BAG Day 2005
Kim du Toit
April 15, 2005
12:00 AM CDT
Now that BAG Day is finally here, I suppose everyone wants to see what I got. The suspense has been killing you, right?
Okay. And why not? Your unbelievable generosity a month ago enabled me to fulfil my lifelong dream.
It’s the magnificent Colt Python .357 Mag, in the “Royal Blue” finish, with a 6” barrel.
Longtime Readers will know that although I am no great fan of the .357 Magnum cartridge, I have always had a deep and abiding love for the Colt Python, especially as pictured.
In my opinion, it is quite frankly the most beautiful revolver ever made (and others share my opinion). And, also in my humble opinion, the addition of the fuller-figured Hogue one-piece cocobolo grip has done nothing to detract from its beauty, either (and makes it easier to shoot).
Of course, being the Cheap Bastard that I am, I was never going to pay the near-grand that a new one costs, so this one has seen a couple of loving users (although it’s now owned by its last user, until I shuffle off to that Great Shooting Range in the Sky, of course). The price was a full two-thirds of its normal retail price (which is about a grand).
Like everyone else seems to have done, I cheated and got it a couple of days before BAG Day, simply so I could test it and make sure it shot okay.
It shoots okay. [cue hysterical laughter] Winchester White Box .357 Mag 158gr jacketed hollowpoint (JHP), double-action offhand, at 15 yards:
Oh, and that’s fifteen rounds (I’d popped off three elsewhere on the sheet, just as a “howdy-do?” to the gun). Once I’d punched out that big hole, I just aimed for the center of it, and the rest of the bullets just breezed through. I have no doubt that had I touched off another six, the target would have looked largely unchanged.
I’d just finished doing the above, when the Son&Heir elbowed me out of the way, and proceeded to empty the rest of the box of ammo (into a golfball-sized hole grrr grrrr grrrrr).
He turned to me with a look of total awe, and said: “You mean I get to shoot this gun, anytime I want?”
All I could do was nod. Yup, the Python Mystique had claimed another victim.
And it’s not hype, either. The action on a Python (and on this one in particular) has to be felt to be believed. In my life, I’ve shot hundreds of sixguns, literally hundreds. Not one, not even the famed Lew Horton Smith & Wessons, come close (okay, the Hortons do come quite close, but none of the others do). Just the silky-smooth snick-click cocking sound of the Python causes grown men to get weak at the knees. And then… there is the trigger.
The double-action pull is so smooth that, for the first time in my life, I’ve found myself preferring to shoot DA instead of single-action. And it’s the thin, smooth-polished spur trigger too, not one of those wide “target” things.
Now all I need is a decent holster like the one Brigade Gunleather makes and a couple more Safariland speedloaders (I already had one, don’t ask), and I’m done. Oh boy, am I ever.
I always knew I would love to get a Python. What I did not know was that I would fall in love with it. I carry it around the house unloaded, playing with it, opening and closing the cylinder, cocking and uncocking it, and pulling the trigger on a snap cap. I am captivated, completely and utterly, by this gun.
Once again: words cannot express my gratitude for my Readers’ generosity, and especially for the Reader and Friend who sold it to me at so generous a discount. You guys enabled me to get one of my all-time Dream Guns… when I’d basically resigned myself to having to wait for a year or two.
Thank you. Thank you.
I have the best damn Readers in the blogosphere.
And if you want to get something similar for yourself, here are a couple of links:
Dream #1
Dream #2
Dream #3 (with 8” barrel)
Gratuitous Gun Pics
