My brother has gone completely gonzo for all things WWII, and traded me this nice Trooper for one of my Victory Models. In fairness, he traded some poor dude an SMLE No4 Mk 1 in a synthetic stock for the Trooper, so he made out OK in the long run.



It's in great shape - he only shot it a couple of times. Even on this "poor man's Python" the bluing is deep and rich.



The action is actually smoother than my last Python's - probably the result of the redesigned lockwork with the coil spring. Its a chunky booger, though.



I had read about all the cost-cutting sintered metal parts. I was surprised the trigger was very nicely blued, and smooth faced.



And I was really surprised to see some first-rate case colors on the hammer.



It fits an L frame holster.



All in all a very well done effort by Colt, that doesn't get a lot of respect these days. I've read not to dry fire without snap caps as a firing pin replacement is a factory-only job due to the way it is fitted. Any other fans, or words of wisdom?

__________________
“What you got, ain’t new.”

As more and more Pythons become relegated to safe-only duty, I bet more folks rediscover these to be the decent shooters they are.

Nice pics of a beautiful gun.

Nice !, BTW they also came in .22 Lr but they dont pop up for sale too often.

You're right, the grips on those are pretty chunky. The later ones had a more tapered grip. I sure would like one in .22 Mag, but they sure are pricey now.

__________________
Wayne
Torn & Frayed

Congrats to you, it's a great gun. My high school Biology teacher taught me to shoot handguns with his Trooper. But dang, those stocks aren't the prettiest things. Would I like to have one? Yep, sure would.

__________________
I'm gonna grow fins.

The Colt Trooper is a great gun. The action is superb and the accuracy is excellent. Mine has a small problem. It is the ugliest gun I've ever owned. The hammer was broken off at some time and brazed back on. It has no noticeable finish left, etc., etc. But the bore and action are perfect. For the $20.00 dollars I paid, I'm quite pleased with it. Something like, "don't judge a book by its cover."

I have this "Colt Border Patrol" which is a Trooper MKIII with a different barrel roll marking. They are nice revolvers. I had mine out last weekend. My Father bought this new back in 1972.

I was working part time in a gun shop back in the early '80's when the owner bought about 40 Trooper Mark III's. It was some kind of close out from a distributer and were old stock as the Mark IV's had been out awhile. We got in three .357 magnums and all the rest were .22 LR and .22 Magnum. I took home one in each caliber for $160.00 each. Ended up trading both the rimfires for a Diamondback .22 that wouldn't shoot a 10" group at 20 yards!

My first handgun was a 4" nickel MKIII in 1978. Sold that one of years later but picked this blued version up a few years ago that dates from about the same time. I'll likely keep this one.

__________________
BCCI Life Member #2068

Had one back in the 70's, it was a friend of mines duty revolver. He gave up LEO work and sold me his revolver. It was really a nice piece.
Of course as time went on I needed money and this one got sold!
I regret this until this day and have never sold another gun since!

Not only does the gun not get a lot of respect, Troopers in really good shape are hard to find. At least they are around here. I've never actually even seen one around here in years and years. Congratulations on getting a nice one.

IIRC the "Border Patrol" also had a satin blue finish ,
Here is a nickel Trooper III with a Colt SFVI


The Trooper III is very close in size to the S&W L frame Model 586 and the .22lr version dwarfs the K-22 ,
IMO the .22lr Colt Diamondback is very close to the feel of the Model 17-6 with full underlug barrel.

BTW the last iteration was the Trooper V which had a vented rib barrel

Never had a Trooper, but I have owned a couple of MK III Official Police 38's. I always found them to be good solid shooters, that I thought looked like a million bucks.

That is a nice Trooper. I don't blame you for grabbing it.

__________________
John 3:16 .

Beautiful old Colt!

__________________
John
S&WCA Life Member

I have been thinking about acquiring one for a few months.

I own a ca. 1970 MkIII that's a ball to shoot.

Here it is with an earlier brethren, a Trooper .357, also in nickel.

It was my first gun in 78 trade after 5 years for an s&w 27, some regrets

Colt Trooper MK III 4" was my first centerfire handgun. Bought with the money friends and family gave at high school graduation. Traded up to a 6" Python a year or so later. The Python was stolen in daylight burglary while I was living in Lakewood, Co.

They never made a Mark IV revolver.

I'm a huge fan of the DA Colts and own three myself...soon to be four. Even the post V spring guns deserve a place amongst the most respected US built wheel guns.

I quite like the Troopers. My '82 MK V has a decent trigger and is more accurate than I am (although that's not all that hard )

I really think they are good looking guns.

Attached Images

	Colt Trooper MK V.jpeg (139.4 KB, 27 views)
	Colt Trooper MK V 1.jpeg (141.1 KB, 18 views)

Nice guns. At one time I had a factory nickel Border Patrol. Can't keep them all.

Nice gun! Along about '72 or '73 I bought a new 6" MKIII Trooper in .357. Very accurate, like most Colt revolvers, with a good single action trigger, but very heavy in double action. Clean MKIIIs are becoming rather expensive now days....

__________________
NRA Life, COTEP 640

I have a couple and love them. They lock up like a bank vault!

Attached Images

	Colt Trooper Mark III.jpg (60.8 KB, 17 views)
	Colts.jpg (153.7 KB, 20 views)

In about '78' or '79' my cousin bought a S&W Model 19 and I bought a Colt Trooper III. We shot together often and I came to the conclusion that his 19 was shooting circles around the Colt. I later traded the Colt for a new Ruger Security Six in stainless with a 6" barrel. I never regretted that trade and eventually also brought my cousin's Model 19. The S&W is the only one still in my safe.

__________________
Join the NRA today

Great guns. Here's one in .38 Special marked on the butt for the Suffolk County (NY) Police Dept. Guess they didn't want Long Island cops carrying those scary magnums. I got hold of a detective up there who sent me a copy of the armory card that showed the 2 officers who were issued it while it was in service.

Since this tread I've had a re-new'd interest in shooting my Colt Border Patrol (same as a Trooper) 4". I've been experimenting with some different loads at 20 yards. I believe I've found an easy shooting and accurate loading for the 4" Trooper, or in my case for my Border Patrol.
My recipe is using a 150grain LSWC sized .357" loaded into Norma 357 Magnum brass with 3.8g of Winchester W231 and a CCI primer. The pictured target is at 20 yards, 2 handed hold, no coffee. I like this round so much I'm putting the Border Patrol back into my range rotation and not the back of the safe.