Colt Python Silhouette Prototype

Most Pythons come in two, four, or six inch barrels and wear the same Royal Blue everyone recognizes. This one goes a different direction entirely. The barrel stretches out to eight inches, carries a full ventilated rib milled for a scope base, and wears a roll mark that reads Python Silhouette .357 Magnum CTG. That marking is the tell. Colt built this as a silhouette competition gun, a configuration that never reached real production, and examples like it almost never come up for sale.

Silhouette shooting rewards a heavy, forward-balanced revolver, and the extended barrel does exactly that. The long sight radius and the weight out front settle the muzzle for slow, deliberate fire at steel rams and chickens downrange. You can feel the bias the moment you pick it up. It hangs steady in a way a six inch Python never quite manages.

The finish is the deep Royal Blue that built the Python's name, polished to that wet, almost black look across the frame, barrel, and cylinder. The vent rib is cut for an optic, and the front sight carries the red insert Colt used on its target guns. Action is classic Python. Crisp single action, smooth double action, tight lockup with no play in the cylinder.

Grips are the factory checkered black rubber Colt stocks with the gold rampant colt medallions set into each panel. They fill the hand and give a secure hold under recoil.

The package is complete with its original box and a Colt factory letter. That letter matters here more than usual. With a prototype, documentation is what separates a genuine experimental piece from a later modification, and it anchors exactly what this revolver is. For the Python collector who already has the standard barrels covered, this is the one that fills the gap nothing else can.