Can anyone recommend a Colt Python specialist

Looking for a Python expert to improve the double-action function of my '68 Python.  It works fine but its nothing like an expert-worked Smith mod 14.

They are few. Walt Sherman in FL. Reeves Jungkind in I think OK, and Sandy Garrett in Springfield VA @ Northern Virginia Gun Works. I think only Sandy Garrett remains.

Martin

Frank Glenn has done good work for me.

glenncustom@centurylink.net

Frank Glenn-Glenn Custom Complete Gunsmithing Service Glendale AZ

You can also ask in the Python section of the Colt Forums.  Quite a few people there a few months ago discussing how to get adjustments made.

https://www.coltforum.com/forums/python.55/

Boxturtle wrote:Frank Glenn has done good work for me.

glenncustom@centurylink.net

Frank Glenn-Glenn Custom Complete Gunsmithing Service Glendale AZ

Yes, Frank Glenn too. Another, whom has been around quite a while.

Jerry Moran used to be in Michigan. He might be retired now.

Frank Glenn. He did a trigger job on my Python. Double action is much lighter than stock and stacks relatively little. 

I still, cough, cough, prefer the Smith & Wesson double action.

I have a msg in to Frank Glenn.  Spoke to Jerry Moran's wife - he is out of the business and not willing to do specials.  

The comment on still preferring Smith is one that I'd like to explore further.  The Smith gunsmiths say "the Python will never have an action like a Smith 14 because the cylinder doesn't lock up until the hammer has started to fall.  Where with the Smith, the cylinder has locked before the hammer is all the way back".  

As a non-gunsmith I'm just looking for "feedback" or a small gap or stop that says "your hammer is back and its about to go forward with any more pressure".  It would also be nice to have a lighter double action pull, but thats really not the crux of the problem.  Pulling through is do-able.  Getting back on the target at the right time, when shooting rapid fire, that is the trick.

The deal with a smith is some tactile feedback when the bolt drops into the cylinder, just before the hammer starts to fall.
We used to call it 'staging' the trigger.

I can only vouch for Clark Custom Guns and Cylinder and Slide.  Both have done outstanding work for me in the past, but both instances involved semi-autos.  Cylinder and Slide did an action job on a run of the mill, but very nice condition, S&W Model 459.  It wasn't cheap and it took a while, but I couldn't be happier with it.  I just have to be careful what I feed it because it doesn't like ammunition with hard primers.  Cylinder and Slide lists their gunsmithing work and they will do a Colt Python at two levels.  The top level is $375.00 I believe.  When I had my 459 worked on by them I had to get on a waiting list and give them $50.00 to save the spot.  The $50.00 applied to the final bill.  They are very busy as is Clark who has one of my S&W M52-2's right now for installation of a new Clark barrel.  I doubt I would go anywhere else for work right now as both these places were great to deal with.

Rick H.

Jim - That 'staging' that youre talking about is exactly the phrase I needed to explain myself.  Thank you.  Would you also be of the mind that, due to the difference in the way the cylinder locks up, the Python isn't constructed, or is not going to be easily modified, to send that tactile message saying "one more ounce and next comes bang"?  Thanks for the key words, but more advice / opinions welcome.  I did speak to Frank Glenn today and he has given me a reference to talk to about Python.  Notably his promise is a perfectly smooth, non-stacking trigger.  And yes, that would be an improvement.  But the staging is pretty useful.  Knowing when you are at "that certain point" on the trigger pull, and when to say when, boils down to getting the benefits of single action out of a double action trigger.

I’m strictly a Smith guy.
With a perfectly tuned and lightened Double action pull and Federal primers, it’s like a long 6# roll trigger without the staging.

I am supposedly the third owner of a 1951 Colt OMS that lived very close to Travis Strahan's shop in a local Bullseye community and it has a very nice double action and a double cockeyed hammer. I have no idea if it came from the factory smooth or it got some attention in the last seventy years. The DA is great with a trigger shoe but the original razor sharp serrated trigger eats my finger up quickly if I try DA in Distinguished Revolver. When I took it apart to clean and lube it I couldn't find any obvious work done or bent springs.

There is a website called Colt V-Spring Adventures that is a lot of fun to go through. The blog owner would buy old Colts that had been worked over and then take them apart to see how the gunsmiths did the mods. For a while the images were lost but they are back again. A really fun website to see the insides of Colt revolvers.

http://coltpython.blogspot.com/search/label/gunsmithing

Example post: 

Trip report: Frank Glenn gunsmithing lessons 

http://coltpython.blogspot.com/2009/06/trip-report-frank-glenn-gunsmithing.html

Staging a trigger used to be a very common method of shooting our Smith and Wesson revolvers when we carried them as a duty sidearm.  Our Q-course back in the day required a couple of 50 yard stages.  In one stage you were allowed to use single action firing and in the other stage you had to fire double action only.  One quickly learned how to "stage" the action for double action only shots or risk losing points on your score.  It was a relatively easy method to learn if you paid attention to what the range officers told you on the side, but technically it was frowned upon and God Forbid if they caught you staging your double action shots closer than 25 yards!  That earned you a remedial re-shoot!

I bought my last issued Model 66 when we converted to semi-autos in 1985ish and I can still "stage" the action for double action shots.  Those were fun times when police departments still held inter-department competitions and shooting trophies were prominently displayed for the public and officers to gaze on.  Guys on the department pistol team were in pay status to attend almost all competitions and every trooper was allowed one box of 50 rounds per month for practice whether you were on the team or not.  That all changed in the early 2000's and shooting took a back seat to PR and political correctness.  The one box of practice ammunition every month went away and so did the trophies in the public display area.  I found them laying in the dumpster behind our HQ building one sad day and someone took the time to break each trophy as if throwing them out wasn't enough.  The department pistol team carried on for a few years longer, but the members couldn't attend matches in pay status anymore and eventually the team faded into history.  Now the display case is filled with "atta-boy" letters for changing flat tires or NOT giving someone a ticket.  Unreal how things have changed....

Rick H.