A GRAND OLD SIXGUN
Jim Wilson
A Border Patrol supervisor and I were having a cup of coffee and spending the time visiting about guns. Being several years younger than me, he looked surprised when I mentioned the Colt Trooper revolver. He’d simply never heard of it. And that is a real shame because the original Colt Trooper was quite a sixgun. It was similar to the Python but, frankly, I prefer it to the Python.
The Trooper’s story begins in the few years following World War II. Colt, like a lot of other manufacturers was getting back into the civilian market and decided to do it with two medium-frame revolvers that were actually just one revolver. Let me explain.
Prior to the world war, one of Colt’s most popular double-action revolvers had been the Officers Model Match. This was a .38 Special revolver that came standard with a six-inch barrel. Back in those days, a lot of police officers were competitive shooters and that meant shooting slow and rapid-fire competition at bullseye targets. A lot of those same cops liked their target guns so much that they special ordered the same gun, with a 4-inch barrel, for regular duty. Yessir, you could really do that back in those day; just write a letter to the company, tell them what special work you wanted done, it would soon be headed to your doorstep, and you didn’t even have to fill out a 4473. Hard to believe, isn’t it?
At any rate, Colt got back into the market by putting a 4-inch heavy barrel on the Officers Model Match and calling it the Trooper. At the same time, they took the same revolver, chambered it for the .357 Magnum cartridge, installed a frame-mounted firing pin, and called it The .357 Magnum. The latter gun had a fancier external finish while the Trooper, with its firing pin in the hammer, had a less expensive finish. Clearly, the idea of the Trooper was aimed at police purchases.
However, about 1955, someone got the idea of sticking a fancy barrel on the Magnum with a vent rib and full-length underlug. And, while we’re at it, let’s name it after a snake. The Python was born.
With the advent of the Python, The .357 Magnum was eventually dropped from the Colt line and next era of the Trooper began. This Trooper would come standard in the magnum cartridge, have the frame-mounted firing pin, but retain the less fancy finish. By this time, one could also order it in .22 Long Rifle, .38 Special, or .357 Magnum, and get it with a 4 or 6-inch barrel, blued or nickle. This original Trooper, with the same guts as the Python, was finally discontinued in 1969.
Now, I have no idea how many of the original Troopers were made by Colt, but it must have been quite a bit. You can still find them on the used market and at most gun shows. Maybe not as fancy looking as the Python, the Trooper is still a tough old sixgun and well worth owning and shooting.
The benefits of the Trooper are several. Being a bit larger revolvers, they handle magnum recoil better than the S&W K frames and, in my opinion, even the L frames, yet they aren’t as large or heavy as the S&W N frame guns. In addition, they come from the era when Colt was famous for putting very accurate barrels on their revolvers.
Years ago and fresh out of college, I put on a badge for the first time and stuck a 4-inch Colt Trooper in my holster. I liked it because it was easy to shoot and easy to shoot well; it made me look good at our department matches. However, young fool that I was, peer pressure caused me to fall in line and start carrying a Smith & Wesson revolver like almost all of our officers did. One of my major regrets is not hanging to my first Trooper. However, what goes around come around.
That visit with the Border Patrol supervisor resulted in my eventually owning a 1960s-era Trooper that had the frame-mounted firing pin and magnum chambering. Though I don’t know for sure, I suspect that it had been an early police trade in. That gun eventually went off to Tyler Gun Works for an action job and reblue. As a surprise to me, Bobby Tyler had his crew fit a set of mammoth ivory stocks to it.
Since that time, I was wandering through the gun show up at Midland, Texas, and came across a very mint Trooper, in .38 Special, from the 50’s era. This one had the firing pin mounted on the hammer. I bought it for 1/3 of what a Python would have cost and it, too, has found a permanent home. The fact that it is not a magnum doesn’t concern me one bit because I prefer what used to be called the .38/44 load, that is a 158-160 gr bullet leaving the muzzle at 1000 to 1100fps; and that can be accomplished in the special or magnum case quite easily. So, you’d think I would be happy and content…but I’d really like to find one more Trooper.
This Trooper would go to Tyler Gun Works and be converted to the wildcat .41 Special cartridge. The idea of a 215-220 gr bullet, running 900 to 1000fps, really intrigues me. And I am enjoying experimenting with that cartridge.
Sadly, when Colt dropped the original Trooper in 1969, they followed with other revolvers that did not deserve to be called Trooper, although they were. The Trooper Mk III and its followers were not as well made, not as accurate, and not as tough as the original. So don’t overlook those old Troopers at the gun shows or gun shops What you’re looking at is just a Python without all the fancy frills…and without the fancy price tag.
