Colt Anaconda: What the .44 Magnum Was Supposed to Be

I have never been much of a Colt fan. That is partially due to the fact that I grew up with Smith & Wessons and Glocks in my hands and partially because I was quickly turned off by Colt’s willingness to push gun control while Bill Clinton was the U.S. President.

That being said, for years, I have heard about the Colt’s Python and Anaconda revolvers. Those familiar with them rave about the quality of the guns and the durability too.

Enter October 2017, when I got my hands on the Anaconda and was able to shoot the gun under various conditions for an extended period of time. From the first trigger pull, I was in love. The gun is meaty, as it must be to handle the force of the .44 Magnum, and it is beautiful, a characteristic which is not required but appreciated.

The stainless steel gun is iconic. It has a fixed front sight, an adjustable rear sight, and a trigger that is short and crisp from the cocked position. The weight of the gun — nearly 60 ounces with an eight-inch barrel — makes the recoil manageable, which is saying a lot when talking about the .44 Magnum. Yes, the gun still “kicks” and rises in the air when fired, but individuals who grip the gun properly — and who are physically big enough to shoot a .44 Magnum — will actually find that the Anaconda makes shooting the big round fun.

It certainly gives you the steadiness necessary to get on target for a second shot with relative ease.

The Anaconda was in production during the 1990s and available by special order for a few years after that. To purchase one now means finding someone who is willing to part with it, and that can be expensive. How expensive? Prices I have seen start around $2,000 and go up.

The gun is a treasure, in my opinion. And while I can only say that I believe my late father — who loved .44 Magnums — would have purchased an Anaconda if he had known what he was missing. I can say with certainty that the gun has changed my view of Colt.

This is a firearm that can be handed down from one generation to the next. It is the gun a father gives his son or a grandfather gives his grandson. It is also a gun that you take into the mountains on hunting and camping trips, confident that it will get the job done if you find yourself under attack by a large animal.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.