tubeshooter
Contributing Member
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2006
- Messages
- 2,149
There's only name and rough form in common between the old classic Colt double actions and the new offerings with the Colt name. That's not to say the new ones are no good, or that they can't serve the same functions because by all accounts they are pretty decent on the whole with only about an average amount of factory lemons cropping up among a lot of mostly satisfied customers.
The thing is, knowing how the fit and finish is on the old Colts versus the new offerings, it's very clear that the classic guns will always command a high price. Theres just no replicating the craftsmanship that made the hand fitting possible, or even the basic mechanical results of what the old jigs and fixtures produced. Theres a soul of sorts in the tooling and once it's worn out and gone it can't come back. Something similar in a lot of ways can be made, but it will just not ever be the same.
The thing is - as time goes on, there are less and less people alive who are cognizant of the difference. Even then, many will just have "heard about" the difference (like myself) and be aware of it, not actually experienced it to any degree.
Only the heirs of those with today's "legacy/Old" Pythons will be in on that.
Or those willing to pay that premium.
We know the S&W "pre-model 17" was made to a different standard than a 17-3 or 17-6... but at what point is it just another model 17? At what point do you stop asking for a premium? Granted that they were made continuously, unlike the Python situation...
If they keep continuously making "New" Pythons, in 40 years it will just be another Python to the average buyer. But there will always be those who know the difference and be willing to pay (dearly) for it. However small that pool of buyers may become over time.