King Cobra Introduced

[Bobbysixkiller]

Though I haven't shot one, the new cobra I have handled in my local store feels like a Taurus to me. Although some like Taurus revolvers, the two I have had I didn't like. They seemed cheap made to me. The new colt had the same feel. Just my opinion.

 

[jigen_daisuke]

Would prefer it if they released a combat magnum size 4.25" King Cobra instead of a CC size

 

[adwjc]

Interesting that Kimber just brought out a similar configuration in their KS revolver line, 3" .357 w/ a hammer. MSRP about $200 more.

 

[THEmodelof1989]

There are probably only around 100,000 people that I should be telling "I told you so", but I'll be gracious and just mention that tidbit here.

I'm VERY excited to see colt get back in the revolver game. With a sub 1k msrp these suckers should sell extremely well. Keeping in mind colt isn't really known for their triggers out of these box; an original king cobra is by far the heaviest trigger I've ever felt on a revolver. Hopefully they've fixed that bit of nonsense, but I digress. The more manufacturers pushing out revolvers the better as the competition will breed higher quality and better prices.

Original king cobra owners everywhere have been crying since this news broke. My heart goes out to you gentlemen.

 

[OLDSTER]

I just saw this too. A 3" fixed sight 6 shot 357 magnum with no key lock. I am super excited about this and I'll be ordering one as soon as they're available.

Ruger offers the proven and highly regarded GP100 in a fixed sight 3" for $200-$300 less. Unless you really want the "Colt"for some reason, why not go the Ruger route ? Just askin' if there's a legitimate reason ?

 

[Telecaster]

Ruger offers the proven and highly regarded GP100 in a fixed sight 3" for $200-$300 less. Unless you really want the "Colt"for some reason, why not go the Ruger route ? Just askin' if there's a legitimate reason ?

My 3" GP with fixed sights is my overall favorite revolver.

 

[THEmodelof1989]

I've personally been known to pay extra money for guns that don't have the entire owners manual scratched into the side of the barrel (I'm talking to you ruger). Not to mention most ruger revolvers have internal locks as well, albeit the gp100 has remained unmolested in that regard... thus far.

Seriously though, I'll take a hole in the side of the frame, before I take a warning on the side of the barrel. While I honestly think they are equally ugly, the smith has a leaf spring trigger as opposed to Rugers coil spring which, in my opinion makes a massive difference in performance, putting smith on top. Yes I know rugers are built like tanks with all that extra cast steel they use, but if I need to shoot hotter loads, I'll get a bigger gun... simple as that.

This new king cobra has much sexier lines than any ruger revolver I've ever seen, and much sexier lines than any post 2001 smith revolvers. No internal lock. No novel scratched into the side of the barrel. Unfortunate as it is to say, this new king cobra fits a niche in the current market that I feel purist will flock to.

 

[stansdds]

I think it is a bit of false advertising to simply screw a longer barrel onto the fixed sight, small frame Cobra and call it a King Cobra. The real King Cobras featured adjustable sights and a larger frame, fully capable of a long life shooting magnum ammo.

 

[Flyingfool]

Pictures look to me that they left an ejection rod to be something other than full length. One of the advantages of going to 3" in my opinion is to get a full length ejection rod to have higher assurance of ejecting 357 mag cases.

With this not being the case on a premium priced gun. I have almost zero interest in this gun.

All it would seem to take is a bit more cnc time to route out the underlig and a longer rod. Geesh!

 

[Watchdog]

I'll say I love Colts...more so for their semi-auto pistols than their revolvers, but still...for shooters of my generation, the Colt name carries a lot of weight. Not to mention that their rampant colt logo is the greatest logo on any firearm.

But $900 plus tax for a 3-inch .357? I dunno. Tax in this state will push it closer to $1K than to $900.

If I wanted another short-barrel .357, I'd have to go after another SS Security-Six with the 2.75-inch barrel. And adjustable sights and real wood target grips. I do have a serious aversion to rubber grips.

It's possible I'd change my mind once seeing the Colt in real life, but even if I did, it'd be sort of a whim-buy. And an expensive whim at that.

 

[crstrode]

Amazing amount of negative comments from folks that have never even held one.

 

[UncleEd]

Pictures look to me that they left an ejection rod to be something other than full length. One of the advantages of going to 3" in my opinion is to get a full length ejection rod to have higher assurance of ejecting 357 mag cases.

With this not being the case on a premium priced gun. I have almost zero interest in this gun.

All it would seem to take is a bit more cnc time to route out the underlig and a longer rod. Geesh!

I too noticed that the ejection rod is unusually short for
a .357 or even possibly a .38.

And naming a D-frame model a King Cobra seems so like
a hot dog company calling its 6-inch sausage its Foot-Long.

 

[sigp220.45]

And naming a D-frame model a King Cobra seems so like
a hot dog company calling its 6-inch sausage its Foot-Long.

Kind of like calling a .22 pistol a Victory Model or a semi-auto a Chief's Special.

 

[Tony2much]

Keeping in mind colt isn't really known for their triggers out of these box; an original king cobra is by far the heaviest trigger I've ever felt on a revolver.

I find the trigger on mine to be very smooth and no heavier than a stock S&W. It does feel different (lighter in beginning and heavier at end of pull), but I wouldn't consider it overly heavy. YMMV

Original king cobra owners everywhere have been crying since this news broke. My heart goes out to you gentlemen.

No tears from me. It's the same as when S&W came out with their "Classic" line. The new Classic model 27 does not in any way affect how I feel about my original, mint condition 27-2 or its value to collectors. Even though I'm confident the re-issues will be solid performers and may become popular, they are just not the same to me.

I'll stick with my original and please don't feel sorry for me.

 

[THEmodelof1989]

I find the trigger on mine to be very smooth and no heavier than a stock S&W. It does feel different (lighter in beginning and heavier at end of pull), but I wouldn't consider it overly heavy. YMMV




No tears from me. It's the same as when S&W came out with their "Classic" line. The new Classic model 27 does not in any way affect how I feel about my original, mint condition 27-2 or its value to collectors. Even though I'm confident the re-issues will be solid performers and may become popular, they are just not the same to me.

I'll stick with my original and please don't feel sorry for me.

Comparing colt coming out with the new king cobra and smith coming out with a classic line is kind of like comparing apples to oranges. Colts new king cobra seems to be the exact same as the old ones, except for the fixed sights (hardly a difference there, put adjustable sights on it afterwards if it's a big deal, it's a cheap fix). Meanwhile, smith's "classic" line has completely different lockwork than the actual classics to accommodate an internal lock. To me, that is a DRASTIC difference and hardly comparable.

I feel sorry for you gentlemen because of the investments that most will lose. Surely you don't think all those 2k dollar "old" model king cobras are still worth that when you can buy a brand new one (with a coveted 3" barrel) for half the cash. If this doesn't apply to you great, but for every sucker that paid $1500+, there's a young man that inherited that same revolver for free, or a guy that just got a sweet deal. I sincerely hope the latter is the case for all, but that just isn't a realistic outcome.

I'm not trying to be mean about your specific king cobra; if you like it, I love it. I'm just calling those triggers how I feel them. Smith triggers are simply designed better, and consequently, feel much better. Ruger and colt come in a distant second in that regard. Ask the majority of decades worth of competition shooters that threw heavy bull barrels on a slicked up model 10/19 and cruised through matches.

 

[Tony2much]

Comparing colt coming out with the new king cobra and smith coming out with a classic line is kind of like comparing apples to oranges. Colts new king cobra seems to be the exact same as the old ones, except for the fixed sights (hardly a difference there, put adjustable sights on it afterwards if it's a big deal, it's a cheap fix). Meanwhile, smith's "classic" line has completely different lockwork than the actual classics to accommodate an internal lock. To me, that is a DRASTIC difference and hardly comparable.

I feel sorry for you gentlemen because of the investments that most will lose. Surely you don't think all those 2k dollar "old" model king cobras are still worth that when you can buy a brand new one (with a coveted 3" barrel) for half the cash. If this doesn't apply to you great, but for every sucker that paid $1500+, there's a young man that inherited that same revolver for free, or a guy that just got a sweet deal. I sincerely hope the latter is the case for all, but that just isn't a realistic outcome.

I'm not trying to be mean about your specific king cobra; if you like it, I love it. I'm just calling those triggers how I feel them. Smith triggers are simply designed better, and consequently, feel much better. Ruger and colt come in a distant second in that regard. Ask the majority of decades worth of competition shooters that threw heavy bull barrels on a slicked up model 10/19 and cruised through matches.

This is all in good fun and my intention is to share my opinion without irritating anybody, but I think you may need to compare the two again. Just from what I can see from looking at the photo, the new frame is very different across the bottom as well as the trigger guard shape, the cylinder release is different and the side screw is smaller and has fixed sights. This is just from a quick glance, there are probably many more differences that can be scrutinized.

My simple point is that a new model dosen't necessarily make an old one obsolete or less valuable. Everything moves in cycles and firearms in general are in a slump right now, but I seriously doubt that a new model borrowing a name from a coveted original, is going to affect value at all.

If they were made from the same molds and parts interchanged with the originals, I could maybe see a concern, but these are not that.

 

[Bacon]

As has been posted earlier, this "New" King Cobra and the original are not even the same frame size.

 

[THEmodelof1989]

You are right. I don't personally own a king cobra and never have (although I've handled and shot a 4" king cobra on several occasions as a close friend owns one). I didn't look at it closely enough, and it IS a very different revolver, sexier in some ways, not so much in others. Perhaps it will be better than the older model and it will drive the older model price down. It's more likely that you you are right about the older models holding value better than I had previously thought.

 

[BC38]

I like older Colt's. This new one looks nice, but $899.00 plus tax. They have a hard time being competitively priced. Too bad that Colt and Smith & Wesson don't move south to a much more gun friendly climate, and no unions.

Careful what you wish for.
Mexico is "south" too, they also have no unions - and the US business climate is getting increasingly unfriendly to gun manufacturing.
I am glad to see ANYONE making new all metal guns of any kind in the USA - revolvers especially.

 

[American1776]

28 ounces for a stainless 6 shot magnum? That's amazing.

Colt is testing the revolver waters for a new python. The writings on the wall.

 

[UncleEd]

It's obvious that a lot of the posters here haven't taken
notice that the new "King" Cobra is on basically what
was the D-frame which was represented in the Diamondback
and Detective Special.

It's not the basically Official Police frame on which the Python
was developed.

When the Smith .38/40 N frame came out to handle the
hotter .38s in the 1930s, Colt was able to point out that
its Official Police frame, a ".41", was adequate for the new
hot .38s. And then in the 1950s, the Python was created
upon the Official Police frame as were the .357 and Mark III
models.

The Smith K-frame falls between the Colt D-frame and the
Python I frame. When Smith was able to develop the K
into the Model 19, a somewhat handier revolver was created
than the Official Police or the Python.

Some of the reasoning in this thread, i.e. can a new Python be
far behind, seems to think Colt already has plans to come up with
a bigger frame than the new Cobra D-frame.

Right now Colt is trying to capitalize on the CC craze which
many see as something for the Smith J frame or the Ruger
LCR or SP 101.

Let's get this straight: The new "King" Cobra is not in the
class of the Smith 686 or Ruger GP 100 which are workhorse
.357 magnums. The old King Cobra was on par with the
Smith 686 and GP 100.

 

[Donn]

It was bad enough when Kimber released their K6S in SA/DA this past year, now Colt jumps in with the new King Cobra. Oh my aching credit card.

 

[jframejoey]

A round trigger guard....is it too much to ask for s round trigger guard?

 

[UncleEd]

Round trigger guards promote gun spinning.

That's no longer proper. Unless you're John Wayne.

 

[Dieseltech56]

Ruger offers the proven and highly regarded GP100 in a fixed sight 3" for $200-$300 less. Unless you really want the "Colt"for some reason, why not go the Ruger route ? Just askin' if there's a legitimate reason ?

I do have an SP-101 327 that is in this configuration but I'd like to try something new.

 

[nipperdog]

Colt Releases another Snake

Yeah it isn't very flashy but they are Just starting to Come Back from the Dead. I'm hoping that once they get going they will release some nice stuff.

Colt Introduces The All-New King Cobra Revolver

 

[cowboy4evr]

I am looking forward to the new King Cobra . I have always been a smith guy , but am open minded and have been thinking about buying a colt , or two ( no pythons , too much $$$$) . I still believe we will see the day of a " new " python . It won't be like the old ones , different mechanism and not so much hand fitting . Time will tell . Regards, Paul

 

[ladder13]

Balking at $899? I've never paid list for any gun in my life and won't if I buy one of these.

 

[Ribwizzard]

I think Colt made a good choice starting with the two models they currently introduced.
Smith's J frame is a 5 shot, and they offered a slightly larger gun in a 6 shot. And the King Cobra would be compared to the highly desirable Smith 65 , 3" , that is hard to find these days. Hopefully S&W will fire back and offer the 65 again ( without a bead blasted finish PLEASE) , hint, hint.
As far as a Python, that would be tough. It would have to compete with the 686. I'm not sure what innovation Colt could offer in a revolver to compete against it.

 

[CCantu357]

I love Colt just as much S&W and am excited about their growing DA lineup. This gun seems tailor made for me - a 3" .357 with fixed sights on a smaller 6-shot frame. It appears to be a good replacement for the Model 65 3" that is is no longer made. The 3" L-frame and GP100 are nice, but those frames are just a little to big for me.

Colt's new naming is confusing I admit, but I like the idea of this gun. I liked the Cobra last year but it did not interest me - too heavy for a sixgun that was not capable of shooting Magnums.