The author takes aim with his Python, a gun known for its smooth double-action--as well as single-action--trigger pull. In addition, the 38-ounce weight of this 4-inch-barrel version makes it extremely well balanced. Photo by the author

"At the time, Al and few of the powers that were wanted a modern gun that would handle the .357 Magnum. In those days you were either a revolver man or semiautomatic man. You never did both. I was working on revolvers, so I made the suggestion that we take the Officer's Model Match and strengthen it."

Al could not have picked a better gun on which to base the .357 Mag. The Officer's Model Match was still relatively new, having been introduced in 1952 as a target version of the Official Police, the most popular .38 Special in the Colt stable. "In fact," recalls Al, "most of the police guns in use at that time were Official Police revolvers."

That had been true for decades, as the January 1, 1934, Colt catalog confirmed: "The Colt Official Police Revolver is without any question the world's outstanding police arm. This popular service revolver is famous for its ruggedness and its ability to stand up under the severe abuse it receives at the sides of police officers the world over."

Both the Official Police and its adjustable-sight counterpart, the Officer's Model Match, had a sturdy, yet smooth lockwork that combined the best (albeit scaled-down) features of the hardy New Service revolver. And even though it was chambered in both .22 rimfire and .38 Special, the Official Police and Officer's Model Match were built on larger .41-caliber frames to better absorb recoil.

"So I started to tinker around with the . 38 Special Officer's Model Match," says Al. "That meant beefing up the cylinder and frame, including the topstrap. We had a lot of problems with blowback and the firing pins. In our initial testing of the new gun, the excessive pressure from the .357 Magnum kept hammering the recoil plate, which was a separate piece set into the frame (and necessitating frequent replacement). So the recoil plate was eliminated by putting the firing-pin hole directly into the frame and beefing up the topstrap. We also beefed up the crane to make the gun even stronger."

An extremely rare Python with 3-inch barrel (top), compared with a nickel-plated version in the more commonly found 21?2-inch barrel. Note the older, Official Police-style grips on both guns. Courtesy Little John's Antique Arms

Another--and more visually dramatic--development was the muscular bull barrel, made even thicker by a fully shrouded ejector rod and topped by a ventilated rib. Allegedly, according to many gunwriters of the time who eagerly soaked up Colt's publicity, this rib was meant to dissipate the sight-obscuring optical mirage generated by heat waves from firing the "hot" .357 cartridge. But anyone who has fired an unvented .357 Magnum knows that the heat refractions are hardly intense enough to interfere with aiming. In truth, the reason for the ventilated rib was purely cosmetic.

"We'd get together and talk about what we wanted to do [with the design of the Python]," recalls Al. "It might have been Al Gunther who first suggested we put a vent rib across the top of the barrel. It didn't do anything, but it sure looked good. I also remember there was a controversy over the look and finish of the muzzle," Al goes on. "At Colt, we had always had a radius on the muzzles of our guns, but with the Python, we ended up getting our best groups with a flat muzzle that had a countersink to it. They used to polish this flat surface of the muzzle, so that the metal would contrast with the blued barrel. But that polishing left a little 'dish' that produced an optical illusion and made the muzzle look lopsided instead of round, which it really was. So finally, I said, eliminate the polish, and leave [the muzzle] blue so that it looked normal."