In the old days, you could buy a gun, give it to a cop and he'd use it for his entire career and then retire and keep it. Departments didn't change guns every couple of years back then and the Python was a decent, forged gun put together by old fashioned craftsmen. They were meticulously cared for by department armorers and did the job they were built for.
Alas, time caught up with Colt. Eventually, United Auto Workers were assembling the guns, which meant the same people screwing up your cars were now screwing up your guns. Another problem with the Python is it's very small pawl/hand. It wears so quickly that it throws the gun out of time every few thousand rounds. Ruger made their parts oversized, so they rarely need to be serviced and, if they do, the owners can most likely do it themselves because of their modular design.
As for accuracy, the Python was about as good as you can get. That was true up to the production of the S&W 686, which is, in my opinion, a better gun. When the 686s first came out, I saw a number of 686s tested alongside Pythons, where both were bolted down into Ransom rests, and the 686s did as well as the Colts. I haven't seen any recent tests, but I assume that today's 686s are as accurate. Another problem for the Colt is that it had a grip designed to fit an orangutan! It was widest at the bottom, where a person's fingers were shortest, and made it narrow at the top where the fingers were longer. It didn't make sense, and always reminded me of a single-action plough handle.
Still, I've always lusted for one. The bluing is gorgeous and if I had one, it would never get fired. The bluing is sometimes different on the gun and the cylinder release latch, and that always bothered me, but one can't help but love the gun. In 25 years, our kids will pick one up and say, "Hey, this is pretty heavy polymer! How'd they get it that shiny?"
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