After being Pythonless for several years, I now find myself with two.
A few weeks ago I found a 2020 Python just hanging out in a nearby Sportsmans Warehouse. Its been a great gun and worthy of the Python name.
Last week I was headed up north to check out a 1962 Cobra at a pawnshop and en route I swung into a police supply place that sometimes has old service and evidence guns. I knew I was in trouble when the normally empty parking lot was nearly full. They had just put a bunch of guns out and I had missed the email.
There were a bunch of plastics, one lonely Beretta 84, and this guy in the overflow case.
Yipes. There were sharks circling, but none near the case. For once being bulky worked to my advantage as I blocked their view and tried to get someone to hand it to me before I fainted. Finally one guy got tired of my attempts to get his attention and forked it over. There's something wrong with it, he says.
Indeed. It was hard to cock, not at all Python-like. When swung out, the cylinder was hard to turn by hand. The ejector rod looked straight, and the crane showed no gap when closed. Hell with it, write it up.
Once I cleared the background I paid for it and added in a $3 bottle of Rem Oil. In the car I doused it and waited. Voila - after a minute the gunked up cylinder turned like new and all was well.
It looks new, so I doubt it was ever issued. I've got suicide guns there before, and you can usually tell right away. Maybe it was taken as evidence and just treated nicely. Who knows.
The pointy diamonds on the stocks are still pointy.
Serial number puts it at 1974. Here it is next to its 2020 descendant.
Comparing the two, the stocks on the 2020 feel much better to my hand. Too bad the laminate doesn't look as nice as the old grips.
The older one has a typically smooth, stacking action. The 2020 is just smooth, no stacking.
I'll shoot the older one tomorrow.