At this point the repair man would call the executive's entire family lineage into question, and invite him downstairs to look at the S.O.B. for himself! After a hasty palaver, Colt called the owner of the Python, and very politely asked him where he had purchased his revolver. Mr. Genius told them he had bought it from Bubba's Gun Shop, in blank-blank Texas. Colt told Mr. Genius that they would get back to him. A week, or so later, two very legal looking gentlemen in very expensive suits stopped in to visit Bubba. They told him that they were from the firm of Cheatem, and Howe, in New York, and represented Colt Firearms. They informed him that they had just come from a very nice chat with the BATF, and that the friendly agents had agreed to let them handle the matter, if it could be resolved to their satisfaction. Their satisfaction required that Bubba provide a record of sales of all .41 Mag Pythons, and that Bubba himself forget that he had ever even dreamed of such an idea. Bubba, of course, replied "what idea?" and so ended the saga of the .41 Mag Python...almost.
Gun traders being the sort of folk they are, Bubba's sales list rounded up only a fraction of the Pythons, since a fair number had been re-sold into the "pipeline", with no records kept. Just a few years ago, many years after the saga ended, I went to visit a friend, and do some trading. he proffered a zipper bag with an evil grin that meant serious money. I unzipped the bag, and out fell a 4" Nickel Python with way too big of a hole in it. "Holy cow! a Bubba Python!" I exclaimed. He had no idea of what I was talking about, of course.
When I asked how much, he shot me an outrageous price, exclaiming how scarce they were, and how Colt had only made a limited run. I howled in prote-st, explaining that Colt's "limited run" amounted to exactly zero! "No sir!", he shot back, "They're in the Blue Book!". Having never looked a Python up in the Blue Book, I snatched a copy from my bag, and furiously flapped to the Colt section. Sure enough, there it was. A footnote under the values listed for Pythons stated that "a few were mfg. in .41 Magnum". Ol' Bubba's work was so good that it had fooled even the experts, who being experts, assumed they were factory production, since Colt denied ever hearing of such a thing. Roy Fjestad's sleuths had assumed the same thing, and their listing of the Bubba Pythons as Colt production had legitimized Bubba's efforts for eternity as the real deal. I consider it a fitting tribute to the man's inventive genius, and an equal tribute to the boundless egos of "gun experts" everywhere.

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Of the Troops & For the Troops