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Colt Python Walnut Grips Medallion?

Big Daddy DonBig Daddy Don Member Posts: 54 ✭✭
edited November 2007 in Ask the Experts
I need some "edumication" here, guys.

I recently bought what was advertised as a pair of nearly-new Python walnut grips, but now I'm wondering if they were actually made for some other Colt(s), but also fit a Python.

The medallion on this set is different from the walnut grips for the other four Pythons I have, which I bought factory-new. The others all show the rampant Colt the same way the tiny stamping on the gun itself does: the full outline of the horse, rearing on its hind legs.

This "new" set shows the front half of the horse only. The screw, which is the same length as the screws in the other sets I have, sits noticeably deeper in the left panel and extends .13" past the surface of the screw nut on the right panel, but not past the surface of the grip panel. The screw nut itself also sits deeper in the grip panel than it does on the other guns.

In other words, the screw appears to be too long, as all the other screws are roughly flush with the surface of the screw nut.

At first I thought it was just a set of grips made for a Python in a different production run, but now I'm not so sure. I think the "new" grips are genuine Colt grips, but I'm not sure they're Python grips per se. For what I paid for them, I don't want a set of grips made for some other gun that just happen to fit a Python (and they do fit the gun nicely).

If they are Python grips, I don't care about the rest of it. If they're not, I wouldn't have bought 'em, since the gun had the Colt rubber grips on it already. I just wanna know what I've got! I can e-mail some pics, but I think a Colt person would know from my description ...

Thanks!

Comments

  • dfletcherdfletcher Member Posts: 8,179 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Python grips also fit the OM Trooper and various Officers Match revolvers made from the 1920s to about 1969. I'm generalizing quite a bit, but the three pretty distinct variations of Python factory wood grips are the fully checkered version used in the early 1950s folowed by a partially checkered version into the 70s followed by another partially checkered version which had the checkered portion end in a straight line front to back, just below the medallion. I don't recall the figure of the horse itself.
  • tomh.tomh. Member Posts: 3,848 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    dfletcher is correct.
    There are three different checkering patterns.
    Here is the third style with flat edge of checkering at the top (probably the most common):
    python3.jpg

    The second style with a crescent at the top of the checkering:
    python2.jpg

    The first style has full checkering up to the top of the grip and around the medallion.

    The medallions were gold. The 150th anniversary medallions had just the bust of the horse and "150." They're the only ones I can remember with just a bust of the horse.

    Do these look like what you have?
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