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Don't buy your 2020 Python just yet. Hickok45 had a problem.

13K views 53 replies 41 participants last post by  clw1128 
#1 ·
 
#35 ·
I do like my revolvers but when it comes to absolutely needing something that works every time, I'll stick with my autos (191's, Glocks & a S&W). Yes, I've had the occasional jam with autos but I've never had one quit completely. Clear the jam and keep going. And in the last couple of dozen years, none that I couldn't attribute to my reloads. On the other hand, I've had revolvers quit on me twice but they didn't work again until I got them home and torn them apart. Once my Model 19 quit due only to a piece of sand that wouldn't allow the cylinder locking pawl to retract!

As to the Python, it's a really nice looking piece but the price is way out of my price range. I wouldn't mind having one but it will have to wait until after I win the lottery! And then I'd probably buy an old one!
Cheers,
crkckr
 
#37 ·
Older Colts

As Crkckr said, it doesn't take much to disable a revolver.
I've had a firing pin break @ 400 rounds on a HB Security-Six, the forcing cone split on a 6 inch Security-Six both were '79/'80 production.

I've seen S&Ws bind-up from holster crud, as have Colt Trooper MK-IIIs.
I've seen others rusted to death, pried from holsters that have shrunk onto them run just fine. (after a dunk in diesel fuel and the holster cut off of them)

Older Pythons, and Detective Specials/Cobra/Police Positives go out-of-time.
It's a quick and easy fix for a competent Colt Armorer, often without a need for new parts.

Regardless of maker, there are a lot of fidgety bits in that bolt/pawl/hand/trigger/hammer group.

I'm wondering (not having a new Python nor new Cobra to pop-apart with my Babbitt hammer) if Colt hasn't tried to "solve" a problem by making these parts somewhat independent of each other. The pawl won't bind the hammer, the hammer won't bind the hand, neither bind the bolt and in doing so, they've invented a new problem.
Our new handguns will never jam! Great idea.

They just won't fire. And as ideas go, that one is not so much.


I've had revolvers quit on me twice but they didn't work again until I got them home and torn them apart. Once my Model 19 quit due only to a piece of sand that wouldn't allow the cylinder locking pawl to retract!

Cheers,
crkckr
 
#38 ·
According to the gurus at my LGS, no surprise here. The Anaconda had the same issues when it was released back in the day. Colt will sort it out, just like Sig did with the P320. I have a new model King Cobra, so far, so good.
 
#42 ·
As you stated - "For what it is worth".
Nice commercial, we will never get back the time spent watching it. While the factory guy spent most of his time repeating what a wonderful gun it is and the rest intimating that those who report problems used inferior ammo he neglected the reviewers who have, on video, shown the cylinder to stop rotating while the hammer is cocked and released in both single and double action. Doesn't make much difference what ammo you put in if the cylinder stops rotating (at least after the first shot)!
Sure the number of problem guns reported is small, so is the percentage of the production that any one of the 'fan boys' has shot. " I shot 4 of them and all were great"
I fully expect that Colt planned on a very large percentage of Python sales to go directly into gun safes without ever being fired, reduces their need to worry about quality control quite a bit.

Bruce
 
#44 · (Edited)
By the time we actually see one of these in person, I suspect Colt will get it right.

These are T&E guns. They are trying to court a new market for revolvers and they cannot afford to fail, with high-quality competition from the other manufacturers. FWIW, Kimber owners of early K6S guns like mine reported broken firing pins.

I have been lucky with mine, after 1100 or so rounds, mostly .38 spl and +p, but I have one of the first 6000 built.

My 1996 GP 100 shot like a champ yesterday, including some hot .357 loads fired one-handed. I still contend that in this era of plasticware semis, duty-type revolver QC is down at both Ruger and Smith. We hear it all the time here and at the S&W forums. Taurus and Charter, conversely, have upped their games.

As for Colt, I do not need a Python, but it would be fun to own a 6” barrel version. One day.
 
#46 ·
TFB reports the same problem at SHOT show range day
I reckon some Colt employees are out of their jobs right now. So much for the Colt rep's remarks about "inferior ammo," as the gun experienced the issue with Colt's own branded ammo :p

Still, like the first year of a new car design...wait a bit. Zenlike patience if you want one of these. I do want a Python, and I don't mind waiting a year or two.
 
#49 ·
So this thread is about the Python, correct?
If so, there is a new article in the new Feb. 2020 issue of the American Rifleman, in which the testers had problems also with the King Cobra Target, spraying hot gases onto the testers' hands and the bean bag used for support. And that's a unit which Colt donated for the testing/evaluation.
Anybody else seen that yet? It's on page 52 of the publication.
 
#51 ·
Not to beat a dead horse, but GoldenWebb put up another video. Scrub over to the 6:33 mark. That is a pic of a 2020 Python that was shipped to an FFL. Notice something missing? How did that make it past quality control? Something's gone horribly awry at Colt.

 
#52 ·
Back to this dead horse: Colt has issued an explanation (sort of) and admitted a problem (not really). So for the subject of this thread, Hickock45's example had a loose side plate that then allowed parts to move. Lite strikes are being addressed with more tension on the leaf spring. Those changes may or may not address all the issues, but it appears to be a step in the right direction to "fix" it. All this is for what its worth. Still going to wait before I consider adding one to the safe, but they do look good.

One thing that struck me as a revolver enthusiast was the second to last paragraph, text color added for emphasis.

The Python has created enthusiasm for revolvers among people who have handled nothing but striker-fired pistols their whole lives. It has been decades since double-action revolvers were standard-issue for police, and simple things to veteran sixgunners–such as keeping your hands, fingers and feet away from the cylinder gap– have been lost in a generation.


https://www.americanrifleman.org/ar...9ViFJlQljj5pRBmEcP-aoOW-P3ust0aFFO8wKdpzf_36I
 
#53 ·
It has been decades since double-action revolvers were standard-issue for police, and simple things to veteran sixgunners–such as keeping your hands, fingers and feet away from the cylinder gap– have been lost in a generation.
LOL, I shredded the leather top of a bag shooting some Ruger Only Loads in my Super Blackhawk Hunter 45LC, resting the gun on the bag so that the cylinder gap was in the middle of the bag. I had to stitch a new piece of leather to the top of it. I tried putting rags on top of the bag to protect it but those got shredded to.
 
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