Interarms S&W import?

[Lone_Gunman]

I realize the following description is kind of sketchy, but its the best I could put together from talking with my father.

He recently was shown an older looking Smith and Wesson revolver by a kind of weird nephew of his. He didnt see the model number, but it sounds like a Model 10. It is in 38 special, and has a 4 or 5" barrel. It has a ramped front site with a red insert. The gun appears to have a good bit of holster wear, with bluing worn off the muzzle and areas of the cylinder. It does not have a lanyard loop or any special markings other than an "Interarms" stamping, and a city and state, which he thinks was VA.

I know this is poor information to work from, but does anyone have any idea what this is? To me it sounds like a model 10 that Interarms must have re-imported from some police agency in another county.

I appreciate any help you can give.

 

[dfariswheel]

Interarms used to be the importer for Rossi firearms.

The Rossi was a S&W look-alike, although slightly different internally.
It's probably that he saw one of these Rossi revolvers and mistook it for a S&W.

 

[Lone_Gunman]

I asked him about that specifically, and he was pretty sure it was a S&W.

Would interarms ever have been involved in re-importation of S&W's sold to foreign governments or agencies?

 

[Penman]

Don't know if this is the case here, but some foreign manufacturers used to try and put one over on purchasers by stamping some thing like: For .38 SMITH AND WESSON special ctg. on the barrels, with "For special ctg." in very small letters, to make the .38 Smith and Wesson stand out.

 

[rbmcmjr]

What are the chances this is a "Victory Model" that Interarms reimported from Britain? As I understand it, anything brought back under the Curio and Relic provisions has to have an importers mark, even if it was originally made here.

Rick