barrel that you're removing, that's one thing.
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That's why I used the pipe wrench. The gun itself is no prize and the barrel was completely shot out, and I mean completely. The front sight was salvageable and that was it.:D

As it stands now it is a knockabout shooter, but the new barrel I put on definitely looks out of place on this gun. (Trust me: This particular Luger has ZERO collector value.)

For "normal" handguns I have a barrel vice that uses various sizes of hardwood blocks with liberal amounts of Brownell"s rosin in the bored holes, and a much larger version for rifles.
 
That load came from an older reloading manual. In the 1980s they started reducing the load levels on advice of counsel. Used to be 38 Special ammo producers and reloading manuals worked at a 21,500 PSI limit but now they use 20,000 s max (but I hear most is actually loaded at 18,500) for +P and 17,000 for standard 38 Special loads and those are very low, IMO.

I am told the +P+ loads for police and government agents run 23,500. Ever heard of a cop's 38 blowing up? I am guessing the original 38-44 load (158@1140) was around 24,000 PSI. I am sure my load generates around 21,500 PSI because as I noted that's where older manuals used to be. This load has worked fine in D frame Colts, J frame S&Ws, and I even fired a few through an old Rossi small frame revolver. No problems.
 
Nice gun Saxonpig. I love those old pencil barrel model 10s. Several years ago my local Cabelas had a 5" model 10 for around $250 IIRC. I should have bought it.

My buddy gave me his 6" model 10 with the pencil barrel. Love it. It looks so retro.:D
 
Were just the Navy guns not made with 5" barrels?

I have a Lend Lease S&W British Service Revolver (38/200) with a 5" barrel.
 
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