Nickel or Stainless Python?

[Isaac-1]

As I mentioned on here a while back I have decided to get another Python, this time it will be a 4 inch. The big debate now is which finish, nickel or stainless, what are your thoughts?

Ike

 

[22-rimfire]

If I were going to shoot it, I'd buy stainless. Otherwise, I'd buy a nickel plated Python.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

If money is no object and you want shiny, get polished stainless or buy a matte and send it to Colt and have it polished. (Yes, I know people other than Colt can polish stainless, myself included, but for a Python I'd send it to the experts). Stainless is forgiving. You can buff out scratches....Nickel is pretty darn tough, too. However, once it gets scratched, it's scratched and if it ever starts to peel you have no recourse but to have it refinished. Polished stainless replaced nickel and for good reason. As bling, bling finishes goes, it's an improvement based on it's durability. I have a factory polished Colt that has seen miles and miles and rounds and rounds over the past 20 years. It still looks as good as the day I bought it.

 

[PabloJ]

Stainless.

 

[snooperman]

I have both but the stainless is easy to take care of.

If you go with nickel remember not to use any cleaner that has ammonia in it. You have to spend a little more time and detail in the care of nickel because of the way it has been plated on the metal surface. Good luck in your choice. Either way, they are a wonderful revolver.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Bright stainless for me. Nickel is for pimps (but I think I have one nickel gun somewhere).

 

[CraigC]

I have a couple of nickel plated sixguns and far as I can recall, I've never employed prostitutes. Nickel is for those who are not pretentious about the plain-ness of their guns.

Nickel has more of a warm bronze hue to it and to me, it's a more attractive finish. Stainless is more "white" in color and to me, it's cold and a little sterile in appearance. Hard chrome is the whitest finish, often taking on a slightly bluish hue. Stainless is somewhere between nickel and hard chrome.

The difference is readily apparent here, nickel on the left, hard chrome on the right. Stainless is somewhere in between.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I bought a nickel-plated Detective Special years ago because I couldn't find a blued model. I've never truly cared for the look of it, although it's a dandy shooter with a wonderful trigger.

I didn't know nickel plating is fragile, nor did I know the ammonia in Hoppe's No. 9 should never be used on nickel. No harm's been done, but it was humbling to learn that years after the fact.

I never will like the look of stainless steel; that said™, I'll admit most of my carry guns are stainless. It requires less TLC than blued finishes, especially after glass bead blasting. Brightly polished stainless steel looks better to my eye than brushed or bead-blasted, but if you even look at it hard, you've got another blemish to polish out.

Nothing I've ever seen looks better than Colt's royal blue—unless maybe engraved royal blue.

 

[earlthegoat2]

I like nickel. Once again though, my carry gun is stainless. It just happens to be that way though. Stainless guns are everywhere, nickel is hard to find.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Confession time. I won't pass up on a nickel Python if the price is right. I still prefer blue, but cheap enough (in price) is good enough for me.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

I like nickel. It really sets of my gold tooth and gator shoes.

 

[9mmepiphany]

I like the look of Nickel better (mine are all blued) because the undercoat gives it a warmer amber hue...the stainless is a bit cold with it's blue hue.

The word used to be that the nickeled guns had a more refinded finish (read flawless) than the blued guns because the nickel plating would make any imperfections more obvious in their reflections...if they are, I can't see it.

However the stainless will show small scratches more easily than the nickel finish...it is softer...we're talking about the scratches from cleaning cloth wiping down the surface

 

[ColtPythonElite]

A little Mother's/Flitz/Semichrome on a cloth will keep the polished stainless blinging. You can hand polish it over and over to remove those tiny scratches. You can only get away with it a limited number of times on nickel before you rub the plating off.

While they are not Pythons, my King Cobra shooters have the same "Ultimate Bright" finish on them. They get used plenty and still have a shine on them you can part your hair in.

 

[MtnSpur]

Nickel just speaks to me



Had just bought this '78 Python the day I took the picture (and I'm a lousy photographer). Not polished up, primped or tampered with. Just as I took her out of the gun case and put on the table. I dunno, what do you think?

Mtn

 

[MtnSpur]

I like nickel. It really sets of my gold tooth and gator shoes.

Don't forget the mink fedora bud

Mtn

 

[ColtPythonElite]

Nice gun, MtnSpur.

This time of year, I leave the fedora home. It's tough keep on when I've got the top dropped on my Caddie.

 

[MtnSpur]

Thanks CPE, taint fired her yet.....skeered to ...I find a bungee cord will keep the hat on but the matching full length mink coat is so cumbersome in 100 degree heat, yanno?

 

[ColtPythonElite]

Yeah, I'll bet it's hot in Texas right now. If I were you, I'd strip down to my zebra print bikini's and rattlesnake boots and go out shootin' with the new gun.

 

[dfariswheel]

It's amazing how gun lore changes over the years.

The story years ago was that nickel Pythons were Pythons that were botched slightly during polishing and they were nickel plated "because the nickel would cover up the imperfections".
For this reason, people were reluctant to buy a nickel Python.

Today, the lore is that the nickel Pythons had to be MORE perfectly polished because any imperfects would show.

The truth: Blued, nickel, and bright stainless Pythons all got the same level and quality of polishing. It was the best polish job ever done on a production or semi-production DA revolver.

 

[9mmepiphany]

I knew someone would really know...which makes sense...and I admit that I bought into the legend. My only plausible excuse is that I heard it long before the internet existed and could check it.

Now I know better...thanks dfariswheel

 

[Guillermo]

strip down to my zebra print bikini's and rattlesnake boots and go out shootin'

you guys skeer me

 

[CajunBass]

I suppose if someone gave me a stainless Python (or any other gun really), I'd take it and thank the giver, over and over again.

Then i'd sell it and use the money to buy a nickel one.

 

[PabloJ]

I would sell the $ython and use the money to buy two S&W Model 19s plus some ammo....or get three used Ruger 'Security Six' or 'Service Six' plus ammo instead of one Colt. When one thinks in those terms the prices asked for Sainted Pythons are actually shocking.

 

[Guillermo]

I love Colt revolvers yet I can see Pablo's logic to sell and buy two fine old Smiths.

On the other hand...going from a smooth, refined action of the Python to a pile of Rugers is not something that I can embrace. That would be like going from a Tundra to a 74 Power Wagon.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

Eh, just keep the Python and enjoy it a bit more, then sell it in about a decade and you can buy your 4 Smiths...