Anyone know if Colt is bringing back the Python?

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You can tell that the Python was the best revolver ever made by the fact that nearly all the top PPC competitors - the ones who'd spend ANYTHING for a winning edge - were using them.

Except they weren't.

In fact, the Python was RARE on the PPC circuit, which was dominated by S&W revolvers. Yes, PPC guns were heavily modified - but they were still nearly all S&W's. Next to nobody chose the Python, even if they had the extra money to buy one as a base revolver.

Despite good factory barrels, the "stacking" of the action in DA and timing issues that surfaced under hard use relegated the Python to negligible representation in competition - which pretty thoroughly undercuts assertions of the inherent superiority of the Python.

(As for the barrels - for a time, it was considered chic to take an S&W and fit it with a Python barrel - making something called either a Smolt or Smython. Many thought this improved accuracy - but note well: THE S&W ACTION WAS PREFERRED.)
 
There are plenty of Pythons out there for people that want to buy them. Don't kid yourself thinking a "new one" would be either cheaper or better.
 
What moved away from being an avid Python admirer was the action itself. It felt good to me on paper but under fire the triggers all seemed to impart a "buzz" to my finger which cumulatively led to a feeling of numbness. My shooting partner felt same way about them.

Now the King Cobra is a different story; I think if Colt exhumed the Python name and fitted it with a KC/Anaconda action, I'd be very tempted.

"King Python" anyone? :)
 
I would love to see the MKV action with a Python barrel screwed on it. I would buy in every barrel length and finish.
 
ColtPythonElite said:
I would love to see the MKV action with a Python barrel screwed on it.
Click to expand...

A Colt Grizzly -type solution? That sounds the most likely combination if a new Colt revolver will ever reach mass production. There's little chance that it'll be called Python, which would undermine the cult status of old Pythons. Too bad that all target grips available for Trooper V / King Cobra / Anaconda are so massively ugly, I'd give my left one for perfect Python-style replica grips for my Anaconda...
 
To the greatest majority of those who know the Python, stamping the name on anything else would bring nothing but outrage.
To those of the younger generation who don't have a clue, the name would be no incentive to buy a lesser-built gun just because it said "Python" on a vented barrel.

Any new Colt DA revolver will be built to be competitive with Ruger, Smith, and Taurus.
Consider what that means: serviceable, but not Python grade.

In other words, mass-produced by current methods, and those include casting, stamping & MIM.
That in itself would not necessarily doom a new Colt DA, IF it was well-designed, well-made, decently accurate, reasonably durable, and affordable to sell in sufficient volume.
Denis
 
Me too. I'd love to see something like the king Cobra with a vent rib barrel and premium finish. Python II has a nice ring to it.
 
It's already been done.....Twice.

There was a prototype "Python II" using a Trooper Mark III action fitted with a Python barrel. The prototype was sold at the big Colt auction a few years ago.

There was also the Colt Boa, a Trooper Mark V fitted with a Python barrel and given Colt's Royal Blue job.

The Boa was made for and sold exclusively by Lew Horton Distributing.
It was made in 4" and 6" barrels and in sets of both barrel lengths in a case.
Production was very limited.
 
hq said:
Too bad that all target grips available for Trooper V / King Cobra / Anaconda are so massively ugly, I'd give my left one for perfect Python-style replica grips for my Anaconda...
Click to expand...
Something like this?

attachment.php
 
ColtPythonElite said:
Something like this?
Click to expand...

Exactly. Last time I saw that photo here I almost fell off my chair and was SO disappointed when I heard that it was just a mock-up with non-fitting grips. I even ordered a pair of what was supposed to be the same shape from gungrip.com, only to realize that not only they weren't, the build quality was abysmal.

Still looking. Python with target grips is IMO the most beautiful, classic DA revolver ever made and I'd love to have the same overall appearance on my Anaconda. Target grips are also far more comfortable to my hands than rubber grips, every time I shoot a couple of dozen of my hunting loads at the range I feel I a "COLT" imprint being hammered on the palm of my hand.
 
I'm more interested in seeing what that Colt Python goes for on The Walking Dead once the show ends. I could see it ending up on an episode of Pawn Stars.
 
You can tell that the Python was the best revolver ever made by the fact that nearly all the top PPC competitors - the ones who'd spend ANYTHING for a winning edge - were using them.

Except they weren't.

In fact, the Python was RARE on the PPC circuit, which was dominated by S&W revolvers. Yes, PPC guns were heavily modified - but they were still nearly all S&W's. Next to nobody chose the Python, even if they had the extra money to buy one as a base revolver.

Despite good factory barrels, the "stacking" of the action in DA and timing issues that surfaced under hard use relegated the Python to negligible representation in competition - which pretty thoroughly undercuts assertions of the inherent superiority of the Python.
Click to expand...


I was a PPC shooter in the 1970s and I shot a Python. But then I wasn't a TOP competitor.
I got the Python because it had a heavier barrel than a stock K38 and one Python was less expensive than a bull barreled and ribbed M10 "1500" gun plus an M14 for Distinguished.
It had just enough range of sight adjustment for a neck hold at 50 yards.
Mine was tuned at the Colt Custom Shop either by or under the supervision of Don Tedford. One of the guys here was kind of an advanced amateur gunsmith. He studied mine and replicated the modifications for himself and the other two shooters on the county pistol team. Frankly, his were better than my CCS because he was not punching a time clock and could tinker with the gun until he got it to suit himself.

Much later, I swapped a seldom used foreign automatic for a 4" Python which I sent to Reeves Jungkind to set up for IDPA. His action was heavier than the CCS or the local copy but then it does not require Federal primers like the really soft actions, either.


If I had it to do over now, it would be S&W all the way. The 686 has near enough the same balance as a Python and Smith smiths can now equal or beat even a tuned Colt action.

And the Colt action must be tuned. I do not know what the people who rave about the action of a stock Python are talking about. It is reasonably smooth but not particularly light and stacks like mad. One of the main functions of the expensive Colt action job is to get out the stacking so you can pull through the double action.
Jerry Moran was supposed to be the best in the business, but I was on his waiting list for several years and never got noticed, so I moved on and sold the NIB Python I had waiting on him. I heard he changed specialties away from revolvers.

I have never had any "timing issues" with my Pythons. One of the four hereabouts needed a new hand after several tens of thousands of rounds but that was about all.
I did have to replace the firing pin spring in mine, which got squashed with a lot of shooting and a good deal of dry fire practice. We found that half of the spring in an RCBS primer cup was a serviceable substitute for the factory part, and a lot easier to get.
 
Back in the mid-80s I worked with a guy who did use a Python for competition.
Fractured one hammer, had to have the gun rebuilt at least once.

With mild competition .38 loads, timing wear takes longer than a steady diet of full-bore magnum ammunition.
Denis
 
As noted in the related post, no new DA revolvers at SHOT next week.

And, Colt has been "talking" about DAs for several years years.
That does not mean it'll happen anytime soon, and a Python is about the last thing Colt would produce in that area if they did come out with a new DA.
Denis
 
Despite good factory barrels, the "stacking" of the action in DA and timing issues that surfaced under hard use relegated the Python to negligible representation in competition - which pretty thoroughly undercuts assertions of the inherent superiority of the Python.
Click to expand...
+1

After having owned them, I could care less about them. Seems the only people paying through the nose for them are people who have never owned one and do not realize they are not magical. A well tuned Smith trumps a Python at half the cost.
 
S&W has been releasing new versions of their best loved revolvers. Most recently the model 66 has made a comeback. The S&W online catalog currently lists over 100 revolvers (base modes and variations), obviously S&W believes that the revolver business is lurcitive. That's the good news.

The bad news is that S&W has been releasing new versions of their best loved revolvers. Some of them - the model 27 in particular - look like bad Chinese copies of the originals. In order to stay cost competitive, they need to automate as much as possible, and use cheaper materials wherever practical, otherwise they just can't make a competitive product. Not enough people would buy a $2,000 to $3,000 new production revolver that was only marginally better in function than say a Taurus or Charter arms that are 90% cheaper.

If Colt starts producing a new python as a standard catalog item, expect them to cut corners. The only other option would be if they made it a custom shop only item like the SAA (maybe I'm wrong on this fact) where they get the proper attention to detail, and expect to spend as much on it as your wife's engagement ring.
 
The Python was special because of the people who manufactured and produced it. They were both machinists and enthusiasts and immigrant housewives looking for additional income for their families. Sadly these people are no more. They are a generation past and will never be again. Colt can produce another DA revolver but it will never, ever, ever, be built to the same level and I will always pass it over. The Python is best left in the past I would be disappointed if Colt raped it's history for a sequel.
 
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