Victory Performance center or Buck Mark Field Target Vision

[B Man]

I’m between these two. Will be used for plinking and pest control. I like the Buckmark has a bottom pic rail for light, but I could have that put on the S&W.

How does the Buckmark Vision stack up accuracy wise? Never shot one of the lighter vision models with the aluminum shroud over the barrel to tension it.

 

[John?]

We have both. An older Victory that I shot Bullseye with. It is a solid little pistol. No complaints at all. I like it much better than the Ruger MK2 it replaced.

Got Buckmarks for the boys to use in steel challenge. Also solid. Noticeably lighter than the victory model. Also threaded barrel. Accuracy is excellent.

Both the Victory and Buckmark benefit from a little trigger work to get it down to 2.5 pounds (Bullseye legal). Both are easy to work on. Slight edge to the victory for ease of disassembly for cleaning.

Can’t go wrong with either one in my experience.

 

[B Man]

Are the buck marks the vision or solid steel bull barrels?

 

[John?]

Are the buck marks the vision or solid steel bull barrels?

Our boys use the vision models.

 

[WeeHooker]

I had a somewhat early PC version of the Victory back in 2018 or so. The pistol was a complete disapointment as it had all kinds of issues and constant stopages. In fact, it used to rattle itself lose unless I did some bubba stuff to keep it tight. In contrast, I also had a standard Victory that was very reliable. After the 2nd time back to the mothership, I sold off the PC Victiory and customized the other with similar volquartsen and TK parts. ( I've had other horror stories origonate from teh SW PC shop. Never again!) That one shot pretty good. That said, I have enither now as I'm pretty much sold on (4) Ruger MK IV's and (3) Browning Buckmarks for my target shooting/steel shooting. Personally, of the two mentioned I'd go with the browning based ob build quality, initial trigger quality and adaptability.

 

[John?]

I sold off the PC Victiory and customized the other with similar volquartsen and TK parts. ( I've had other horror stories origonate from teh SW PC shop. Never again!)

You are right about the PC shop products. My experience with them has been uniformly disappointing, especially with the revolvers marketed for competition. I steer clear of the Performance Center and Pro Series now as neither are worth the premium price. I do all my own work to get plain jane S&W products to perform properly.

 

[WeeHooker]

You are right about the PC shop products. My experience with them has been uniformly disappointing, especially with the revolvers marketed for competition. I steer clear of the Performance Center and Pro Series now as neither are worth the premium price. I do all my own work to get plain jane S&W products to perform properly.

As I understand they lost the bulk of their experienced smiths around 2017 or so to retirement. I worked in a gunshop back then and would rotinely see 1 in 3 PC pistols come right out of the box with clocked barrels, bad timing, crocked forcing cones...... ( Losing tallant is one thing but nn existant QC is another.) I'm not sure if that's still the case but I was screwed 3 times (also with competition revolvers) and won't buy anything PC again.

 

[B Man]

You are right about the PC shop products. My experience with them has been uniformly disappointing, especially with the revolvers marketed for competition. I steer clear of the Performance Center and Pro Series now as neither are worth the premium price. I do all my own work to get plain jane S&W products to perform properly.

As I understand they lost the bulk of their experienced smiths around 2017 or so to retirement. I worked in a gunshop back then and would rotinely see 1 in 3 PC pistols come right out of the box with clocked barrels, bad timing, crocked forcing cones...... ( Losing tallant is one thing but nn existant QC is another.) I'm not sure if that's still the case but I was screwed 3 times (also with competition revolvers) and won't buy anything PC again.

Being honest I was leaning heavy on the Victory PC with stainless fluted barrel. But you both have me seriously reconsidering to the Buck mark Vision Field & Target model.

 

[John?]

Being honest I was leaning heavy on the Victory PC with stainless fluted barrel. But you both have me seriously reconsidering to the Buck mark Vision Field & Target model.

@B Man

My dislike for PC/Pro Series stuff is because they aren’t a good value proposition. Deceptive marketing to garner higher price points. Mechanically all S&W products are the same. They differ cosmetically. All require aome finishing work to get them to run efficiently for gun games. They’re ok for field work, but experienced shooter will tune them up anyway. As @WeeHooker noted, clocked barrels are a common complaint on the wheel guns because of poor QC and not spending enough tine on in-service training for the workforce. In short, poor management.

If you like the Victory better then buy it because you’ll be happiest with what you want. Just understand that you’ll have to tune it up a bit. Tandemkross parts are pretty good for drop in tune ups. If you have moderate mechanical skill and a few tools you can do great work in your den or garage workbench. Blowback 22’s aren’t difficult to work on (except the Colt Woodsman and other old pistols that are hard to source springs and small parts).

The Buckmarks are fine too. Do a trigger spring swap and run it like a scalded dog.

 

[B Man]

@B Man

My dislike for PC/Pro Series stuff is because they aren’t a good value proposition. Deceptive marketing to garner higher price points. Mechanically all S&W products are the same. They differ cosmetically. All require aome finishing work to get them to run efficiently for gun games. They’re ok for field work, but experienced shooter will tune them up anyway. As @WeeHooker noted, clocked barrels are a common complaint on the wheel guns because of poor QC and not spending enough tine on in-service training for the workforce. In short, poor management.

If you like the Victory better then buy it because you’ll be happiest with what you want. Just understand that you’ll have to tune it up a bit. Tandemkross parts are pretty good for drop in tune ups. If you have moderate mechanical skill and a few tools you can do great work in your den or garage workbench. Blowback 22’s aren’t difficult to work on (except the Colt Woodsman and other old pistols that are hard to source springs and small parts).

The Buckmarks are fine too. Do a trigger spring swap and run it like a scalded dog.

From what you have seen there is no loss of accuracy with the Vision buck marks have a small steel liner barrel?

 

[WeeHooker]

Being honest I was leaning heavy on the Victory PC with stainless fluted barrel. But you both have me seriously reconsidering to the Buck mark Vision Field & Target model.

The SW Victory is much like the Ruger MK series pistol in that it's a "Mr. Potato Head" design that allows you to simply swap in any number of aftermarket parts. Barrels, triggers, grips, rails, sights.................It all takes minutes and no special skills. If I wanted that pistol, I'd look for the aftermarkt parts I wanted and do some math. Chances are you can build it for less than you can buy it. Then you know it's done right.
That said, I still like the Buckmark better for more than a few reasons.

 

[John?]

From what you have seen there is no loss of accuracy with the Vision buck marks have a small steel liner barrel?

For practical purposes no adverse effects. For the long line at the precision pistol nationals, might be a concern.