For a couple dollars more, you could have had a Python in 1975

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I love looking at those old Shooter's Bibles and Gun Digest 'wish books'. You'd see run of the mill bolt guns, imported Spanish autos and wildcat single shot pistols along with pages of revolvers.

My '67 issue of Shooter's Bible lists MSRP for the gyrojet rifle and pistol.

Things you learn/realize/remember from that era.. Colt was THE top US auto pistol maker for a long time. While S&W made a 9mm, it wasn't really til the 80's that the 9mm market exploded, mainly thanks to police departments changing over to autos.

Look at an early 70's catalog and there were slim pickings in 9mm. You had a very high priced Browning (still made at FN) a couple S&W 39 series variants, maybe something from Astra ot Llama, and Walther imports or the Interarms Luger. Most Beretta offerings then were purse pistols and pocket guns. You had a good chance of still getting a deal on surplus guns if you knew where to shop.

Detonics was the only way to get an "officer" sized 1911, and every gun company wasn't offering one.

If you wanted a military style semi automatic rifle, SIG AMT was right up there with the Colt Ar-15. M-1 Carbine knock offs were cheap and occasionally someone would import a real FN FAL. They were high priced, and there were no AK's or SKS rifles anywhere. The Mini 14 was expensive. Weird stamped guns like the Commando 45 were marketed to 'survivalists'.

Times have changed and we have so many more choices.
 
Loved the Gun Digest books back in those days. I later purchased every Gun Digest up to about the mi-1990's during my heavier collecting years. That happened once Ebay came about.

I bought my very first handgun in 1975, might have been 1976. It was a 6" H&R Model 999 Sportsman (22LR). Really liked that gun and shot it a lot until a gun shop pretty much convinced me that it wasn't a very good handgun, especially since it was out of time and blew lead and hot powder fragments onto my face and hands when I shot it. I didn't know any better.

In 1978, I bought a 22 4" Colt Diamondback to replace the H&R. Never looked back after that. I was pretty much a Colt guy at that point and really didn't hardly look at S&W revolvers. The Dirty Harry movie created quite a run on Model 29's. Those were good days for me. I didn't get Models 29 and 57 until years later. Got to be a pretty good shot with the M57 (8 3/8").

My first Python was purchased during the Jimmy Carter years when inflation was running rampant. Figured if I wanted one, I should buy as soon as possible as it seemed the price was going up every 3-4 months then. Never really cared much for the Python in terms of shooting it well and it pretty much turned me against 357's in general back then. Couldn't shoot the damn thing very well and I never figured out the problem. When I got the M57, I forced myself to learn to shoot it well as I wanted it as a hunting handgun. Had to be able to shoot it pretty well for that use. After I got pretty fair with the M57, I picked up a Colt Trooper Mark III in 357 and all of a sudden I could really shoot that one well. I sold off the Python during the early years when the price was bouncing upward and put that money into Colt 22 revolvers. I'm still there. The price on Pythons really didn't start to take off until around 2000. In the mid 90's, you could easily buy one for $450-$600 in the box or in as-new condition. The 2.5 inchers ran a bit more.
 
I sold off that first Python as mentioned above at a gun show. I believe I sold it for $700 (about 98% condition), I had pachmayr grips on it then and sold it that way. I have the original stocks for that python in my "stuff" somewhere and the interesting thing is that you can now sell the factory grips/stocks for as much as I paid for the gun originally. I took the factory stocks off that python pretty quickly as I always liked Pachmayr grips for shooting revolvers.

I used to buy and pretty quickly sell off Pythons and Diamondbacks at shows and make a few bucks. Often I never even got the revolver home before I sold or traded it. Those never "hit my books" so to speak and I have essentially no record of those purchases other than the memory and the fun associated with the activity. Never really made any money... $20 here, $50 there... kind of thing.
 
Like now, back then, MSRP wasn't the norm for the selling price of firearms and $40 was a lot of monies(probably a week's take home pay for me). Back then I wanted a S&W because of their reputation. I didn't buy the Python because while they were a upper end firearm, they had a reputation even back then, as being fragile. Pythons are worth so much now because they aren't made anymore. They aren't made anymore because of a reason. That reason is not because they were great guns for the money. Colt didn't take them off the market because they couldn't make them fast enough, they took them off the market because they couldn't sell them fast enough.
 
That is probably true with Colt and Pythons in general. They tried making a lower cost revolver with the Mark III series, but my sense is that at the time they were not wildly successful. Colt couldn't build a Python at a price that would sell. They continued making them for years through their custom shop. That was probably the only place in Colt that had the expertise to make one at that point.
 
In 1975 my father settled for a 4" S&W Model 28 Highway Patrolman and a Colt Combat Commander with the all steel frame. Those he could afford and they were readily available. The Model 28 got away sometime in the eighties, but dad held onto that Colt. I inherited it a few months ago. It's worth considerably more now than what he paid for it forty years ago. . I'm keeping it. It's one of the guns I started out on in 1980 along with that 28. Good memories.
 
I have been in the market for a revolver and have noticed on the gun auction sites that the vast majority of the Pythons for sale are NIB, LNIB, or ANIB, and all of them are quite expensive to the well used but not abused S&W's
 
bushmaster1313 said:
I have been in the market for a revolver and have noticed on the gun auction sites that the vast majority of the Pythons for sale are NIB, LNIB, or ANIB, and all of them are quite expensive to the well used but not abused S&W's
Click to expand...
Tis why I started buying S&W revolvers about 10 years ago (especially blued ones). Buying Colts pretty much stopped to slowed to a trickle for me.
 
During the period of 40-45 years ago I owned a 4", 6" and another 6" Python; still have the 6". Got them 'basically" for a song. Picked up a 6.5" M29 and a 4" M29 back in the day. IIRC the 4" was $225. Sorry I let it go as it was a fantastically accurate revolver. I still have the 6.5" 29, my first. All came in their wooden presentation box. I sent the 4" Python to a famous smith and it came back so, so very fine. However I never could get it to shoot accurately and sold it. The buyer, a friend, also said he couldn't get it to shoot. The other two were one holers! Owned several 29s & 629s in 6" and 8-3/8" that left.

Now the Python is mostly a safe queen but has fired quite a few rounds and occasionally still does. Very few were magnums; mostly .38spl wadcutters. My early 686, 6" stands in for the Python and the action and accuracy don't take a back seat to the snake. The 6.5" M29 is a fantastic shooter and has fired its share of rounds. But it lives in the safe, mostly, with a Ruger SBH standing in. Even back then my favorite shooter was a (still have it) S&W M14, 6". That revolver took squirrels and shot fantastic targets. But I always had a 4" Combat Masterpiece, sometimes blue & sometimes nickel and sometimes SS at my side. Still have a blued one. These CMs were the guns I used while teaching at the Police Academy. Reminiscing can be both sweet and sad.
 
Didn't handgun hunt this yr, had a new to me rifle to break in.
Not enough does to play the pistol freezer filler game.
That Python an E series, '69. Think pops bought it in '72
 
Hanshi said:
My early 686, 6" stands in for the Python and the action and accuracy don't take a back seat to the snake.
Click to expand...
My '82 model 686 has a BETTER action than any of the three Pythons (friends and acquaintances' guns) that I've had the opportunity to compare carefully. IME, either Pythons are over rated, or the earlier model 686s (I don't have any experience with the later model guns) are under rated. Take your pick. :)
 
Pythons just feel different. I like Smiths a lot, but a better Python aint bad.
Pops sent his blued one in to the Custom Shop and had it slicked up back around '80.
It's no slouch. I like Hogues on Smiths and Colts.
Pops hates em, liked Pachmayrs.
 
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