Colt Python? Color me unimpressed

[rm1911]

[langss]

All this talk about Pythons not needing gunsmithing...

Correct me if I am wrong, but don't all Colt DA revolvers need timing adjustment after a while?

In double action, the cylinder is supposed to lock up just before the hammer drops, and as the the internal parts wear, the cylinder lock-up occurs later and later in the trigger stroke until the hammer drops before the cylinder locks.

Don't know about all, but the conventional wisdom was that a steady diet of .357 mags would eventually throw off the timing of a Python. It's my admittedly limited understanding that the same did not apply to the Trooper.

See post #19. My brand new 90's era/version didn't make it through a 50rd box of American Eagle before it went out of time.

[Franklincollector]

Maybe you got a dud, but I have python shooters that have 10,000 rounds through them and the timing is tight.

[FullMetalJacket]

Since Colt's making the Cobra and King Cobra models again, I hope they'll make a new Python and Anaconda.

I was always sorry I didn't get either/both of those when I had the chance.

[Gryff]

TWD.... Where the hero with his Python is now gone from the show and now only women are in charge. Where all the “men” are sissies now and the show’s writers have made it where the “men” can’t make any combat decisions without some former house wife converted into a tactician commando of some sorts, tells them how to go into battle.

Confused. Men made most of the decisions for years on the series. Show runners let women do it for a season and you lose your mind over it?

Since Colt's making the Cobra and King Cobra models again, I hope they'll make a new Python and Anaconda.

Oh god...given how badly they ****ed up the looks of the new King Cobra compared to the old one...I sure hope they don't try their hands at a new Python.

[Denver Dick]

I'm 67, and back in the mid to late 1970s I owned both a Colt Diamond Back and Python. They were both beautiful, great guns to look at. However, I was never excited about shooting them. However, I was always a sucker for the Colt 1911. Ah, but that's another story.

Anyway, I got rid of both the Diamond Back and Python after a couple of years. My only regret is that I did not clean, lube and pack them away in the closet, and later a gun safe. Boy, could I make a killing today . . . $$$$$$.

[SG29736]

They are beautifully finished guns. Performance wise competition shooters would have been buying them up a long time ago if they could be made to shoot better then a S&W.

[Kodachrome]

[Crumbles]

We are of like mind.

[brassburnz]

Never owned a Python but owned many Colts. I was looking to buy my wife a revolver in the early 90's and found a new S&W 686 and a used Colt Diamondback in .38 Special. Both were about $350 each, so I bought both. The 686 is worth about $800 today. The Diamondback about double that. I still shoot the 686. The Diamondback is retired.

[SnWnMe]

They have this stacking DA pull and they easily go out of time. Give me a similar vintage Smith any day for a working revolver.

[The Gleam]

But hey, if someone wants to drop 3-4 grand on a gun they can’t shoot because shooting it kills its “value”, more power to them but you can count me out. Guns are made to be shot. They’re tools.

That's a popular misconception as to why someone would drop 3-4 grand on such a gun. I often buy such vintage or rare guns in NIB condition, just to have the chance I didn't get in my youth to enjoy and shoot those guns I dreamed about then, as if I were getting them new now. The cost is irrelevant to me, the condition in order to shoot those particular models just as if I got them new from the factory today means more.

Those who place a value to them in that way that they become exhibit pieces only, or revere the cost as a hurdle, are likely limited by income.

Call them 50 year old virgins if you will, and then I break them in and shoot them no different than any current production gun.

I've always looked at is as being able to afford the luxury of time travel. If i bought a mint-condition Duesenburg Model J, you can bet I would drive it to work as often as I could!

[brassburnz]

They have this stacking DA pull and they easily go out of time. Give me a similar vintage Smith any day for a working revolver.

I always thought the DA pull of my Diamondback was odd. The gunsmith at the shop I bought it from was Colt certified so I took it in. He said that's the way they feel. My Dan Wesson revolvers also feel strange to me and I don't think it's just the direction of the cylinder rotation.

I have a beat up 5-Screw Model 28-nothing with the best DA trigger pull of any gun I own. I don't know if it's ever been worked on or just old well broken in.

[dogrunner]

All this talk about Pythons not needing gunsmithing...

Correct me if I am wrong, but don't all Colt DA revolvers need timing adjustment after a while?

In double action, the cylinder is supposed to lock up just before the hammer drops, and as the the internal parts wear, the cylinder lock-up occurs later and later in the trigger stroke until the hammer drops before the cylinder locks.

An old friend of mine who won a Python on a single dollar chance raffle aways said that while he liked the fit and finish he'd never really seen a well used older Colt in time, nor an older well use Smith out.

Fella was the deputy chief in my old department, one of lthe original FHP troopers when the org. was formed and had been a LEO since 1926...........I( always figured he knew what he was saying as he kept that Colt but always packed one of the very first model 19 Smiths!...................then known as a 'Combat Magnum'.

[LAKA90034]

Hype IMHO. That said, maybe I’m not a big enough fan of revolvers to appreciate a Python. I bought a beautiful used 4” for $425 in the early ‘90s and traded it to a member here in 2009 for ~$1200 valuation.

I still think that I got the better deal.

It did have the most beautiful bluing that I’d ever seen...