By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Forget high-capacity magazines and the illusion of firepower, and focus on pure eye candy, which is where Colt over the past 75 years might hold a slight edge, thanks to the sheer beauty of sixguns which carry names such as “Python,” “King Cobra,” “Diamondback” and “Anaconda.”
I’ve had the opportunity to shoot such guns, own a couple, and even carry one or two concealed for personal protection.
As I mentioned in the last installment one week ago, revolvers are practical, fun to shoot and they force the user to be frugal with his/her shots.
Back when I used to compete in handgun matches at my local range, I won a couple of those using a Colt Python loaded with .38 Special semi-wadcutters ignited by HP-38. I learned about the inherent accuracy of the Python platform: heavy full lug barrel, remarkably smooth action and how the cylinder seems to lock up tightly aligned to the forcing cone at the instant the trigger is pressed so there would be no shaved lead. Colt continued with the barrel design as it expanded its lineup of “snake” models to include the Diamondback, Cobra and King Cobra, and Anaconda.
Colt geniuses gave us the full underlug in a modern double-action revolver, which has been copied by other gun makers because it works. The additional weight forward gives the handgun a better balance, in my opinion, and it helps suck up the recoil of magnum loads, and enhances the handgun’s accuracy.
Any aficionado of motion pictures featuring heroes with handguns knows that Steve McQueen’s Detective Lt. Frank Bullitt carried a 2 ½-inch Colt Diamondback, and John Wayne’s Lt. Jim Brannigan packed a 4-inch Diamondback. Clint Eastwood’s motorcycle cop opponents in “Magnum Force” all carried 4-inch Pythons. Bo Svenson’s Michael McBain in “Breaking Point” finished off some bad guys with a 6-inch Python.
All of these films came along before semi-autos became standard issue for peace officers, and thus led more shooters to adopt them for personal protection.
However, my handgunning started long before the shift from “round” to “flat” and experience taught me to count my shots! When opportunities arose to acquire a Python and later a Diamondback, suffice to say Mother Workman didn’t raise any dummies!
Once on a trek to Texas many years ago, I was fortunate to have a fellow writer allow me to take his Colt Anaconda chambered in .45 Colt along on a day-long hunting assignment, and I managed to shoot a bunch of jackrabbits, including one I plugged neatly through both of its ears.
As for the King Cobra, I’ve field tested a couple and found both to be reliable and accurate.
Colt’s reputation for producing world-class revolvers has never suffered even a tiny bit with any of these sixguns, and that would also apply to the legendary Detective Special and Trooper models, which were workhorse guns “back in the day” when lawmen from coast to coast carried wheelguns. I was delighted when Colt resurrected its “snake guns” and while I’ve been tempted to hit the gun shops looking for a 3-inch Python model, self-control and a reluctance to add another handgun to my battery seems to have tempered my shopping habits. Yeah, right now someone reading this will be shaking his head.
Over the course of my career, I’ve loaded thousands of .38 Special and .357 Magnum cartridges, and every Colt round gun in those calibers I’ve ever fired digested them all without fail. Today, I typically load up the Diamondback with 110- or 125-grain JHPs over a charge of HP-38 or CFE Pistol with satisfactory results, while the Python nowadays is fed a steady diet of 158-grain JHPs over H110 or 2400 (if I can find it!) and those loads have enough spunk to put down deer-sized game if the need arises.
In a world which now seems dominated by handguns with synthetic frames and squarish appearances, it’s rather delightful to encounter someone who confidently packs a wheelgun, and if it’s a Colt ,”snake gun” that’s worth extra points. Especially if I’m somewhere afield and I’m carrying the Python on a fully-loaded cartridge belt, I still get envious glances at my holstered wheelgun on occasion. Likewise, the Diamondback gets favorable nods from admirers of good sidearms. Folks whose eyes don’t reflexively become drawn to such an image “just ain’t from around here.”
One day one of my sons will hopefully appreciate the treasure in his hand. For now, those iconic wheelguns are mine.
