Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Shot The 1961 Colt Model 357

I've had this revolver for about fifteen years, but I bought it without the factory original grips. I got a huge bargain on it, even considering the non-original grips, because the gun store had it marked as a Colt Trooper, when it was actually the significantly upgraded cousin of the Trooper, i.e., the Model 357 (similar to labeling an S&W Registered Magnum as a Highway Patrolman), which ended production after 1961. Mine's a last year of production gun. So I got a Colt Model 357 for a Colt Trooper price, and back fifteen years ago Troopers weren't going for all that much. I think I paid like $450.00 for it.

Anyway, back then, I figured it would be no great problem finding factory original grips for it online, but in all these years, on the rare occasion a set came up for sale, they were priced higher than what I paid for the gun.

Finally, a few days ago, someone at the Fire clued me in on where I could get high quality reproductions of the originals, so I bought them. And since I had the gun out of the safe to put the new grips on it, I figured I'd take it to the range.











This gun shoots like a dream. Manipulating it, cocking the hammer, opening and closing the cylinder, puts one in mind of a Swiss bank vault. You can tell they put great care in its manufacture.

As to the new grips, I think they look great, and very much like the factory originals, illustrated below (picture found online):



I prefer their feel over what I was using for it all these years, i.e., a set of rubber Hogue Monogrips. And that checkering really locks the gun in your grip. Painful, actually, when shooting full house .357 Magnum. Feels like someone is applying a wood file to your hand while shooting it, but no blood was drawn, so that's okay.

Here's a fast, offhand, six shot group fired double action at fifteen yards.



PS The Python, introduced soon after the Model 357, was merely the Model 357 with a target style barrel featuring a full underlug and ventilated rib. Otherwise, including the level of fit, finish, and hands-on attention at the factory, the two guns are identical.

Nice!

That's the Python's grandaddy, right?

Daddy.

That's a beauty, no doubt.

Not bad👍

Very nice

Those grips look right at home. Very nice indeed.

Yeah, it's great that someone makes a reproduction.

Beautiful piece, and those grips really make the gun look elegant.

Yes they do. That gun is a looker for sure. A shooter, too, it looks like.

Very clean example of that model.

Common misconception but this model wasnt the basis for the Pytbon.

It might be more correct to say that two premium editions of the .357 Magnum Colt Trooper were introduced at about the same time. One was designed to appeal to cops and the other was designed to appeal to target shooters (on which they installed a target style barrel with a full length underlug and ventilated rib).

What Colt discovered, though, was that cops who wanted a luxury edition of the .357 Magnum Trooper were opting for the Python, originally marketed to the target shooter, rather than the Model 357, which resulted in the latter being dropped from their catalog just six years after its introduction (1955-1961).

The Trooper and the Python continued in production, but eventually the Trooper, too, was dropped (1969), being replaced by its namesake (The Trooper Mark III), but which, despite its name, had nothing in common with either the Model 357, the Python, or the original Trooper.

My dream gun Hawk, been looking for one for quite a number of years now. I’m so jealous.

They're out there. Here's one, just without the original grips: https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1018965287

Not bad but if I were to buy one it would need to be in better condition. I should have pulled the trigger on one about 3 to 4 years back for sale at guns international, they were asking $900 or $950 iirc and it sat for a long time without selling too. It didn’t have the original grip either but the bluing was pristine. I kick myself now for not buying it at that price. Now here we are a few years later at $1400 and in significantly much worse condition :-(
Some revolvers do not go down in value. :-)

That is for sure.

Where did you say the grips come from TRH ?

I paid $775 in 2017 for one made in 1954.

That was a steal.