Speed Loader Compatibility
- Thread starter Sharps '74
- Start date
easyrider604
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Greater Vancouver, BC
No reason not to.
Some of the guys in the Mexican Practical Shooting circles used Pythons and I believe I saw a few of them using Safariland Comp II's and III's or Jet-Loaders. Mind you, I know that they did some cylinder-mouth chamfering on their guns -- but then pretty much all of us did on any revolver. A Python doesn't command any exhorbitant price in Mexico, a nice 4 or 6 inch can still be had for around 1,250.00 - 1,500.00 Canadian if you look around. Sometimes less, since the Python "as is" cannot be registered. It needs to be remarked to appear to be a Diamondback in .38 Special and (depending on which Army Base is your local registry) sometimes one needs to have a .38 Special-only cylinder installed to prevent a .357 round from being inserted and the cylinder closed upon it. Once registered, the original cylinder can be popped back in as the .38 Special cylinder stays with the Club.
How is an average person normally going to do all this? If you are "in" with the right Clubs (one in Guadalajara, one in Queretaro, one in San Miguel, another in Mexico City and one we correspond with but are not exactly affiliated with in Merida) all this can be arranged if they "like you" -- with all the snobbery and cliquishness that this implies. But the Mexican shooting crowd is a pretty paranoid group and I always call it a "closed society" as soon as one starts talking about remarking guns, switching 9 m.m. autos to .380 Cal's and all the fun stuff. So the average person with a Python to sell has to realize that he's selling a Safe Queen to someone who will keep it as a Safe Queen -- in most circumstances. Thus, many of the Combat Club guys pick up Pythons cheaper than one might normally think. My friend Alfredo has had a couple over the years that he always flogs off for a good profit when he's tight for money and he never paid more than 800.00 Cdn. for either of them.
I think if you use roundnosed bullets and a decent crimp that won't cause hangups, a Python should work fine with a Comp II or III or a Jet-Loader for the L-frame without cylinder chamfering being needed. Wouldn't cost all that much to find out anyway, especially if you already have an L-frame to use the speedloader in anyway. But I don't really know, because I don't have a Python. Seriously, I might get myself a 2.5 incher when I move back, though.
The next time I am talking or chatting on WhattsApp with one of the Python guys, I will ask them specifically what they use. I saw the guys using the fast loaders and I think they were L frame loaders, but they're an inventive bunch and they might have been using something else -- like S.L. Variants which allow you to adjust the bullet angle, and look very much like Safariland Comp III's when the Variants have the long handle attached.
Python "remarks" have come way up in quality since we started doing them around 2006 or so. The first ones were just awful, I was amazed they passed muster. But they are by now really works of art. This 4-incher was a remark from around 2010 or so. Better than the first ones, but nothing to write home about.
This early 8 incher was always a .357 Target Python but it was one of the early remarks in 2008. Some of the first ones had actual spelling mistakes and/or letters up or down out-of-line with the others. It made me shake my head that we actually fooled anyone with them, much less the Mexican Army registration officers. But at the time, I think there was the "well, who would go to those lengths to register a gun?" attitude. Also, .38 Target Pythons did exist and the Mexican Army knew that. So they accepted it. Now, of course, they are much more skeptical, having caught a few people with seriously deficient remarks -- as well as "informers" inside some of the Clubs letting the Army know what was going on. There is a reason the Mexican Civilian Combat Shooting Community is a closed community.
This is a closer shot of that 8 incher's remarking. By this time, 2008, we had learned to fill in the old lettering with metal melt and polish it and reblue it so that the removal of the old markings left no flat spots anywhere, at which time the lettering was remarked.
Now, in 2020, quality is so good that the people actually doing the remarking cannot generally tell a competitor's remarked revolver from an original factory sample. With .38 Special cylinders being fitted at the time of registry, neither can the Mexican Army. This 2.5 inch Python is from around 2014/2015 when we had all the steps down-pat.
The 2.5 inch Python is something I might aspire to when I move back. It would actually be useful as a concealed piece to carry when going out for a late dinner in any downtown area in Guanajauto.
How is an average person normally going to do all this? If you are "in" with the right Clubs (one in Guadalajara, one in Queretaro, one in San Miguel, another in Mexico City and one we correspond with but are not exactly affiliated with in Merida) all this can be arranged if they "like you" -- with all the snobbery and cliquishness that this implies. But the Mexican shooting crowd is a pretty paranoid group and I always call it a "closed society" as soon as one starts talking about remarking guns, switching 9 m.m. autos to .380 Cal's and all the fun stuff. So the average person with a Python to sell has to realize that he's selling a Safe Queen to someone who will keep it as a Safe Queen -- in most circumstances. Thus, many of the Combat Club guys pick up Pythons cheaper than one might normally think. My friend Alfredo has had a couple over the years that he always flogs off for a good profit when he's tight for money and he never paid more than 800.00 Cdn. for either of them.
I think if you use roundnosed bullets and a decent crimp that won't cause hangups, a Python should work fine with a Comp II or III or a Jet-Loader for the L-frame without cylinder chamfering being needed. Wouldn't cost all that much to find out anyway, especially if you already have an L-frame to use the speedloader in anyway. But I don't really know, because I don't have a Python. Seriously, I might get myself a 2.5 incher when I move back, though.
The next time I am talking or chatting on WhattsApp with one of the Python guys, I will ask them specifically what they use. I saw the guys using the fast loaders and I think they were L frame loaders, but they're an inventive bunch and they might have been using something else -- like S.L. Variants which allow you to adjust the bullet angle, and look very much like Safariland Comp III's when the Variants have the long handle attached.
Python "remarks" have come way up in quality since we started doing them around 2006 or so. The first ones were just awful, I was amazed they passed muster. But they are by now really works of art. This 4-incher was a remark from around 2010 or so. Better than the first ones, but nothing to write home about.
This early 8 incher was always a .357 Target Python but it was one of the early remarks in 2008. Some of the first ones had actual spelling mistakes and/or letters up or down out-of-line with the others. It made me shake my head that we actually fooled anyone with them, much less the Mexican Army registration officers. But at the time, I think there was the "well, who would go to those lengths to register a gun?" attitude. Also, .38 Target Pythons did exist and the Mexican Army knew that. So they accepted it. Now, of course, they are much more skeptical, having caught a few people with seriously deficient remarks -- as well as "informers" inside some of the Clubs letting the Army know what was going on. There is a reason the Mexican Civilian Combat Shooting Community is a closed community.
This is a closer shot of that 8 incher's remarking. By this time, 2008, we had learned to fill in the old lettering with metal melt and polish it and reblue it so that the removal of the old markings left no flat spots anywhere, at which time the lettering was remarked.
Now, in 2020, quality is so good that the people actually doing the remarking cannot generally tell a competitor's remarked revolver from an original factory sample. With .38 Special cylinders being fitted at the time of registry, neither can the Mexican Army. This 2.5 inch Python is from around 2014/2015 when we had all the steps down-pat.
The 2.5 inch Python is something I might aspire to when I move back. It would actually be useful as a concealed piece to carry when going out for a late dinner in any downtown area in Guanajauto.
I like that 2.5" , I had a spare barrel years ago, Guess I sold it at one of the show , I am not a fam of long barrels.
I do have python and L frame loaders, in my kit, I could measure them up a bit latter.
Last show I was at , one of the fellow across the aisle from me has a nice 8 " Python Target Hunter in the case, a super rare snake, scoped ,38 sp, factory.
I am too old to pay for rare these days
Sorry , I just checked, I guess I sold all the L frame smith ones I had, so I can't measure them against the colts. The K frame are smaller, I think the Ruger Security 6 is the same as the colt troopers, The HKS loaders I have left are marked python.
I do have python and L frame loaders, in my kit, I could measure them up a bit latter.
Last show I was at , one of the fellow across the aisle from me has a nice 8 " Python Target Hunter in the case, a super rare snake, scoped ,38 sp, factory.
I am too old to pay for rare these days
Sorry , I just checked, I guess I sold all the L frame smith ones I had, so I can't measure them against the colts. The K frame are smaller, I think the Ruger Security 6 is the same as the colt troopers, The HKS loaders I have left are marked python.
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Chatting today on WhattsApp with Fernando, who owns the 8-inch Python pictured above, he tells me that when speed and reliability matter he uses the H.K.S. Python loaders. He says he has tried the Comp III's and actually has an S.L. Variant L-frame loader (which works better than the Comp III) but that the spring-loaders tend to hang-up sometimes and end up being slower than the H.K.S. loaders if they hang up when you need them.
I competed with these guys and especially Fernando (who is like 30 years younger than me) is a pain in the side on the Mexican P.P.C. . If I don't do my very best, he will beat me and my eyes are getting old. But I never used one of the Pythons in a match or even tried a whole course using one although I had always intended to. I just shot them when I had the chance and told myself that getting a nice blued 4 incher to use in the Service Class matches or a 2.5 incher for "like real actual use" might be sort of neat. I believe that one of the guys in the Custom Shop can work on the old Python actions which means you could shoot the gun without undue stress of it going out-of-time because you're using it.
The 2020 Python, if it continues to be a successful seller, will probably dictate that a decent spring speedloader might be made to fit it. At least the 4.25 inch version of it offers the opportunity for Canadian owners to have one in something of a more practical barrel length to play with. I like the 4 inch because of it's "Magnum Force" heritage, but the 2.5 inch is -- for me, personally -- probably more practical. There is a group of Rural Policemen based out of Guadalajara who use the 4 inch blued Python carried in pancake holsters of local manufacture as their "service gun", carried with .357 Magnum ammo (as opposed to .38 Specials loaded up to that power level), but if they are discovered carrying them there's no problem because they have their badges and are allowed. The rest of us need to conceal quite a bit better.
I competed with these guys and especially Fernando (who is like 30 years younger than me) is a pain in the side on the Mexican P.P.C. . If I don't do my very best, he will beat me and my eyes are getting old. But I never used one of the Pythons in a match or even tried a whole course using one although I had always intended to. I just shot them when I had the chance and told myself that getting a nice blued 4 incher to use in the Service Class matches or a 2.5 incher for "like real actual use" might be sort of neat. I believe that one of the guys in the Custom Shop can work on the old Python actions which means you could shoot the gun without undue stress of it going out-of-time because you're using it.
The 2020 Python, if it continues to be a successful seller, will probably dictate that a decent spring speedloader might be made to fit it. At least the 4.25 inch version of it offers the opportunity for Canadian owners to have one in something of a more practical barrel length to play with. I like the 4 inch because of it's "Magnum Force" heritage, but the 2.5 inch is -- for me, personally -- probably more practical. There is a group of Rural Policemen based out of Guadalajara who use the 4 inch blued Python carried in pancake holsters of local manufacture as their "service gun", carried with .357 Magnum ammo (as opposed to .38 Specials loaded up to that power level), but if they are discovered carrying them there's no problem because they have their badges and are allowed. The rest of us need to conceal quite a bit better.
