Broken Python

[Ray S.]

Wrong gun, I know. While dry-firing last night, the trigger mechanixm locked (froze) up in the rearward position. The Cylinder is hard to open and the trigger and hammer are inoperative. I can "pry" the trigger forward, but only did it once and nothing happened. The gun has had a trigger and action job, and I was wondering if I did something wrong. It kinda feels like something's stuck behind something.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[tightloop]

Never pry anything on a gun of anykind if you can help it. I would take it to the guy who did the trigger job and ask him to look at it and determine what is wrong with it.

[ima45dv8]

Sorry for the late reply, but I'm new here and just read this one.

It is just possible that you have some (read that as even a flake or two) of unburned powder under the extractor. When it gets down inside the cylinder, it can cause the ejector rod to flex on the front end and bind in the ejector rod housing. The only way to tell if that's the cause of this particular problem is to work it through a few cycles. If it's OK for about three cycles, gets stiff on the other three, some foreign matter is in there.

So how do I know this? I once had a real bad case of the hots for a Python, and while looking at a new one at a gun show back around 1980 I had the same thing happen to me. At first I was panicked the dealer would blame for breaking it, but when I showed it to him, he went to raising pure hell about Colt and the 3-4 bad guns he had recently received from them.

I was young and desperate (now I'm old and desperate) and offered to buy it from him, as is, for $175.00 off his price. I said I'd take my chances with getting it fixed (the guy with me thought I had lost my mind and I was starting to think he was right). The dealer took the deal and I walked away with my brand new, broken 4" Python.

About three rows over I saw a guy with a Colt Factory Repair Center sign over his table. I showed it to him, and he took a camel hair brush to the gun. Barrel up, extractor pushed out, he stabbed the brush up around the ejector rod into the cylinder. 4-5 stabs with the brush and the problem was magically gone!

He explained that they sometimes use $hit loads for the factory firing test, and because they are fitted SOOOO tight, it only takes a little bit of trash to cause a lot of problem.

I don't know if this will help, but it brings back fond memories of a great bargain!

Mark R.