Greetings to all Highroaders from Finland!
I have recently bought my first revolver, a Colt King Cobra, 6" stainless, apparently shot very little, good timing, some minor external scratches. I considered the price fairly good -- 350 euros, which at the time of the purchase was roughly equal amounth of US dollars. There were other samples on sale for 500-550 euros, so I was quite happy about my deal. (When you compare the prices, please note that US-made firearms typically cost 30-50% more in Finland than in their homeland.)
Soon after that, in a Finnish guns & hunting website www.metsastys.net, there was a somewhat heated discussion about the quality and durability of various 357Mag revolvers, including the Colt King Cobra. During the discussion, local "experts" gave some quite harsh comments about the KC, which of course made me a little less happy.
The reason why I put "experts" in quotations is that Finland is a small country, and although a recent study shows that we have the World's third-highest ratio of legal guns per person (US and Norway are #1 and #2), there seems to be very few persons who know several brands of high-power revolvers well enough to be able to objectively compare their virtues. Hunting with handguns is not allowed here, so what is left are mostly metallic silhouette shooters. And for them, S&W seems to be the one and only. Also, it is difficult for me to fully trust some of the local gurus because of their commercial interests.
So now I am asking you:
* KC's frame: is it cast or forged? Is it considerably weaker than, say, S&W 686 or Ruger GP100? I've learnt that there are D-frames, I-frames, etc.: what type of frame KC has?
* Colt's cylinder lock: is it weaker, more prone to break, or does it develop slack more easily than S&W or Ruger?
* Does a KC go out of timing sooner than.. you know. At least at the moment the timing appears to be perfect, the gun does not "spit" a bit. The cylinder has no end-to end slack, but it does have some rotational play at full lock. Is this normal?
* KC's barrel and rifling: there was an allegation that some of the first KCs imported to Finland had much too shallow rifling. Is it true that such slipshod quality has occurred in KCs? I found an article about the Anaconda, which said that the first Anacondas did not shoot well, and the problem was the barrel. Knowing the close relationship of King Cobra and Anaconda, this gives me an uneasy feeling. Is there an easy way to find out, if the rifling of my gun is OK?
* Finally: I know that KC is not comparable with Python, but what do you think, is a KC ever going to gather collector value? I definitely bought the piece for shooting, and will shoot it, but when and if it starts to show signs of wear, should I just trade it, or save it?
I have recently bought my first revolver, a Colt King Cobra, 6" stainless, apparently shot very little, good timing, some minor external scratches. I considered the price fairly good -- 350 euros, which at the time of the purchase was roughly equal amounth of US dollars. There were other samples on sale for 500-550 euros, so I was quite happy about my deal. (When you compare the prices, please note that US-made firearms typically cost 30-50% more in Finland than in their homeland.)
Soon after that, in a Finnish guns & hunting website www.metsastys.net, there was a somewhat heated discussion about the quality and durability of various 357Mag revolvers, including the Colt King Cobra. During the discussion, local "experts" gave some quite harsh comments about the KC, which of course made me a little less happy.
The reason why I put "experts" in quotations is that Finland is a small country, and although a recent study shows that we have the World's third-highest ratio of legal guns per person (US and Norway are #1 and #2), there seems to be very few persons who know several brands of high-power revolvers well enough to be able to objectively compare their virtues. Hunting with handguns is not allowed here, so what is left are mostly metallic silhouette shooters. And for them, S&W seems to be the one and only. Also, it is difficult for me to fully trust some of the local gurus because of their commercial interests.
So now I am asking you:
* KC's frame: is it cast or forged? Is it considerably weaker than, say, S&W 686 or Ruger GP100? I've learnt that there are D-frames, I-frames, etc.: what type of frame KC has?
* Colt's cylinder lock: is it weaker, more prone to break, or does it develop slack more easily than S&W or Ruger?
* Does a KC go out of timing sooner than.. you know. At least at the moment the timing appears to be perfect, the gun does not "spit" a bit. The cylinder has no end-to end slack, but it does have some rotational play at full lock. Is this normal?
* KC's barrel and rifling: there was an allegation that some of the first KCs imported to Finland had much too shallow rifling. Is it true that such slipshod quality has occurred in KCs? I found an article about the Anaconda, which said that the first Anacondas did not shoot well, and the problem was the barrel. Knowing the close relationship of King Cobra and Anaconda, this gives me an uneasy feeling. Is there an easy way to find out, if the rifling of my gun is OK?
* Finally: I know that KC is not comparable with Python, but what do you think, is a KC ever going to gather collector value? I definitely bought the piece for shooting, and will shoot it, but when and if it starts to show signs of wear, should I just trade it, or save it?