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A Little Help - Identifying Proof Mark


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David, since the original finish was ruined and it's marred up, would you consider doing a complete restoration of the pistol?

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Victory models are an interesting collecting field. I first became interested in them when I was issued one in 1985 at Ft Campbell. At that time Army aviation units were still issuing .38 cal revolvers to crew members. The fact that mine was Parkerized and every one else's was blued caused me to start researching my pistol to find out exactly what it was.

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During Desert Shield/Storm, a Reserve or ANG helicopter crew came by and wanted some ice. The pilot was carrying a Victory in a leather 1911 shoulder holster. I asked him if I could look at it, he just pulled it out and handed it over without even opening the cylinder (great training!). After clearing it, I looked down the cylinder and... It was a .38 S&W cylinder! I asked him if they issued him any ammo and he pulls out a zip lock bag with six .38 Special FMJ's. I advised him to go talk to the unit armorer, either get the right ammo or the right pistol!

 

I also saw a Navy Lt Commander carrying a 1911 with no rear sight. Don't that make it kinda hard to hit something?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Interesting story, a shame what happened, but at least the gun was recovered.

At the risk of drifting off-topic...When I was a little kid me and my best friend (who was later KIA in Vietnam) used to play "army" almost every day. We always bought all kinds of "stuff" at the Army-Navy store, back when it was REAL GI before Chinese repro.

One day my uncle saw us playing army, using our 6-shooter cowboy cap guns. So he goes in his house and gets a German pistol he brought back from WWII, he lets us hold it, etc. That was in the late 1950s. My uncle passed away quite a few years ago, but I never forgot that pistol, although I had no idea what it was or what happened to it, I thought maybe a Luger? Well about 5 years ago my cousin calls me and asks if I could sell some of her dad's stuff, I said sure, and lo and behold there was the pistol a nice condition code AC 43 Walther P38 and a holster with my uncle's name and unit written inside the flap. She said they had the gun at several gun shops on consignment, but couldn't sell it. It almost got away! Of course, I bought it off of her. When I did the .50 caliber Collector Grade book with Dolf, I dedicated it to my Uncle. During some research on my uncle, I found several pictures of him on his old unit's website (8th Armored) My dad and his other brother were also both in WWII, but my dad, who was in the 42nd Infantry Division would never talk about the war, all I ever knew was he got purple heart and a check every month from the government, which he never cashed.

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Nice P-38 Frank and glad it was able to stay in the family.

 

My Dad did three tours in Vietnam. He too really never talked about it and receive 100% disability from the VA due to complications from Agent Orange. He did bring back an early Chicom SKS that he did relate the story. They were flying a low level sweep in the Delta and he spotted something in a half submerged junk. The pilot swung around and upon further investigation found four SKS’s wrapped in a poncho which they captured and made sure the junk was “really” sunk upon their departure. Each member of the crew kept one as a war trophy and I now have it along with the capture papers. One of the “easier” days in country no doubt…

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