Way back when I was shooting PPC, there were several shooters from Texas, DPS or Rangers, that shot Pythons that were tuned by Reeves junkind (Spelling ?). One of those guys was named Billy McElroy, I believe. He was about 47 or so when I shot next to him. He was later an NRA Board member. A really nice guy. They shot so well, but the action was deifficult to tune as well as a Smith. I would guess that the motivation was to make an easily tuned PPC gun with the heavier, better shooting Colt barrel. Word was that the Colt barrel was .356 rather than .357, and more accurate than the Smith. Around this time, Ron Power built some k38s with a cut off cylinder and barrel extending farther back into the frame to shorten the jump of the wadcutter bullets. All this led up to the 1" PPC barrels and Aristocrat ribs with sights that could be adjusted for neck hold at both 25 and 50 yards. The Smolts did not have that much sight adjustment, making them old technology. At least that would be my take on the process.
I still think they have the best features of both the Smith and Colt, as well as grace and beauty.
Never was lucky enough to stumble on one.