Part I: bull barrel python (*large* pics)

[D.R.E.]

Recently came into possession of a bull-barrel python (I know I know, but looks fun to shoot!). Had a really amazing trigger: SA felt feather light and DA very smooth. So of course we took it apart to see what things looked like. This is a short post about that, but it doesn't come to any definitive conclusions, unfortunately.

Now the first thing was a bit unnerving: when measured w/ a trigger scale, the DA was OK and the SA at around 3lbs is pretty good, but not outer-space weird:


I've pulled a lot of different python triggers but this was the largest difference ever between subjective feel and measured reality. I'm still not really sure what the deal is.

In any case, here's a couple of the aristocrat rib:




And like many early, non-safe queen guns, it has "INS" stamped on the frame handle:



I think this is the fourth INS colt for me. I thought it meant "immigration and naturalization service" but the general consensus at the colt forum is that it just means "inspected".

[D.R.E.]

As you probably can't see, the latch is purple:


From this post, it turns out that this does not necessarily mean it was reblued, but just that the blueing tank was a bit off:
Dfariswheel on purple.

Now the second major surprise (which the trigger weight should have told us) is that the trigger sear is stock, completely uncurved! I had thought from the pull that there was minimal stacking:



If you look above at the INS stamp again, you can see the severe kink in the spring, closer to the V than I believe the colt manual suggests (though it's where I've tended to put it, too).

OK, so the sear is normal. Why exactly is the snake so smooth?! Looking at the hammer, you can see the lower end is polished compared to a take off one (right) --- most hammers have black marks on the lower end:



Looking at the sear, it does appear polished, though this could also be wear:

[D.R.E.]

The hammer strut too appears polished (as it should be):



And the hand seems polished as does the rebound:





But these are all the normal places to polish. I've done it a lot, and still this python felt noticably nicer than usual.



The strut angle is pretty damn good, but still.


Unfortunately, here's one problem: the bolt spring is completely the wrong one:



If we do rapid DA the cylinder spins past the bolt. And weirdly, this is with the bolt slipping off the side of the rebound, which would "typically" make things tend to drop early rather than very late. After bending the bolt so it goes off the front of the rebound cam it stops returning at all.

It looks like this was part of the "secret" to the great DA: if the bolt drops right before the cylinder notch, there will be minimal binding.

In any case, the bolt has to get fixed so it drops later and doesn't go off the side, and the fixes for those are antagonistic to the other, so we'll pause here.

[D.R.E.]

Continued at: here.