Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 1961 polished nickel Colt Python 6" barrel, whats it worth?

My local FFL took in a 1961 all original Polished nickel Colt python with a 6 inch barrel, it does not have the original box, But I looked at it and looks about 99% in terms of condition, locks up solid, no timing issues, looks like it was rarely fired, maybe a box of ammo through it.

Looking to see what you guys who know about these things think its worth? Not Gun Broker stupidity but what would be a price you would pay.

$2,500.00?

Edited to add that I would not pay that price, but prices like this are not uncommon for Pythons as you describe.

$1500. No more than a new Python now. 😂

The, so called, new Pythons are not even Pythons. They should have called them something else, or at the very least added "Mk II" after the name.

Because they're better. 😀

There's no way I'd pay big money for an old Python.

Better? How do you figure they are better. I'd take the original over the new one

By all accounts, they are fine revolvers, at a time when companies producing fine revolvers is a rarity, but they are not Pythons, despite superficially resembling them, and shouldn't have been labelled such. Or, at the very least (as I said above), they should have added "Mk II" after "Python" on the gun.

Mechanically better.

And you'll pay on average at minimum $2,500 to about $4,500 for a nice older one that you're afraid to shoot. Good luck with that.. And I'm not talking about guns that somebody's had in their safe for the last 30 years that they'll inevitably get on here and jabber about. They obviously didn't pay that for them.

Sorry, OP. Your original question got buried in all the gun gack. IMHO, if I could pick up that gun for somewhere less than $2,500, say $2,000-2200, I would probably think seriously about it. That high polished nickel is one of my favorite old ones. You can get the boxes for them too, btw.

Your so called mechanically better sure had a lot of failures to fire at its inception

For me it isn't a better Python because it is not a Python it is MKll

Amazing markup on the Python’s. My buddy bought two in the mid 80’s for $370 each. The old pythons have a better double action trigger than the new pythons.

Something you read on the internet? LOL

If the finish is perfect, grips are right, and it has no issues, I'd put it at 3k or slightly over ($3,500 if you had the box) Nickel Pythons are much rarer than blued ones, so prices tend to be around $500 higher than blued guns. I wouldn't sell mine for under 3k.

In the middle 1990s, I worked at a small gun shop on Long Island. We had a Python in the glass display case that had been there for about ten years. Factory new. The owner offered it to me for $450.00 and I bought it from him. He said he just wanted to get rid of it, due to lack of customer interest in it. Sadly, just a few years after this, I sold it on Guns America for only a couple hundred more than I paid. I had no idea they'd be going through the roof twenty years later.

Ornery, It was always my plan to send my new Python out to a very experienced gunsmith and turn it into a masterpiece. And that's what I did. Had Mike Heffron do all the work and turn it into a Ferrari. Action job, trigger job, and accuracy test and recrown the barrel.

I don't fault anybody for hanging on to their old Pythons or trying to get one at a good deal. Heck, I would, too. But to claim they're mechanically superior is just not true.

I just got a new stainless four inch this morning for Christmas. I haven’t shot it yet due to inclement weather. Looking forward to trying this beauty out.

Did you put a new rear sight on it? By all accounts the rear sight of the new issue isn't very good.

MOGC, I have not. I was kicking around the idea of one of the Wilsons, but the idea has drifted off the priority table for now.

I held the new Python in my hand at the last NRA show I attended. It noted that it had an extremely heavy trigger and a few minutes after I held it….it completely locked up. The Colt folks snatched it off the display fast, and no telling where they hid it.

Anyone that's had one apart knows this