Navy lettered Smith & Wesson Victory

[Andouille]

Lettered as shipped to U.S. Navy at Oakland, but, not Navy marked.

Opinions, please, good, bad or indifferent.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=330189963

Is there a decent book on the Victory revolvers? Where might reliable information be found?

Thanks in advance

[ebeeby]

Looks like a decent Victory. They have had quite a rise in value over the last 10 years.

[joem]

Looks like the real deal, but price may be a little high IMHO.

[emmagee1917]

Nice and clean . By this serial number , all military contracts with S/W were going through US Army inspectors so all were marked the same . Only a letter will tell who it went to , but most did go to the Navy.
Pate's book on secondary US pistols has a lot of Victory info in it . The some of the charts of serial numbers and info has errors in them , but you can correct them from the info in the text part.
Chris

[randy langford]

Price might be a little high but not by much I doubt you would beat it only down side is that it is not navy marked.

[Andouille]

Well, all of y'all have more or less confirmed my suspicions. And, now that emmagee mentions it, I actually have Pate's book, ratholed and forgotten someplace if I can only find it. Thanks for the reminder.

Thanks very much.

Is there a negative to not being Navy marked, inasmuch as it letters to the Navy? How much more desireable would a Navy marked revolver be?

[emmagee1917]

One that is Navy marked would be from an earlier serial number range . It would prob'ly be worth a couple hundred more than a like one in the same range not USN marked. I do have a nice V239712 that was from the last 20,000 navy ordered and marked pistols , but has the Army flaming bomb as they were inspecting and accepting at least part of this order. To me , it is priceless , for what are my chances of finding another ? I bought it not knowing what it was , nor did the seller .
Chris