This rumor flies around the internet periodically that Colt will be reintroducing the Python to the market in a limited run. I think I hear this rumor once a year right around SHOT Show, and it just popped up once again on my radar. I’d love for Colt to bring the Python back, because I’d save my pennies until I could afford to buy one. The problem is, I don’t think it’s going to happen, and here’s why.

Cost. You have to follow the money, and I can’t figure out how to make the money add up in the right way for it to make sense for Colt to bring the Python back as a catalog item. In today’s market, it would cost a lot of money to make a proper Python, because it’s full of little little metal bits that have to be put together by someone who knows what they’re doing. Making those little metal bits also requires more skilled labor, because they’re not MIM parts that can be made cheaply and quickly. So I would imagine that if Colt brought the Python back, it would be sort of like the Sig P210 that was reintroduced – a $2,000-4,000 collector’s gun, produced in limited numbers.

If they wanted to bring the Python back as a major catalog item, they’d have to find a way to make it cheaper to manufacture, which would likely mean using metal injection molded (MIM) parts for some of the internals. Now, I have no problem with guns that use MIM parts in certain areas, especially after seeing firsthand what goes into a MIM part at S&W’s factory. However, I can honestly say that I wouldn’t really want a Colt Python that had a bunch of MIM parts in it, even if it meant the revolver was only a grand instead of 2 or 3k. Because the whole point of the Python is for it to be, well a Python which means it should be the king wheelguns. Expensive, hand fitted, and laser beam accurate.

That’s why I don’t think we’re going to see the Python again any time soon. If you make it right, it’s too expensive for anyone other than serious Colt collectors, and if you price it so regular folk can buy it, people won’t want one because it won’t be a proper Python. All that being said, I would love for Colt to prove me wrong on this one and bring back the Python at the 2013 SHOT Show. In fact, I’ll shoot one for a year if they do, because I’m just a nice guy like that.

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