Why are Colt Pythons so desirable?

[Baja_Traveler]

Biggest regret of my life - selling my pristine 6" Python back in '87. I sold it with the intention of getting the then new stainless python, but for one reason or another, that never happened. Now I sit here thinking of what could of been - a $2k revolver in my gun safe...

The python shoots like no other revolver I've ever held.

[PatriotnMore]

I would regret that also. My cousin had the blued python, and I had the S&W 586 blue, I still think my 586 was a better shooter, but that bluing on the python was incredible, and the python was by far, a better looking revolver.

Biggest regret of my life - selling my pristine 6" Python back in '87. I sold it with the intention of getting the then new stainless python, but for one reason or another, that never happened. Now I sit here thinking of what could of been - a $2k revolver in my gun safe...

The python shoots like no other revolver I've ever held.

[jazman]

I like my Smiths. Glocks. Rugers. Brownings. I love my Python. The Mercedes Benz of revolvers, nothing like them. Take a stick of butter out of the fridge, let it sit for a couple hours, hold it in your hand and make like you're pulling a trigger, you'll get the feeling. Smooooooooth. Also the most accurate wheel gun ever made in my opinion. In about a year or so it will be WAY smoother too, but that's a story I'll relate when the time comes.

[jazman]

...oh, and also because it looks like this, couldn't resist.
A rabbit and a snake:

[MG34]

Ever see Magnum Force, same as Dirty Harry the prices of Pythons and Mod 29's just skyrocked.

[pdq_wizzard]

Wow I had no idea they went for 1K +

[CaliforniaLiberal]

Pythons are gorgeous.

Here's a great discussion of why Pythons are beautiful.

Grant Cunningham: On Revolver Aesthetics - Deconstructing a Good Design

http://www.grantcunningham.com/blog_files/0f178d71b6af8040ac061abfaa0b029c-242.html

[Maltese Falcon]

...y'all better stop with the superlatives... I am staring to get hot under the collar.

[chickenfried]

Some good reading on that blog. Didn't read the python one yet though.

Pythons are gorgeous.

Here's a great discussion of why Pythons are beautiful.

Grant Cunningham: On Revolver Aesthetics - Deconstructing a Good Design

http://www.grantcunningham.com/blog_...b029c-242.html

[norcal77]

I see them fetching crazy prices. Why? What is special about it that current revolvers can't match?

I'm genuinely curious.

Once you hold and shoot one you will know why

The trigger on them is awesome.

[jazman]

Grant Cunningham is a monster revolver smith, considered to stand along with the best 2 or 3 Colt smiths of all time. Busy man, if one signed up on his waiting list say August 2007, that person would still be waiting today and still about 70 guns out on the list. Trust me on this one!

[tankerman]

Hand fit often means that the parts are generally sadly out of spec

No, it means exactly the opposite.

keep talking, it's confirming what was already suspected.

[trashman]

Hand fit often means that the parts are generally sadly out of spec

Except that specs can be rewritten - revised - etc.

Whatever the "spec" is has nothing to do with hand-fitted.

--Neill

[eltee]

Why are Colt Pythons so desirable?

Because Hutch from "Starsky and Hutch" fame carried one.

IMHO it was the gun's design and build. That full length rib and shroud made it a visual standout and having the gun essentially custom made just put it over the edge. That deep, lustrous blueing is hard to duplicate and most gun makers don't even bother trying...the downside is if you own one you cringe at the thought of messing up that pristine finish.

Pull the trigger on single or double action and you'll quickly understand the allure. Colt took parts that were already made to high tolerances, and simply improved on them and made sure mating and contact surfaces were smooth. I don't think that "hand fitting" was a case of making out of spec parts fit, it was more a case of taking the extra effort in improving on the limits of automation. Surely they could have just pulled parts off the assembly line (so to speak) and put together a Python that would have worked just fine. To have them, instead, hand finished and fitted just put the Python on a higher level. We often pay to have 'smiths smooth out and synchronize our guns...Colt just did it for you at the factory with the Python.

To many, the icon of semiautomatic pistols is the 1911 and, likewise, the icon of revolvers to many is the Python.

Anyone here remember the Frankenstein pistols made using Python components coupled with other guns? The Smython, the Smolt, etc?

[drdanno84]