Is Colt Python 2020 worth $1,500?

[Moenie]

Maybe on a hugely active forum...we could have someone post they value the new Python with a picture of their own Python? Might help answer the question if ANYONE values the Python...on this forum?


Again, check Python owners online with abrasions. Mothers is recommended in every forum.

Maybe you've learned something Bill? I know I learned some stuff about shotguns from you

https://www.coltforum.com/threads/ultimate-ss-and-mothers-mag-aluminum-polish.69343/

Heck, this thread is asking what people like to use when they perfectly shine up their Pythons:
https://www.coltforum.com/threads/polishing-media-preference.84585/

Not terribly smart are you? Below an excerpt from a Colt Forum link YOU posted - I quote verbatim.

"Don't use Mother's Mag Wheel cleaner. It's too abrasive for the finishes on a fine firearm." posted by caddy2507

You remind of a quote by Neil deGrasse Tyson : "One of the great challenges in life is knowing enough to think you're right but not enough to know you're wrong".

 

[Bill DeShivs]

Polishing a gun that already had a proper mirror finish is much easier than trying to polish a standard finish.
Maybe you can learn a little more.
Yes, you can shine up a standard gun with polish and make it shinier. But that gun will never look like a nickel plated Colt python.

 

[jackmoser65]

Do you really think the older S&W 29's from the 50's through the 70's / 80's are as strong and durable as the newer ones??? Especially the 29-10?

I don't think the endurance package is anything to brag about. They still shoot loose
because the Smith design is inherently flawed. Probably due to the fact that it was designed over 120yrs ago.

Maybe Bill could go use that thing called Google Images and look up a ($280) Rossi 972 and comment on how different that finish is from the $2K Python.

Have to admit, I have not seen such willful ignorance in a long time. I had hopes that a couple more voices of reason might get through to you but I guess not. Can't say we didn't try. Bill, like many of us, doesn't need Google. We knew the answer to this question before Google was a "thing". The bottom line here is that you are unable and unwilling to comprehend the differences that make the Python worth more than a Smith, Ruger, Taurus or Rossi.

 

[JohnKSa]

To be fair, if someone doesn't appreciate the difference, it isn't worth more to them.

Just like my earlier example of fancy wine vs. a soft drink. To me, a fancy wine isn't worth more than a coke. I wouldn't pay more for it because I don't get any more out of it than a coke.

That doesn't mean that people who buy fancy wine are wasting their money, but it would certainly be a waste for me.

But it would also be pointless and somewhat foolish for me to argue with a vintner who is pointing out that the work that goes into a fine bottle of wine far exceeds what is required to make a bottle of coke.

 

[jackmoser65]

You can certainly appreciate something and see the value in it without wanting to spend money on it. Not appreciating the difference and not recognizing the difference even exists are two different things. Let's say that the finish work costs Colt $500. It's one thing to say, "I don't care how nice it is, I'm not paying $500 for finish work" or "I see the value in the $500 worth of finish work but am not willing to pay for it" and quite another to say, "there is no $500 finish". Just as "it's not worth it to me" and "it's not worth it" are two very different statements. What we have going on here is the latter in both cases. What you place value on and how you spend your money is not up for debate beyond your own household. The issue at hand here certainly is. Although it's not one I ever expected to have to this degree. It's like arguing with a teenager, which may actually be the case.

 

[wild cat mccane]

I'm going to post up a picture of a rusted stainless steel nice and than mothers polish it with a t-shirt.

You'll see the finish will look exactly like the Python. Might be a second, but I'm a bit surprised people haven't done it are such authorities on it not working even though the Colt Forum, S&W Forum, and Ruger Forums all include happy experiences with Mothers hand polishing stainless steel.

 

[jackmoser65]

You're not going to win this argument because you are flat wrong and have no idea what you're talking about. You telling Bill he might learn something is like the local little league coach telling Mark McGwire how to swing a bat.

 

[wild cat mccane]

Anyone with google can see the less than $300 Rossi 972 has the same finish as the Python.

You guys keep saying it requires skill. A polish swirls can't be seen with your eye using Mothers. You can even put it on cloudy headlights. It is so fine if doesn't swirl plastic. Literally what can go wrong with a rag, lots of time, and mothers? Nothing. It will shine it near mirror. It will change the color of a GP100 from factory bead blasted white to silver.

So what is the magic? The answer is the 686 comes with a bead blast or light polish. But you can certain do what Colt does with it when there aren't voids present in the metal.

Pics coming soon

 

[UncleEd]

Usually debates start on gun
forums of how well a piece
holds up, its handling abilities
and what the potential
accuracy is.

But this thread seems to have
turned into which mascara is
better for the "oh so pretty
look."

Really, maybe we have become
precious darlings.

 

[wild cat mccane]

We're all friends. Don't worry. We're having an honest discussion on a technical aspect that is used to give the Python most of its value (cause it isn't strength that gives it value). It's looks.

 

[mjf]

Have you handled a Python in person to see the finish?

 

[wild cat mccane]

Here is a $1 Walmart stainless steel junk Farberware knife I use for garden work with rust and factory flaws running vertically. It is in no way reflective at all. Recall the 686/66/GP100 don't have visible problems like this knife has:

here is 15 seconds with Mothers with my thumb being reflected back in the image. (I use soft white lights in my house, not day light white so it looks yellow in the picture only)

I am saying you are seeing flaws because this knife has flaws.
Now imagine this on a firearm that doesn't come with factory flaws in the bead blast. It's a white high polish.

But my goodness, it probably takes an expert to do anything like this on a perfect surface like the GP100, 686, or Taurus 66. Or a special kind of stainless steel. Or a technical unknowable work only Colt master workers have access to?

 

[wild cat mccane]

Care to see it shine my plastic headlights without a single flaw? Recall, plastic by nature is going to have MUCH harder time hiding problems from an abrasive polish. While stainless isn't platinum that pushes it's weight to an area, it does smooth flat to the eye.

15 year old never cleaned grocery getter:

10 seconds, didn't even clean before, not a swirl:

Conclusion, if you can't see micro flaws from the polish (swirls) or the metal (voids) using Mothers and you cannot "over" polish it by hand--what difference do you think your eye is going to see by a master polish worker's attention at Colt?

 

[jackmoser65]

But this thread seems to have
turned into which mascara is
better for the "oh so pretty
look."

Oh I just love this. The "if you like pretty guns you have lace on your drawers" argument. I guess no critter was ever sent to the savanna in the sky by hunter using an attractive firearm. I wonder if people who have worn Holland & Holland, Westley Richards, Purdey or other fine English guns to the point that they needed refurbishing ever had to listen to such petty nonsense. Did Selous ever get accused of having lace on his pantaloons? You reckon Ross Seyfried had to concentrate through the chuckles while he drew a bead on Cape buffalo with his $10,000 Bowen .475? Probably not.

http://www.bowenclassicarms.com/news/articles/World's_Ultimate_Revolver.pdf

 

[jackmoser65]

It will change the color of a GP100 from factory bead blasted white to silver.

So the expert thinks factory GP's and 686's have a bead blasted finish? Moreover, he thinks he can polish out a bead blast with an old shirt and wheel polish? Even further, he thinks it's possible to polish out a bead blast but it's impossible to overdo it? This is just fascinating.

 

[44 AMP]

I don't think the endurance package is anything to brag about. They still shoot loose
because the Smith design is inherently flawed. Probably due to the fact that it was designed over 120yrs ago.

I disagree with your opinion that the S&W design is "inherently flawed".

IF you are basing your opinion that it is flawed on the fact that they eventually shoot loose, then everything mechanical in our world is similarly flawed. When you use it, it wears. Use it enough, it wears out. EVERYTHING DOES. That's not a flaw.

 

[wild cat mccane]

I've only posted pics a bead blasted Taurus 66 to a shine like 3 times now. That I did.

Yes. The GP100 and Taurus 66 does have a blasted finish...That's what the dull look is...It's not even a question.

 

[jackmoser65]

In the real world, Rossis, Tauri(?), Rugers and Smiths all have flaws that have to be addressed before they could be finished like a Python. I don't expect you to see it or admit it but in 50yrs of doing this, I can assure you they are there. They also typically have a 400 grit brushed finish and not a very good one at that. Flaws and irregularities aside, if I were going to refinish one of the aforementioned guns (which I have done), I'd probably start at 220 grit. Then proceed to 320, then 400, then 600, then 800, then 1000. Then and only then would I buff it with a polishing compound. Because you see, that's how it works. It takes 220 grit to get all the fine scratches from the factory out. Then 320 to get rid of all the 220 scratches. Then 400 to get rid of all the 320 scratches. Then 600 to get rid of all the 600 scratches. You see a pattern here? You see everything that one would do BEFORE getting to the polishing compound?

None of which even gets into the techniques that one would use. None of which would involve an old shirt and wheel polish, until the end. It would involve sanding blocks, sanding sticks and probably a bunch of Congress polishing stones.

 

[jackmoser65]

I disagree with your opinion that the S&W design is "inherently flawed".

It is inherently flawed. It was designed 40 years before the advent of high pressure, high performance cartridges. The N frame was designed around the 15kpsi 44 Special. They did as good a job as they could adapting the old design to the newer cartridges, with the information they had at the time but the result has significant limitations. It was a new concept at the time and I'm sure they had no idea that 50 years later people would be shooting thousands of rounds a year in IHMSA competition. The sideplate design coupled with the lack of mass allows too much flex in the frame. People seem to think that their "forged frames" are hard but they are not. Maybe I have unrealistic expectations but no gun should need professional help in as little as 3000 to 5000 rounds. I would say in a world where Ruger, Dan Wesson, Freedom Arms, Colt and others do not share in this reputation, the Smith design is inherently flawed.

 

[jackmoser65]

I've only posted pics a bead blasted Taurus 66 to a shine like 3 times now. That I did.

You posted a thumbnail. You're gonna have to do better than 240x320.

Yes. The GP100 and Taurus 66 does have a blasted finish...That's what the dull look is...It's not even a question.

I don't know about Taurus but as I already said, the GP or 686 is going to have a 400 grit brushed finish. There are some distributor exclusives with a matte finish but the standard finish is brushed. This is not my opinion but fact.

This is a brushed finish. Not bead blasted.