There are certainly Colt lovers out there and Colt haters. I live in southeastern, Ohio which is mainly Smith country. Not many Colt lovers around. But, they all love to shoot my Colt Python when offered to them!

There were four things that made the Python what it was:

1. The fit. The parts, especially the lock work parts, were hand-fit and hand polished.

2. The finish. The finish was achieved by polishing the gun on leather-bound wheels to a very high level of finish before blueing, creating the legendary Colt Royal blueing job on the Python.

3. The lockup. If you test a Ruger or S&W revolver in full lockup, you’ll feel very slight wiggle room. If you test a Colt, especially an original Python, in full lockup, you feel nothing, absolutely nothing. Nothing moves, wiggles, shakes, etc. There is no “slop” at all. This is the Colt “bank vault lockup.” This was a result, in part, of the hand-fit parts.

4. The Colt barrel on the Pythons were tighter than the S&Ws and Rugers. Colt Pythons had groove diameters as small as .354 and .355 instead of .357 and .358. They had a faster twist of 1 in 14 compared to Smith's 1 in 18.5 rifling twist. Also, they had very slightly tapered barrels towards the muzzle to increase accuracy and they burnished the Python barrels with something like a tungsten ball (process called "ballizing" I believe) that would harden and polish the barrel internally.

I don't think Colt could afford to do all of the above on the new Pythons today for $1500.

But, we'll see where things end up. I'm just nostalgic for old time hand polishing work.