runscott, I'm not offended at all. But the fact of the matter is that the .357 Magnum cartridge's true name is the .357 S&W Magnum and was developed to counter Colt's .38 Super Automatic cartridge, according to Wikipedia. And the first pistol that was developed to use this cartridge was the Registered Magnum, which is basically the same N frame revolver that evolved into the Model 27. And the Model 27 was (and still is) the "Cadillac" offering of S&W, just like the Python was the "Cadillac" offering of Colt. So in my book, the more proper comparison would be Python to Model 27 and the Trooper would be more properly compared to the 686 or 586, since both are the less fancy lines from the 2 manufacturers. Now size-wise I will agree that the Python and the 686/586 compare very closely.

BTW, I'm not up of the history of the Colt .357 guns, but I know that any .357 Magnum offerings from them came after S&W, since S&W was the developer of the cartridge. You can't really go wrong with either, but I just never really warmed up to the Python as compared to my 27-2.