The original snake guns from Colt were high-polish, hand fitted masterpieces. The smooth feel of the trigger pull was matched only by the exquisite exterior finish. Discontinued in 2005, it remains one of the highest requested line of firearms to be brought back from the graveyard. New for 2017 Colt has heard the people’s request and is giving them what they want.
Well, in name anyway.
One of the earlier versions of the snake line to be retired (1981 to be exact) the Colt Cobra is a revolver designed for the concealed carry and law enforcement market. The new Colt Cobra is in that same vein, and while it bears the same name and specs as the original it falls short on a few key features.
The good news is that the trigger is great. Colt’s double action / single action system has been perfected over the years and this trigger benefits from their experience. In double action mode the trigger is smooth, and in single action mode the break is crisp and clean.
Great triggers aren’t the only thing that made a Colt Cobra famous, though. One of the defining features of the line is the hand fitting of parts and highly polished exterior, things distinctly missing on the new Cobra handguns. Stroking the side of the revolver feels less like stroking the slick scales of a cobra and more like a cat licking your hand. Instead of a high polish it looks like Colt went for a bead blasted exterior. That’s not necessarily a bad thing for a concealed carry styled handgun, but the better option for this specific line would be something similar to the deep blueing that came on the original guns.
Out on the range the gun shoots just fine, but apparently there’s still some bugs to be worked out since one of the test models they had jammed shortly before 11 AM and refused to work for the rest of the day.
I don’t have high hopes for the return of the Colt snake line. The machinists who made the guns what they were have moved on and Colt in the post-bankruptcy world might not have the cash to invest in restarting the line properly. I get the sneaky feeling that this is a desperate cash grab attempt from a company on the brink of insolvency and I just hope they don’t ruin what was an amazing line of firearms.