The Colt Python debuted in 1955, and as late as 2006 was coming out of the company’s custom shop. It’s been on the top of GunBroker.com’s best-selling used revolver list for a long time, including last month. It has been there since February of 2014, when the Smith & Wesson 686 occupied the top spot—in a combined new-and-used revolvers listing in which the snake was still in second place.
I admit they’re one of most finely crafted revolvers ever made, but that’s a lot of Pythons. Unfortunately, GunBroker, doesn’t list prices, although Rock Island Auction does. Its April event included several of the snake guns. A first-year-of-production Python, serial number 170 went for $17,250. Another went with a high bid of $8,050, although about two dozen rather run-of-the-mill production models averaged somewhere in the $3,000 range.
Those are impressive numbers for used revolvers that have yet to attain “antique” status. The monster bid of the day was $414,000, for yet another Colt. In this case, it was a Paterson with the earliest known factory engraving.
Firearm enthusiasts have an undying loyalty to the Colt name that defies Wall Street analysis. I admit the company faces some tough challenges, but if there’s ever been a company capable of surviving, it’s Colt.
