Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns So what makes the Python so great??

This forum need s alike button. Good insights here that show how Colt just made all the wrong decisions in going against S&W. Actually the Boa (or King Cobra) is a much closer comparison to the S&W L frames.

Not sure how related this is, but regarding timing of the cylinder...

I had a 4" barreled Colt Diamondback 38 special with very low round count. It was out of time. Close enough to a Python?

the answer is "not a damned thing". :-) It's all hype. Colt's DA's have always had a rep for going out of time with fewer rds than the Smiths. The rugers put them both to shame in that regard, but the smith's trigger pull will always be a touch smoother. Reaslically, the Python is overprice by a factor of 10.

Can I buy a new Python? No? Why not? Could it be that Colt's design was a POS and the market spoke loud and clear?

Too expensive to manufacture for a reasonable market price. Skilled labor costs too much today vs pre-1960s. Same reason Winchester overhauled all their products post-1963.

there's no way that a python costs a damned dime more to make than an $800 smith. Colt just refuses to re-tool. They know that they are only selling their name. When they lost the M16 contracts, they were dead as a company.

You've got a warped sense of what skilled labor costs in the gun industry. The firearms industry is the only one I know that relies on charity to exist. Folks who do it, do it because they love guns and it's what they want to do. Most of them could make alot more money doing something else. Firearms are a relatively low profit margin product and wages for those who build them are comparatively low.

But not low compared to assemblers of guns whose parts pop out of CNC machines basically ready to assemble.

Not much higher on average and lower in some instances trust me. Just depends on the outfit you work for. I've worked for several over the years and been offered employment by others and know what I'm talking about. I was recently offered employment by one of the biggest names in custom 1911's. I have been building them professionally for 7 years for another outfit. The wage offered was higher than what Glock pays a simple assembler fresh off the street by a whole 3.50 an hour. It was also 5.00 an hour less than a buddy of mine makes packaging pills at a pharmaceutical company {good place to work, high profit margin product and a labor union} and 2.00 an hour more than I'd make running a forklift at a local warehouse.

Not having worked in this part of the industry, I don't have firsthand experience, but it's not hard to believe that UAW wages are likely higher than non-union shops, and, given the amount of hand fitting the older design requires and the kind of finish, especially the blued ones had, that Pythons are more expensive to produce than Smiths and Rugers.



From https://www.courant.com/business/hc-biz-colts-union-lawsuit-20180305-story.html



Less than a year after buying its West Hartford headquarters and manufacturing plant with financial help from the state, Colt’s Manufacturing Co. has been sued in federal court over accusations that it has shifted work out of the plant to save money and has laid off workers.

The number of union jobs at the gun factory has dropped by more than 200 since 2016, according to the United Auto Workers.

United Auto Workers Local 376 filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New Haven last week. It seeks a halt to plans by the gunmaker to move “substantially all parts manufacturing” from West Hartford. It also asked the court to order Colt’s to reverse a Feb. 21 layoff of 74 workers and return them to their jobs.

It’s the latest sign of financial trouble at the manufacturer, which emerged from bankruptcy in January 2016. Colt’s and the union negotiated a“memorandum of understanding” that sought to strengthen a labor contract by reaffirming job security and identifying areas where investment can be increased. But cost concerns forced Colt’s to move in a different direction, the union said in its lawsuit.

See https://www.courant.com/business/hc-biz-colts-union-lawsuit-20180305-story.html

Yes, the union shops do pay considerably more. Remington used to pay very well at the Ilion plant where they were a union shop. I'm sure Colt being union pays alot more than Ruger. I was offered employment by Ruger at their NH plant back in the 90's and turned it down because the wages sucked. Minimum wage was 4.35 at the time and they offered me 6.00 an hour to hand checker stocks all day. No thanks.

Youre way dumber than you look .

Maybe but I'm waaay smarter than you look.

I prefer S&W

As much as I love the Python, and even though it’s the “better” (to me) revolver, I too prefer the S&W. I just go WEAK in the knees when I see a S&W model 19 with TT, TH, RR, WO!!

I can tinker on a revolver; some, polishing, tuning etc, but wouldn't make a pimple on a gun smiths azz. I am a shooter though, and concentrated the last 15 years of competitive shooting using revolvers. From a shooters prospective, the Colt is a non starter, S&W is really the only one in the game. In 15 years of highly competitive revolver shooting, a couple International Revolver Championships and many state and local matches, I have never once, seen a Colt revolver on the line. Oops, I take that back, at the 1984 Steel Challenge I saw the one and only Colt, a Python, shot by the then somewhat renowned gun rag writer Dave Arnold. He was the first one to pop a cap at the 84 Challenge, when he drew, he was shakin like a dog [bleep] a peach pit, the revolver spun a time or two in mid air and landed in the parched alkali California dust.
I wish I had a half dozen tucked in the safe so I could make some scratch on them, but for what they were made for, shooting, they just don't cut it.

Boy, you had to dig deep in the sewer to come up with that turd...

I have done overload work ups to see what happens.

A) Colts are rotationally tight, and stay that way all the way up to splitting the cylinder and breaking the top strap.

B) Smiths start out tight from the factory, but after some hot loads, they are loose.

3) Rugers are loose from the factory. Darned hard to split those thick walled cylinders.



Take a Colt apart and see the hand fitted parts and trigger pull driven tight lock up.

Someone mentioned Pythons suck as shooters.

They arent as good for DA shooting as Smith's. Rugers and Dan Wessons arent as well suited either.

A friend of mine used to be into handgun silhouette.
His favorite gun was a Python, which he beat David Bradshaw with a time or two.

Smith's didn't hold up well in the handgun silhouette competition, in virtually all models. Does that mean they suck as shooters? I dont think so.

LOL a lot of idiots who have no idea about the Python action the way it was designed in the 50's and that is why it had to be hand assembled.

The new Pythons being released for sale in less than 3 weeks will look identical on the outside dimensionally with a improved rear sight, even has a red ramp front sight. Will be SS only for obvious reasons with a brand new action in 6in and the 4in to follow in 60 days or so.

New action is fast like the original and still very smooth. Just be patient all questions will be answered soon but not today. That is all.