New Colt Revolvers!!!!!!

I'm not surprised. On July 1, 2017, ALL standard capacity mags in CA will become illegal to possess regardless of how long one might have owed them. Only mags holding 10 rounds or less will be legal. I believe NY has a similar law.
 
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I believe that they are now able to be ordered by distributors and dealers.... according to what i read yesterday. Can't wait to see one myself and hope they are as nice as Radny97 indicated.

I've never fired a Python or any of the other Colt revolvers for that matter, so my comparison will be to Smith's, Rugers and such.... Can't wait to fondle one.
 
Good Morning, Wheelie_Fan,

I darn near hate to admit this: I live in CA. Every handgun offered for sale has to be approved by CA DOJ, which means it might be months after the Cobra is offered for sale that it might be offered for sale in the most gun hostile state in the country.

For bipedal self-defense, I'm all about semi-autos. However, I do love revolvers. A good-quality 2" .38 Special that's +P rated has a lot of utility. Even in urban So Cal, a hiker in local So Cal mountains would put him in danger of mountain lion attack. Loaded with shot capsules, it's a darn good rattler gun, and we have rattlesnakes all over So Cal.

I was never much of a .357 Mag believer. In fact, when I've carried a .357 Mag for bipedal self-defense, it was always loaded with the FBI load, which is 158 grain LSWC or LSWCHP +P. Even out of a Model 60, the FBI load is not fun to shoot. I couldn't imagine shooting a .357 Mag round our of a "J" Frame.

If terms of efficacy, one isn't going to get appreciable results using a .357 Mag round out of a 2" barreled handgun. The impressive if not fabricated ballistics of the .357 Mag round were obtained (if they really were obtained) out of 8.375" barrels. Out of a 4" barreled 586 that I once owned, the best I could get was ~1250 FPS with 158 grain .357 Mag loads.

The .357 Mag has a lot of negatives to be a good self-defense gun. Foremost, it's a revolver that holds 6 rounds and takes too much time to reload. A .357 Mag revolver has to be heavy to manage its recoil. Managing recoil is essential to retaining sight picture. Shoot a .357 Mag round in an enclosed area such as a bedroom, and the excessively loud report will leave you disoriented. That's never a good thing were a bad guy to want a good guy at room temperature. Finally, muzzle flash, especially out of a 4" barreled .357 Mag revolver, will blind space station astronauts, which means it will cause its user to lose sight picture, which is a bad thing were a bad guy shooting at a good guy. Oh yeah, I've been exposed to personal accounts where the .357 Mag failed to live up to its manstopper billing. (There is no such thing as a manstopper tactical handgun.)

The FBI load out of a 2" barreled revolver ought to give 12" of penetration, which is the industry standard. Hence, it ought to perform as good as a .357 Mag when fired from a 2" barreled gun.

I do love good quality revolvers. I wish I owned a 4" Model 27-2, what many handgun aficionados call the best .357 Mag revolver ever made (no slight intended to Python fans). But I don't. I do own a 4" blue steel GP 100, which is a decent handgun, but it does have its problems. BTW, I consider a 4" barreled revolver maximum length for a bipedal self-defense weapon.

Anyway, if the Cobra is ever offered for sale in CA, I'll own a copy.
 
Hey there SansSouci,

i really can't wrap my head around the approval process that CA requires... I would think that CA would actually prefer ownership of revolvers over semi-autos for fairly obvious reasons. (I'm in CT where the situation isn't much better) But let's hope you can get your mitts on a new Colt Cobra sooner than later. I'm actually rooting for Colt on this one and hope they have a winner on their hands.

Regarding caliber...I've always been fine with .38 Special and/or .38 spl +P given the right loads. i really don't have a urgent desire to start packing .357 mag for my SD needs, especially in a concealable package. I understand that there can always be the exception in any situation, but at this point, i'm comfortable with my decisions.

That said, i'm limited in my ownership of semi-autos, but i'm really considering the new Sig P225-A1. CT also has a 10 round mag capacity law on the books... so we've got that going for us.... :eek:
 
Handled two booth samples at SHOT, talked to a design engineer on the Cobra project, and the head of Colt's Custom Shop.

The gun honestly impressed me.
If they can keep production guns to the same quality levels I saw, they'll sell.

Machining well done.
DA trigger smooth & linear, no "Colt stacking" like the older V-Spring actions produced.

They've kept costs down by using MIM technology & tightly toleranced parts to the point where the ONLY part in the gun that's hand fitted is the hand.
And they're working on a process to eliminate even that hand fitting.

The new action provides the same "bank vault lockup" noted in the classic V-Springs from the past, done by the hand bearing strongly against the ratchet at the moment of firing, when the trigger's pulled.

I was told this should not result in the timing issues caused by hand wear in the older Colt design, Colt's using "better materials now".

Even if you do shoot the new Cobra enough to develop hand wear, Colt will actually HAVE new replacement hands & it should be an easy repair if you return one for service.

Other models are planned, other sight options, other accessories.
Denis
 
Very cool. I'd like a bank vault tight new revolver. Haven't seen one of those in a while!

Can't wait for it. Colt knows how to make a wheelie. Also looking forward to their fullies if they bring one out.
 
DPris said:
Handled two booth samples at SHOT, talked to a design engineer on the Cobra project, and the head of Colt's Custom Shop.

The gun honestly impressed me.
If they can keep production guns to the same quality levels I saw, they'll sell.

Machining well done.
DA trigger smooth & linear, no "Colt stacking" like the older V-Spring actions produced.
Click to expand...
To add to the above, Colt folks at the SHOT Show said the trigger is 8 pounds in DA and 4 pounds in SA. I probably fondled and dry fired at least half a dozen at the show, and they all felt exactly the same. And that was very smooth, as DPris commented. I asked if the main spring is the old Colt Vee spring or the later coil spring style action, and the answer was "Neither." The lockwork is different from all previous generations of Colt DA revolvers. I could see that there was a LOT of interest in the new Cobra, and a lot of the talk I was overhearing indicated that people were very favorably impressed.

Ironically, one of the Colt people I was chatting with mentioned that pretty much all of the Colt employees who were around in the days of the snake guns have retired. Colt is cross-training the people who currently build the SAAs to assemble the new Cobras, and he said the cross-training is also resulting in better-fitted SAAs when the people switch back to making cowboy guns.

I wish I could report on how it shoots, but I missed range day thanks to weather stranding me at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport while American Airlines tried to find me another flight to Las Vegas after DFW was closed down for several hours and my incoming flight was diverted through New Orleans.
 
I've called Colt. Because of CA's whack job gun laws, I might not be able to buy a Cobra or a Delta Elite.

As soon as my kid is outta college, I'm outta this state.
 
Just thought i'd check in on this thread...

Still no sightings of the new Colt Cobra at my LGS, but they're on the list to receive one as soon as available... Anyone else have luck finding one?
 
An obvious indication that there's no interest at all in the gun & Colt's long-awaited re-entry into the DA revolver market is a total & complete failure.
Denis
 
I went to a colt dealer when i first saw these were introduced and i couldnt get in line to order or anything. Now i know why. They didnt even know anything about new cobras. :rolleyes:
 
Email this morning, the entire year's production on the Cobra's sold out.
Click to expand...

I just have to laugh at this. This is what I went through this with Diamondbacks for several years when production started. They were very hard to find for a few years. It is typical Colt.
 
Colt changed their sales model last year (2016). They now allow only stocking dealers to order and sell new guns. They told me at the SHOT Show that the new strategy is working well for them and for the larger dealers who can afford to buy multiple guns for stock, but it's upsetting to me because I deal with a small, one-man shop who had always been able to order me any Colt I might want from his distributors.

And now his distributors aren't allowed to sell to him ... because he doesn't buy five or ten or twenty guns at a time, from ANY manufacturer.

If your favorite gun shop hasn't signed on to become a Colt stocking dealer, you can't buy a new Colt from him no matter how long you wait in line.
 
DPris said:
An obvious indication that there's no interest at all in the gun & Colt's long-awaited re-entry into the DA revolver market is a total & complete failure.
Denis
Click to expand...
Nobody buys Colt DA revolvers....they're always sold out.

....with apologies to Yogi Berra.
 
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