A little bit of Python love for a change, and a question.

M

micromontenegro

New member
Boy, was I happy when I got my Jan '77 issue of American Handgunner. 3 articles about the Python by Mas Ayoob! The most interesting to me was the one about the first Python. :D

BTW, can any of the oldtimers tell me what grips are those on the first pic?


Images removed as they violate TFL's Copyrighted Material Policy.
 
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I am not an old timer, so take this with a grain of salt.

Best i can tell, those are either custom "one time" grips or they are an older "fuzzy farrant" variety.
 
Thanks, Micromontenegro.

A tribute to The Best revolver ever manufactured in the world, written by one of the masters of the police shooting of America.

Colt Python: Simply the best you can get!

Netto
 
With the palm swell and the grip undercut they remind me of the fuzzy farrant style grips, as another poster noted. No matter who made them, they are a nice looking set of grips.
 
About the same time, Lewis Winant wrote a book, "Firearms Curiosa", which had in the back a series of joke drawings of fictional guns done by Stephen Ickes, spoofing Colt products. One was of a pocket revolver with a huge cylinder chambered for the .99 Colt cartridge*, but also available in .357 Magnum and 5.5 Velo Dog. Playing on Colt's penchant for using snake names, it was called the Python.

The book is copyrighted 1955, just about the same time the people at Colt were working on the real revolver which was to be called that. It may be that the names of the fictional revolver and the real one were coincidence, but I wonder if someone at Colt had seen those drawings or an early copy of Winant's book, and the name was in the back of his mind. The other way seems less likely; the other names are either entirely fictional or fictionalized in some way, and Ickes did his drawings long before Colt developed the Python.

*Don't try to find ammo at your local gun shop.

Jim
 
Aww man, I am envious. I mean look at all that quality I choose not to own. I mean Pythons were like US $3 gold pieces in a way, so valuable useful and wonderful, that they were deemed unworthy of current production. But hey, there is no better coin to have if you need to buy 100 3 cent stamps.

...but don't you understand, its because Packard automobiles were so refined, perfect, and high quality, that Packard couldn't afford to make them, because on the open market, no one wants the best, but they sold a lot because everyone knew they were the best, but then they couldn't sell enough, because the demand was so high, they couldn't make enough and then because they wanted to make them all hand fitted and perfect, that the production cost was so high, that no one could afford them anymore even though everyone knew they were the best. Since they were the best, and the best cost money, and no one likes the best, Packard had to cease making automobiles. But today, today we know the truth, and by golly, they're the best damn automobile ever made, and Chevrolet is just a wannabee Packard! Chevrolet is only around because they couldn't make a car as good as the Packard. That's why they survived, because their product and company were second fiddle. Its easy to understand
 
I still intend to add a Python to my collection. I like the model and I believe I need one in my collection.
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I've never cared if a Python was "the best" revolver ever made or not. I always wanted one because I didn't have one. Now I do.

Is it any better than my Smith & Wesson 27-2? Darned if I know. I like them both.
 
I've never cared if a Python was "the best" revolver ever made or not. I always wanted one because I didn't have one. Now I do.

Is it any better than my Smith & Wesson 27-2? Darned if I know. I like them both.
Click to expand...

That's how I look at it as well. I want one because I like the design and I think it's a well made revolver. Is it the best of the best? How the heck can I know? Are prices ridiculous? Yes. Still want one. It will find a place next to my Smiths and other Colt revolvers.
 
Thanks for the answers, folks! I'd really like to locate a set of those stocks. No luck so far, but all the answers have taken me closer to that goal.

BTW, I never got this "I like X, so I must hate Y" thing. Right at this moment, I am contemplating adding a '68 Mustang to my garage... right besides my '68 Camaro. They are, in fact, spending the night together now. You see, I try to enjoy all nice things around me. Life is too short not to.
 
I'd love to chit chat about those cars (not that I know squat about them, just that I'd send them both packing for a 1971 1/2 Camaro, but I'm "different") but if we keep doing THAT, we'll get a VERY COOL thread closed. :( Let's not do that.
BTW, I never got this "I like X, so I must hate Y" thing.
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I'm with you... now. It took maturity to get there. Back in the late 80's when it was time for me to buy my first handgun, I nearly went with a Taurus, but thought better of it because of all the cops at my local Sportsman's Club that were shooting PPC every Sunday morning with L-frame Smith & Wesson revolver. In the end, I bought a S&W 686 and to this day, it's one of those "REALLY smart things" I did once or twice in my life. :p

My point?! Back then, I scoffed heavily at the Colt King Cobra. That revolver was a direct competitor to my L-frame Smith & Wesson and that revolver was a cheaper, budget version of a Python. I wouldn't have taken one for FREE. (that's a blatant lie, but I'm trying to make a point) As a 17-yr old knucklehead, I looked at a King Cobra as the "other" side and I sneered every time I saw an ad for one. :rolleyes:

I was a knucklehead. But I grew up. I'm still glad with the choice I made, but I really want to add a King Cobra. But I know where that goofy sentiment you referenced comes from. :p
 
As to a Python, the subject of the thread, it's a Ferrari to me.

I'd love to drive one, and in a different lifetime, I'd own one or a couple dozen of them. In this lifetime however, it will never happen. (never say never...?)

I absolutely love handguns and I have my share of them. I will get more as I see fit, but I am a shooter. I really, really want to shoot a Python and I'd love to stick one in -MY- garage overnight and park it next to my other cool handguns. ;)

I don't want to own one. I don't want to pay the premium they demand. I would cringe when shooting or cleaning it if I had paid the premium. And if I found one for a REALLY low price, I'd much rather cash it in to a collector and buy something like a King Cobra and ten thousand component slugs for ammo.

What I really[/i] need is a Python that had accidentally and unknowingly been dragged behind a truck. Something in HORRENDOUS shape... but still functional. I'd pay a couple hundred for that, and then shoot it! :eek::D
 
Everyone thinks that ALL Pythons are so expensive as to be out of reach of normal shooters. Well that may not always be the case.

100_0470.jpg


I had given up pretty much any hope of ever owning one until I found this one at my LGS back in October. Made in 1964, it looked pretty rough in the cabinet, but when I checked it out, it checked out mechanically. The hang tag said $900.00. I offered $800.00 and somewhat to my surprise really, they said "We can do that." Not cheap, but still not out of range of what I had paid for other guns.

I took it home, cleaned it up, and it looked a lot better than it did in the store. The blue has some wear, the grips show use, but it shoots just fine.

The key is to be ready to strike when you see one. If you let it set for even a day while you think about it, someone else will come along and take it. That one had been on the shelf about two hours when I found it.

Keep looking. You never know what or when you'll find something.
 
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I have a Python. Never gave much thought to owning one, but ran across one at a local shop and had to get it.

Now, I want to get a S&W Model 27 to accompany it. "Best of the breed" from those manufacturers, I guess. Right now, my Model 19-3 is the most "classic" of my S&Ws.

Here's the snake:

pythontarget.jpg
 
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