"[5] Some firearm collectors and writers such as Jeff Cooper and Ian V. Hogg have described the Python as "the finest production revolver ever made".

[1][2][6][4][7][8][5] The Colt Python did not have an intensive development program, it was essentially gunsmiths on the production floor trying to come up with a match revolver using mostly existing pieces and parts, and what they created was one of the "finest-looking handguns ever made" according to Keefe.

De John started to tinker with the .38 Special Officer's Model Match beefing up the cylinder, frame, and top-strap due to problems with blowback and firing pins from the excessive pressure from the .357 Magnum hammering the recoil plate.

[2] Colt originally manufactured Pythons with hollow underlugs but left them solid to work as a stabilizing barrel weight.

The Python was the first time Colt used the Royal Blue finish, coming from a very high polish on the gun and then bluing.

In a 2000 follow-up letter to distributors, the company cited changing market conditions and the costs of defending lawsuits as the reasons to discontinue the Python line, as well as a number of other models.

This required expensive gunsmith specialists to file and hand fit parts together, contributing to high labor costs.

The 2020 reintroduction of the Colt Python was partially made possible with the increased precision of machining and improvements of tolerances and strength of metal injection molding, negating the need for "hand fitting" by expensive specialists.

So for the second generation Colts, engineers redesigned the rear sight which allowed them to add 30 percent more steel above the cylinder in the top strap.

Since the 2020-update, the V-spring has been redesigned into a "U" shape, in addition to simplifying and subtracting parts from the lockwork, to prevent "stacking", a phenomenon where the weight of pull sharply increases at the end of the trigger's travel.

[21] Python has since fallen out of common use, along with all revolvers, due to changing law enforcement needs that favor semi-automatic pistols.

[22][23] The move away from the Python is also being driven by the increasing number of law enforcement agencies which require officers to carry department-issue weapons (as a way to reduce liability).

A Python, loaded with semiwadcutter bullets, was used to murder Irish crime reporter Veronica Guerin in 1996, an act which resulted in the creation of the Criminal Assets Bureau.

[24][25] The Colt Python was featured prominently on the AMC horror drama, The Walking Dead, being carried by its main protagonist, Rick Grimes, during its 11 seasons from 2010 to 2022, leading to a large increase in market demand which assisted in the reintroduction in 2020.

It has been featured in many TV series, movies, comics, and video games including The X Files, Burn Notice, Hawaii Five-O, Starsky and Hutch, City Hunter, John Wick, American Gangster, Fight Club, and King Kong.

"[4] The Colt Python featured a fully adjustable white-outline Accro rear sight and a 1⁄8-inch (3 mm) front ramp with red inset.

[30] In 1982, the Colt Python Silhouette came with a rib-mounted Leupold scope and Pachmayr grips, and housed in a black fitted-case with nickel trim.

The first was the Colt Boa of 1985, a limited production run of 1,200 .357 Magnum revolvers, made for the Lew Horton Distributing Company in Massachusetts.

A downside to the older generation Colt Python's precision as a tendency to go "out of time" with continued heavy shooting.

[37] Going "out of time" or mis-timing on a revolver is a condition in which the hand does not move each and every cylinder chamber to the exact correct rotation with respect to the forcing cone.

In any case, the first and most common symptom of typical timing issues will be only a slight loss of accuracy, which on a Python may not even be noticeable to many shooters.

[20] Stacking, a phenomenon where the weight of pull sharply increases at the end of the trigger's travel, was an issue for the first generation Pythons.

Both revolvers are 6 to 9 ounces (170 to 260 g) lighter than Smith and Wesson's more powerful M29 .44 Magnum, which weighs 3.0 lb (1.4 kg) in 6+1⁄2-inch (17 cm) barrel configuration.