Colt Python

First topic message reminder :

I don't know how good it may or may not be for Bullseye, but I'm going to find it very difficult to not buy one of these....

https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2020/1/1/the-keefe-report-the-colt-python-is-back/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=insider&utm_campaign=0120

I always wanted one, and actually could have bought a brand new one from a showcase 30 or so years ago, but since then, the price just keeps climbing, and fewer and fewer gunsmiths have the knowledge to work on them.  I guess I need to squeeze one of these in between the two High Standards I'm already buying, and the Pardini that I find it hard to forget about.  

(If this gun will NOT be useful for Bullseye, this thread can be moved to the General Forum....   but if the new technology is accurate and precise, maybe it will be good for us as well all the people who want one but can't afford an original....)

There's another guy on YouTube that has the issue where the cylinder occasionally wouldn't rotate. He also found a promo video by Colt that shows they had the same issue when shooting their video. I wouldn't want to be an early adopter, both for reliability as well as the price they're going for.

I would love to see the new ones make the old ones drop in value. I've always wanted an old python but no so much to spend $3k on one.

Here's the list of issues, what Colt is already fixing, and so on - and if what I read is correct, they are recalling the original shipment to fix the problems:

https://www.coltforum.com/forums/python/371323-new-python-report-issues.html

I used to have 5-6 Pythons.  Sold them through the years.  Mostly to get 2 kids thru college as a single dad.  I had 3 barrel lengths snub, 4 and 6.  One 6" was a very low serial number.
I still have 4 OMM which are better shooters.

I'm "finding it" extremely easy not buying one of these.

inthebeech wrote:I'm "finding it" extremely easy not buying one of these.

I actually found one of the 2020 Pythons at a nearby gun store.  They had both the 4 1/4" and 6" in stock, at semi-reasonable prices.  From what I see on Gunbroker, the guns now sell for the price Colt suggested, not thousands of dollars more.

The initial problems all seem to be resolved - Colt got the guns back, corrected the issues, and returned them to customers.  As for me, I looked, and read, and thunk, and decided the safest thing for me was to not even go to the gunship to look at them.  Similar feeling to 'inthebeech'.
But......If you read the initial post for this thread, that explains why I still wanted one, and when a fellow at my range offered to sell me 1 Nickel 1980 Python for a fair price, I didn't hesitate.


This thread is about the 2020 Python.  I thought I'd pass along some things I learned.  First, for various reasons, the single action and double action spring power is much more than people expected it to be.  I think that's for liability reasons, just like the 4" version needs do be 1/4" longer apparently, so it could be sold in Canada.

Something nobody talks about is the sights.  The old Pythons came with Accro sights, and there was a competition version available that could be installed on the gun.  For reasons I don't understand (cost?) the 2020 guns come with a less advanced sight for competition - there is a lock screw to hold the sight leaf in position, and to adjust the height, that screw needs to be loosened, then re-tightened.  

A useful, and fairly recent, review:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9AR3EBieA0

Until they produce them in the beautiful Colt blue, I'm not interested.  Not for competition, just to own.
Phil

The one I saw in the showcase back in the 1970's was bright and shiny, and that image stuck in my mind for what I wanted.  Given the choice of that beautiful Colt blue, or Stainless, which I don't think existed back then, I'd have gone for Stainless.  Given the choice of that beautiful blue, or nickel, I might very well have gone with the blue.  

Do any of the major gun manufacturers still know how to produce that beautiful deep blue?  I love my old S&W revolvers, and they got a wonderful finish.  The new S&W guns I've seen looked just like a boring black.  Does that old technology still exist today?

For me, none of this mattered.  The second I picked up the gun, I knew it was "mine".  We stretched out the discussion for quite a while, and I learned a lot more about it, but after all these years, I already made up my mind.

I've seen guns that seem to match what you describe - they're all on GunBroker, and until the new Python came out, the pricing was astronomical.  Now it's more affordable.  Took me just two or three minutes to find this one:

The problem isn't that the gun companies lack the technology to achieve the old royal blue finish its an issue of both labor and possible EPA restriction. To blue something to that extent you have to make the raw steel shine like new money before the bluing is even applied, that take a lot of time sanding and at buffing wheels. Then the chemicals used to blue are quite corrosive and the "good stuff" might be more restricted or even banned now days. I too love richly blued guns.

Mike, thats what I'm talking about.  Can't use one for competition, I've got an old Trooper which has the Python action and its just a little too large for me.  
Phil

Posts like yours are dangerous for my mind.  Having just read the history of your gun:
     https://www.guns.com/news/2020/06/17/meet-the-colt-trooper-oft-forgotten-workhorse-wheel-gun
...the Colt Trooper just went from something I never heard of, to something I'd take a good, hard look at, were someone at my range be wanting to sell one.

I see they used different frames at different years - yours is probably from when they use the large frame?

Yes, mine is the large E frame Python action.  As I understand it, the Trooper Mark III not only had a different size frame but different internals which made it impossible to get the smoothness of the trigger pull that Pythons have.  I had a full blown trigger job done on it years ago and it is the lightest, smoothest DA pull that I own.  Python trigger jobs are much more difficult to accomplish than that of a Smith.  I'm told every part influences each other part so if you change one, you have to change the others as well and so on.
Phil

I would rather have back my old 357 Model than another original Python

Back when Jerry Moran, Reeves Jungkind, and Fed Sadowski were tuning Pythons they had secrets!

Here Mike is my contribution to your delinquency!
Phil
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/879993201

Is the OMM single action only?

PMcfall wrote:Here Mike is my contribution to your delinquency!
Phil
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/879993201

Interesting thoughts......    
I'm sure it will be affordable.
I'm not sure what I would do with it if I won the auction though.

zanemoseley wrote:Is the OMM single action only?

Normally DASA.

But there was an option for SAO.  I had one in 38 back in the 70s. 
Wish I still had it.  One time with it I shot 8 straight inside Xs at 50y with it.  Shots 9&10 were in the 8 and 9 ring. 

Guess when I scoped the target.

zanemoseley wrote:Is the OMM single action only?

Some more OMM SA info at Colt V-Spring Adventures http://coltpython.blogspot.com/2009/05/i-picked-up-two-very-similar-omms.html and http://coltpython.blogspot.com/2009/05/another-sa-only-officers-model-match.html with pictures. Not sure if it was at this website or dfariswheel explaining how the fad in the mid to late 1950s was Single Action only, but S&W and Colt made factory versions and people were getting gunsmiths to convert regular revolvers to SA only. The idea with was faster locktime, a better SA trigger or both.

Coltfever Officer's Model http://www.coltfever.com/Officer_s_Model.html  
"As a factory option, the Officer's Model Match could be special ordered in a single action-only version.  Genuine factory models are rare."

zanemoseley wrote:Is the OMM single action only?

My SA OMM was a brand new special order.  I used it in most CF 900s at the time. 
That is also when I had lots of surplus ammo from my coaches connections

Just an FYI Colt got the new Python on the CA approved pistol roster so they can now be sold in CA.