Need Advice About Colt Python

[TripleThreat]

I'd start at $1,000, maybe go as high as $1,200 or better yet, ask him what is the least he's willing to take, he may offer it up at $700 or something, if you have to pay over $1,200 I believe you're headed into the diminishing returns category.

Hope this helps,

Triple

PS. It would also make for a great conversation piece at the range or at home.

[sealocan]

I know colt expert but you can obviously see that the seller is telling you some tall tales.

you could try to buy it cheaper (I wouldn't spend more than $600 because at some point you'll probably refinish it which will hurt the value and cost you money. although I am no colt expert so I don't know pricing, especially on something that's been modified like that one may have been.) but I think he will just wait for the next person who is not a colt expert and believe his lies.

it's interesting to me that the colt blued finish is so hard to duplicate he didn't even try.

[Marquand]

Looks like he took sandpaper to a blued Python. That is definitely not stainless. If it was refinished, the extractor wouldn't still be blue. Hope you're gonna get it for a great price cuz it'll rust if you don't keep it oiled.

Any chance that the extractor star is simply a replacement from a blued gun and not original? I can't imagine someone taking the time to remove the bluing and then polishing the entire gun while just ignoring the star.

[gunsrfun1974]

Thanks, guys for the responses! I am so glad I posted this thread. You guys probably saved me from overpaying for this Python. He is asking $1650 for it and I think I am going to pass on it and save my money for blued 4" if I can find one for a decent price nearby someday.

[sealocan]

I'm glad you posted it as well. although I do think someone is should buy it who knows the real deal or what very likely happen to this poor revolver. (at a reduced price obviously.)

otherwise some person who thinks they're buying a genuine original stainless steel colt investment & a collector is going to pay fullprice and then be very disappointed.

but it's my guess that this seller knows the con he is pulling and won't sell it for less because he knows there's someone out there that doesn't know everything about Colts.

[Sky_DiveR]

Any chance that the extractor star is simply a replacement from a blued gun and not original? I can't imagine someone taking the time to remove the bluing and then polishing the entire gun while just ignoring the star.

Very possible but I wouldn't think an SS extractor is any harder to get then a Blued one (also why would you want to?). It's difficult to sand/polish an extractor star to make it look like SS. I've seen this before but on a S&W. The roll marks weren't crisp on the barrel (like the Python) and the S&W logo was completely missing from the left side (similar to the missing Colt on this Python). You could also look under the extractor star and may see where the sandpaper polished the shaft bare if he wasn't careful during sanding. Or then again, you could just ask him if the extractor has been replaced. After all, who am I to say what happened to the gun.

Btw, look at Triplethreats' avatar. That looks like a SS Python with a SS extractor.

[ScottsBad]

Seems like whenever a particular gun becomes very popular and there are a limited number of them on the market such that the price goes way up, that is the time to be REALLY cautious. So it was smart to post here.

I personally wouldn't spend even $600 on that gun, it just looks like trouble. Fixing them is a real problem. I've a great Python given to me many many years ago. And while it's a really nice pistol I don't think they are worth the current crazy prices.

I don't know about you, but I'm thinking of selling mine so I can get something that I don't mind shooting.

[dfletcher]

The finish to me looks like hard chrome. Further, there should be a "Rampant Colt" on the (left) sideplate, see attached from GB:

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=506546512

The serial number should tell you when the pistol was made, removing the sideplate and looking inside may reveal a blued steel revolver. Or, judging by the trigger and hammer, maybe an original nickel finish - or, nickel trigger & hammer that were put on a blued steel gun to match (sort of) the newly applied hard chrome?

I have an 8" nickel Target version in 38 Special, don't quite recall if the ejector star is blued or nickel but am inclined to say it's blued.

Doing hard chrome was fashionable in the mid 80s IIRC. Nothing wrong with it, it's a durable finish. Given the lack of little horsey on the sideplate and those two dents on the topstrap, my guess is the blued finish was in lousy shape and hard chroming was a way to save it. I'd take a hard chromed pistol over the "cerakote" spray paint finished any day, but $1,600.00 seems a bit proud for the gun.

BTW, Colt Python factory grips go for about $300.00 to $450.00 nowadays. A 1964 version would carry the 2nd version grips - checkered up to the gold medallion with a half moon down top line.

[Mute]

Definitely not original finish. I've owned a bright stainless Python and have shot quite a few of the matte stainless ones. This gun looks nothing like either of the two stainless finishes offered by Colt. As far as the grips are concerned, those are aftermarket Pachmayr grips

[Erion929]

Very possible but I wouldn't think an SS extractor is any harder to get then a Blued one (also why would you want to?). It's difficult to sand/polish an extractor star to make it look like SS. I've seen this before but on a S&W. The roll marks weren't crisp on the barrel (like the Python) and the S&W logo was completely missing from the left side (similar to the missing Colt on this Python). You could also look under the extractor star and may see where the sandpaper polished the shaft bare if he wasn't careful during sanding. Or then again, you could just ask him if the extractor has been replaced. After all, who am I to say what happened to the gun.

Btw, look at Triplethreats' avatar. That looks like a SS Python with a SS extractor.

First thing I was going to say....mine has a horsie on the side

[nickel plate]

In photos 2,4 and 6 the Rampant Colt rollmark has completely disappeared.
In photo 8 the barrel rollmarks are way too thin.
Definitely sanded and or buffed to crap.
Colt did use black rubber grips in the later years of production but always had the full or half Rampant Colt gold medallion, never with the branded "Pachmayr" medallion.
Too much wrong with this one.

[Joshua Tree]

OP, I would run, not walk away from that turkey. It has been bubba'd like a polished Samarai sword. What makes the Python arguably the most desirable double-action revolver, regardless of the "rarity" and cache', is the double-action smoothness, and the deep blue Colt's finish of the blued revovers. The finish is destroyed, and who knows what else has been monkeyed with.

Who is really wanting to put a bunch of money on a Colt Python revolver, with the rampant Colt rubbed out? Leave this revolver for others to overpay for.



.

[Brake]

FRANKENPYTHON..

[Mr. Beretta]

Judging on what happened on the outside of this gun, I gotta think somebody's messed with the internals. And unless that person was an experienced Colt gunny, you could have problems.

Unless you buy it for a "give away" price, just pass IMHO.

[john myers]

ya and the grip screw is rusty