Early python with Fuzzy Farrant?

[moralem]

[LaFlamaBlanca]

Wow, that is quite the pistol.


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[moralem]

Wow, that is quite the pistol.


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I know, never buy the story, buy the gun. This one just for grins might come home with me......what else could be wrong with it......oh wait, yeah, so much more.


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[bk23103]

I've got a friend who inherited his father's old service revolvers, after he retired from LAPD in 1991. He has K38 Masterpiece with Fuzzy Farrant grips on it, but unfortunately he thought it'd be a good idea to re-parkerize it.

I've yet to actually shoot it, but it fits great in the hand. He's got an original Colt Fitz Special, too. I yelled at him not to mess with it.

[Dvrjon]

It's all well and good to believe the story, but you're buying the gun. There have been a number of instances where folks have mated a Trooper frame to a Python barrel.

Have you confirmed the frame is a Python? You can do this with a quick serial number check at: https://www.colt.com/Customer-Servic...-Number-Lookup

It's a start, and can give some confidence, but, the Python and the original Trooper shared serial numbers for a time.

While posting here is a good start, it would be well worth the time to place your question in the Colt Pythons board on the Coltforum: http://www.coltforum.com/forums/python/

Good luck.

[onelonehorseman]

Interesting gun and thread.

[moralem]

Early python with Fuzzy Farrant?

It's all well and good to believe the story, but you're buying the gun. There have been a number of instances where folks have mated a Trooper frame to a Python barrel.



Have you confirmed the frame is a Python? You can do this with a quick serial number check at: https://www.colt.com/Customer-Servic...-Number-Lookup



It's a start, and can give some confidence, but, the Python and the original Trooper shared serial numbers for a time.



While posting here is a good start, it would be well worth the time to place your question in the Colt Pythons board on the Coltforum: http://www.coltforum.com/forums/python/



Good luck.

[Dvrjon]

Some positive info: the Trooper cylinders were countersunk, or "fenced"; Pythons weren't. Yours isn't.

Proof House (http://proofhouse.com/colt/) puts #3127 for Pythons in the range of:
1957 - #1650
1958 - #5550

Extrapolation puts you in mid-1957.

Trooper & 357 show 1955 at #7600.

With that, I'd vote for a Python Frame.

Put "fuzzy farrant Python images" into Google search and you'll see examples of these frame cuts.

Also, S&W forum has a good picture of the Python cylinder on a gun w/Farrant grips. http://smith-wessonforum.com/firearm...wood-pics.html

[I Swan]

Yes that is a Fuzzy Farrant grip and a common modification made to grip frames to make it fit. He did make normal grips also that did not require modifications to frame.

I'd say value is greatly reduced I am not aware of premiums being paid for such modified guns. I come across them here and there in CA every year.

[Barbarosa]

I agree with I Swan; I wouldn't pay a premium. In fact I'd pay less than an otherwise uncut Python. There is a FF modified Model 14 in a LGS that has been there for more than a year - they just aren't that popular now. That said I would buy that Python in a skinny minute if it were priced right. The grips alone go for around $500 if they are FF.

[gunner336]

Fuzzy

I still have my model 19 that Fuzzy did for me with the cut frame and all. That was the thing then as it allowed you wrap your little finger more tightly around the grip. The checkering supposed to help reduce the roll with magnum loads.
He worked there at the LAPD academy and you order them in the armorer shop.

[moralem]

Thanks for the input I truly appreciate it. An interesting gun if nothing else.


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[condor]

Here's a pic of my '65 Trooper III. Notice the difference in the screw placement above the trigger. Don't think it's a Trooper Frame with a Python Barrel.

[Wyatt Burp]

I would not hesitate to buy a Colt or S&W with a clipped grip frame if it was wearing Farrants, Hurst's, Starks or those other guys grips (if left handed). I recently found some Farrants in a gun shop for four bucks. I put them for sale at another forum for $250 but sold them for $185. They were missing that little checkered screw plug still intact in your great grips. That'll little discrepancy makes a big difference. If they were left handed I would have kept them.
Your post shows the importance of removing target grips off older Colts and S&Ws. They could have been modified for a Farrant's but those grips sold off and regular grips put on hiding the modification.

[blasterp7]

quote from https://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...readid=3739880

Earle "Fuzzy" Farrant was a fairly famous custom grip maker in the 60's and 70's, especially popular among LAPD officers for use on duty pistols. Starting as a hobby with friends in the LAPD in the late 1940's, until he became to ill to continue and passed the business on to his sons in the early 80's. They carried on a few years, then stopped as police revolvers became less common. Fuzzy initially made combat style grips for use on duty revolvers, then eventually moved to making target grips that he and his friends used in competitions. His grip making buddies included John Hurst, Guy Hogue, and Walter Stark, all of whom went on to be well known grip makers in their own right. (Ever hear of Hogue grips, anybody? Same guy. Or Guy, I guess ) His father Henry was also an LAPD officer, as well as making custom cast metal grips based on tracings of your hand. According to his grandson Mike, Henry started making grips with someone named "Hess" in the 1930's, and Earle eventually took over making them in wood. According to family lore, the name Fuzzy came from an incident where Henry had saved someone from a house fire, and somehow got covered with mattress stuffing. His fellow officers dubbed him "Fuzzy" on the spot, and the name stuck for at least two generations.

I have numerous sets of Farrants, these are not his. That being stated all of the guys listed above also made grips for both altered (like yours) and unaltered frames. I have a set extremely similar to yours for an N Frame smith. They were made by John Hurst. Google him and you will find many examples of his work. Most were checkered. But yours are like mine smooth