[38 Super Fan]

Originally Posted by WiskyT

Exactly. CNC and other advances make the most expensive part of the Python, the skilled labor, cheap. People ignore this and think the only way to make a gun like that is to have some guy named Henry who has been with Colt since the 1930's delicately assembling it.

Take engines for example. The engine in my Mustang has variable cam timing, 4 valve DOHC heads, computer controlled fuel injection, meets emission standards and gets 30MPG and makes over 300 BHP. The technology in that engine is stuff that cost F1 teams a hundred grand not long ago and my whole car cost $22,000.00.

Whether Colt will make it, and what it would be marketed for, I have no idea. Colt has gone out of their way to run it's self into the ground for the last few decades and I have no idea if they are getting any smarter or not. Supposedly they are a "New Colt" and are getting back on track.

Yeah, overhead cams and fuel injection are real cutting edge technology.

[Jim Watson]

I have been reading about how modern machinery will make affordable high quality guns like double shotguns and double express rifles ever since my first Gun Digest of 1957.
It hasn't happened yet. And I don't think Colt can do it, either.

That said, you may have my Pythons, tuned by experts in the field (Colt Custom Shop under Don Tedford and Reeves Jungkind) for $2000 each, complete with holster wear from actual use, no gun safe rug burns in sight.
I will put part of the money into a well honed S&W and the rest in my pocket, and consider myself ahead of the game.

My first one in 1978 was the state of the art in gunmaking and gunsmithing. My second one ca 1998 was already a nostalgia trip.
I don't think the nostalgia trip industry can support new tooling for gun manufacture.

[countrygun]

Originally Posted by 38 Super Fan

Yeah, overhead cams and fuel injection are real cutting edge technology.

Really funny when you consider that Chevy introduced the fuel injector in the '57 model only two years after the Python was born.

[bac1023]

I still think of the beautiful 3 digit serial number Python from early 1956 that I passed up a few years ago at my local shop. It was a mint royal blue 6" model in the box. I could have had it for $1900, which is less than half what it would be worth now.

I regret that move (or lack thereof) more than anything else gun related.

[countrygun]

Originally Posted by Jim Watson

I have been reading about how modern machinery will make affordable high quality guns like double shotguns and double express rifles ever since my first Gun Digest of 1957.
It hasn't happened yet. And I don't think Colt can do it, either.

That said, you may have my Pythons, tuned by experts in the field (Colt Custom Shop under Don Tedford and Reeves Jungkind) for $2000 each, complete with holster wear from actual use, no gun safe rug burns in sight.
I will put part of the money into a well honed S&W and the rest in my pocket, and consider myself ahead of the game.

My first one in 1978 was the state of the art in gunmaking and gunsmithing. My second one ca 1998 was already a nostalgia trip.
I don't think the nostalgia trip industry can support new tooling for gun manufacture.

For all the arguments i completely agree with you (if you ever come down on the price of the '78 let me know however)

My wife bought a used 686 off a cop in town and I put what I know to work on the inside. I will be darned if it isn't the nicest "full factory springs" job I have ever done or probably handled. I have never claimed that the Python was the "do all-be all" of .357 revolvers. I have one because the deal was too good. But I will say that, the Python was a jewel that we won't see from Colt again.

What people don't realize about the Python is the balance within the action. I have heard some people claim they needed to be "re tuned" often, and I have heard some claim they have run for thousands of rounds without ever needing anything. I think they are both right and both telling the truth. It is odd that the "Car club" can't grasp the subtleties here. You can't hook a Python up to a dyno and and run a diagnostic on it at different rpms. In perfect balance and in perfect time the Python can run a long time, but they can be slightly out of balance, not noticable to the operator, and be putting stresses and wear where it doesn't need to be.

I find the S&Ws to be a lot easier to work on and less tempermental, not having just a single "V" spring running the whole thing.

Even with this advantage in design, Smith standard production revolvers still have a high MSRP and are not as good as they could be by a long shot.

[rgregoryb]

Originally Posted by bac1023

Where did we hear this info?

I've heard nothing offical about the Python's return.

if I told you, I would have to kill myself...

[bac1023]

Originally Posted by rgregoryb

if I told you, I would have to kill myself...

[Jim Watson]

(if you ever come down on the price of the '78 let me know however)

Bunch of Internet Whiney Butt Cheapskates.
Or Socialists who don't want to pay market price for anything.

Tell you what, you can have it for $2000 or the list price of the 2013 Python, whichever is less.

[dnuggett]

Originally Posted by Jim Watson

Bunch of Internet Whiney Butt Cheapskates.
Or Socialists who don't want to pay market price for anything.

Tell you what, you can have it for $2000 or the list price of the 2013 Python, whichever is less.

Smart move saying "list price." I almost said if he doesn't take it for list, I will. Almost.

[Jim Watson]

Well, I am not going to sell my Significant Historical Artifact and Valuable Collector's Item for the "street price" of a latter day knockoff. I figure the list price of a latter day knockoff will be acceptable... if there ever is one knocked off, that is.

[NEOH212]

Originally Posted by vikingsoftpaw

I would expect it to be on par with the S&W classics, about $1000.

Fine by me as long as it doesn't have a crappy internal lock.

[dnuggett]

Originally Posted by Jim Watson

Well, I am not going to sell my Significant Historical Artifact and Valuable Collector's Item for the "street price" of a latter day knockoff.

Don't blame you at all.

[fnfalman]

Originally Posted by countrygun

We "Old people (I'm 52)" have some real advantages we have actual experience and some of us still have the items in question.

Wow, you're a whole TEN YEARS older than NMGlocker. That makes your life experience so much more, eh?

He was crapping in diaper while you were eating sand at the playground.

Neither of you grew up in the halcyon days of hand fitted guns.

[countrygun]

Originally Posted by fnfalman

Wow, you're a whole TEN YEARS older than NMGlocker. That makes your life experience so much more, eh?

He was crapping in diaper while you were eating sand at the playground.

Neither of you grew up in the halcyon days of hand fitted guns.

As a matter of fact I grew up shooting a lot of those hand fitted guns, they were pretty much the norm. By the time I was twenty I already had a customized Colt Series 70 and a 5" S&W 27 in my collection as well as an all matching 2nd issue M-1 carbine (Six digit serial # ), My deer rifle was a pre-war Savage 99 .250/3000 and for fun I had a Winchester 65 in 25/20.


During my teens I hung out in the gunsmithing shop of the man who built the finest PPC revolvers for the local LEO competitors, and I got to know them as well.

I would say I have handled, shot and owned some of the finest of the hand fitted guns.
Search my posts all you like, unless it is absolutely relevant and a quality issue I never respond or post anything about a given gun's qualities unless I own or have owned one or have some reason to have an appreciable amount of experience with one. I don't pass along gossip or mimic magazine articles or what I read on other forums unlike some folks.

I can't sing, juggle, tap dance, I am only a passible guitarist, but I know my guns and have a lot more experience than a lot of folks that post nonsense that is swallowed by folks that don't know any better.

[AngryPanda]

I actually invented guns.

[Gregg702]

Originally Posted by AngryPanda

I actually invented guns.

So would you say what Al Gore is to the Internet, you are to guns?

[Wyoming]

Originally Posted by bac1023

Actually, they won't hurt the value of the old models. They will continue to rise.

That is true. It will be like SAA, 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation.

What ever Colt does it will be a small number released. So if they do and you want a Python get while you can.

I don't want to pee in anybodies Wheaties but if the lawyers make Colt put in a trigger lock?

[Berto]

Whatever lock they use, I can assure you it won't be as finely fitted or smooth in operation as the old locks were.

[RON in PA]

The new Pythons will be built on an assembly line right next to the Glock carbine assembly line.

[WiskyT]

Originally Posted by NMGlocker

Old people crack me up (and I'm 42).
It was always uphill both ways in the snow, and the older they get the better they were.

The fitting and tolerances required for an engine turning 10k+ RPM at 250+ degrees for years on end cannot be compared to the lockwork of a revolver... really?

I don't think it's age, maybe it is. I think it's more about ego, and since BAC decided to loose his cool veneer and call me "assinine", I'd use the term "pigheaded" to describe at least one of them.

They think because a gun has been made by an old man with a fine file and stone, that that is the only way it precision can be achieved. Modern machining has brought the price of precision down. Car engines, gun parts, sophisticated machines, all are becoming more precise and for less money.

The critical parts on an engine that turns 15,000RPM are more precise than the parts on a Python, and there are hundreds more of them in and engine. Think of all the critical dimensions, hundreds of them, that must be exactly right on a motorcycle that costs $5,000.00. How many dimensions like that are on a gun?

These guys spend a lot of money on their guns and the do it because it makes them feel important. They don't want anyone letting the air out of their balloon.

[WiskyT]

Originally Posted by Berto

Whatever lock they use, I can assure you it won't be as finely fitted or smooth in operation as the old locks were.

That might just be the best post in this thread,

[WiskyT]

Originally Posted by 38 Super Fan

Yeah, overhead cams and fuel injection are real cutting edge technology.

No, but apparently reading comprehension is. It's the COST and the ability to make these things we are talking about. Fuel injection has been around for nearly a century or so. Why was it so uncommon, reserved for only the more expensive cars? Because it was expensive to produce. The same with 4 valve heads. Now even the cheapest cars have it. Variable cam timing, six speed transmissions, limited slip rear end, anitlock brakes, It goes on and on and this is on a car that is dirt cheap.

The Mustang costs $22,000.00 now. That's $10,700.00 in 1986. In 1986 only cars costing 50-100K had the kind of performance that this car does.

[fnfalman]

I don't give a damn if the new Python; if there is to be such an animal, is hand fitted or CNC or an pony crap out of its ass. If it's well made, accurate and with a trigger to die for, then it's all good.

However, if pigs could fly and all that, I don't think that Colt would really put out a true effort. Look at the Python Elite. The damn thing is a disgrace to the Python heritage with the poor fit & finish not to mention the atrocious trigger pull. Well, to be fair, atrocious for a Python but damn good comparing to the rest.

[WiskyT]

Originally Posted by countrygun

Really funny when you consider that Chevy introduced the fuel injector in the '57 model only two years after the Python was born.

Otto Diesel did the FI thing a little earlier, what's your point?

[fnfalman]

Originally Posted by WiskyT

Otto Diesel did the FI thing a little earlier, what's your point?

And Mercedes put it in the Gullwing a few years before the Python was born too.

What's my point? The Germans put fuel injectors into their automobiles before Americans did.

What does that have to do with the Python? I have no idea.