Ultimate Colt Ananconda .44 Magnum in RealTree Camo in the bag

We have an Anaconda emergency at the gun shop last week. We sold down to our last Colt Anaconda and the Colt counter was looking skimpy with just one of the big .44 Magnums in residence.

So the owners decided that at long last, I could take photos and list on gunbroker an Anaconda in RealTree Camo they had been hiding in the back office for several months.

Colt only made this beauty one year, in 1996, and the owners just weren't tired of looking at it yet.

BlueBook on COLT'S MANUFACTURING COMPANY, INC. : REVOLVERS: DOUBLE ACTION, SWING OUT CYLINDER
Anaconda with scope
- .44 Mag. cal. only, 8 in. barrel, Realtree Grey camo finish on gun and scope. Mfg. 1996 only.

But since it was an Anaconda emergency, they agreed to let me list it.

Here's the Ultimate Colt Anaconda, in the Colt Team RealTree Anaconda camo bag, just like it came from the factory, complete with Redfield scope, also in RealTree Camo.

It can be yours for a mere $1,850 for buy-it-new on gunbroker.com.

I have been a Colt owner only once briefly when I bought a .22 Huntsman for $300. Then along came a guy who offered me $450 for it and it was gone. Besides, I had shot it alongside my S&W 22A-1 and the Smith beat it easily for accuracy and ease of shooting.

Anyway, I've been Colt-less since. I'm not counting the brief period when I had a Colt Cobra .38 Special on layaway, but before I could get it paid off, a Charter Bulldog stainless .44 Special came in the door. So I bid adios to the Cobra. A .44 trumps a .38 every time in my book.

So fellow gun nutz, you're welcome to the RealTree Anaconda. Can't afford it and don't even want to try. I could buy half a dozen nice handguns for the price of this beauty.

Hanging out with the 'Baby Dolls' for the holidays

I've been too busy to blog for a while, but that's a good thing. I had some time off my regular job for the holidays, so I took a part-time job with a local gunshop to keep busy. As a certified gun nut, I shoulda been paying them but they paid me so I didn't argue. What I've been doing is taking photos of their guns for sale on gunbroker.com and posting the photos and info for sale.

I had shopped there and bought guns previously but had never seen what they call the "Baby Doll Counter," down on the pawn shop end of the business, away from the other guns. This counter is full of classic, mostly out-of-production revolvers, almost entirely Smith & Wessons and Colts. And there I saw for the very first time a Colt revolver I'd never seen, a Colt King Cobra .357 Magnum (above) in Colt's Royal Blue finish. See why they call 'em baby dolls?

They also have a Colt Anaconda .44 Magnum, two Colt Pythons .357 Magnum (0nly the blue one is for sale, the Stainless one is reserved for one of the owner's Christmas presents) and a Colt Diamonback .38 Special, none of which I had ever seen before in the flesh, so to speak.

Colt no longer makes any of these revolvers, the Single-Action Army being the sole survivor of what was once a lineup of some of the best revolvers ever made. But they sure knew how to name 'em, didn't they? The Diamonback'll bite you and the Python and Anaconda eat you alive.

On the other hand, you have Smith and Wesson, who used to have some great names, the K-38 Combat Masterpiece, the K-38 Masterpiece, the very first .357 Magnum, the .357 Registered Magnum, and of course, the original Military & Police .38 Special revolver.

And then some marketing "genius"/idiot at S&W decided all those great names had to go. In 1957, the above pistols became, respectively, the Model 15, Model 14, Model 27 and Model 10.

Really gives you the warm fuzzies, don't it? But they're still great pistols and being a Smith guy, I expect one of more of them will end up going home with me. First on my list is the .357 Combat Magnum, but I ain't giving you no link to that bad boy. It's mine, all mine. Get yer own.