Yes, it appears to be true.

Various "internet experts" have been littering the online forums telling anyone who would listen that Colt was going to start making revolvers again "real soon." That sounded odd to me, as Colt seems to have been doing everything possible to avoid making revolvers. So, I decided to call the source - Colt.

I talked to several people at the company, and I learned that:

- they hadn't actually produced any Pythons for "a couple of years";
- they'd sold their last Python from remaindered stock over a year ago;
- they didn't have "any plans at all for resuming Python production", and:
- the topic of revolvers wasn't even being discussed at any of their planning meetings.

One can only conclude that revolvers - at least, the Pythons - are dead as far as Colt is concerned.

All this happened about 6 months ago. I was speaking with a well-known industry figure recently (someone whose name you would instantly recognize), who passed along what he called a "credible rumor": Colt had sold all of their revolver tooling and jigs for scrap. Since this person has well-placed sources everywhere, including Colt, the chances of it being mere gossip were remote. Still, he referred to it as "rumor" - so I held out hope. However, I broke the story on the Colt discussion forum.

Well, the "other shoe" has now dropped. On the discussion forums at sixgunner.com, Michael Bane - well known and respected in the industry himself - confirmed the rumors. It seems Colt really is out of the revolver business - permanently.

I still hope that all of this is simply a put-on by someone at Colt, but as yet no one has been able to authoritatively refute the information given.

RIP, Python.

-=[ Grant ]=-