Reg

Some time back there was a Python on an auction site. It was claimed that you built this for Colt Marketing and that there was only one made. Could you tell us a little about what all was done to the gun. I would also appreciate hearing a little about the custom wide trigger which I believe your shop made. Is it cast or forged? They have been mentioned in some posts on Pythons from years ago.

Thanks and I really enjoy the information you offer in your posts here.

Austin Behlert

In the late 60s or early 70s Bill Judd then sales mgr (I believe) at Colt asked me to bring him a custom Python I build to show manedgement to mfr in the future. I had been doing alot of OMs and Pythons and sent them one. On the double action part of the job I had a very unique way. If the pistol was new and if the timing was right I could see no reason in heating and bending the sear end down on the trigger and then having to completely retime it. I simply ground a groove in the center 1/3rd of the sear point face in a radius to match the arc when squeezing the trigger in double action . I then ground the sides of the pickup lever in the hammer to ride in this groove. This completely removed the lift at the last part of the double action and after polishing all the important parts I came out with a smooth 5 lb pull. Don Tedford at Colt couldnt believe he never thought of doing it this way. The wide trigger was acomplished by milling a radius in the front of the trigger to match the segment of a circular piece I then silver soldered in ( cerrated). This method also corrected most of the tight curve in Colt triggers. Another pistol I did for Bill Judd will be told about shortly. I had a few Colt forgings of triggers in the raw and for years tried to get them to make wide triggers as there was plenty material to do so, but who was I to tell Colt

Reg

Thanks for the information. The idea of the groove is quite interesting. Did this allow the single action to be lighter than where the sear end of the trigger is bent down?

Reg

Austin Behlert

The single action remained about the same and it sure saved alot of work redoing the timing. I was always of the opinion that timing a Colt revolver was a real pain, u7nless your name was Don Tedford.