The trigger is slightly reshaped to provide more leverage for the trigger finger. The trigger and action are also a bit different. That couldn’t be done with the old Colts. The new sight can also be removed with just an Allen wrench and replaced with a night sight. In addition, the new Cobra has fixed sights like most D-Frame models, but instead its front sight has a fiber-optic insert. The similarity is close enough to allow some speedloaders, stocks and holsters that fit the older D-Frame guns to be used with the new ones. The receiver itself is very close in size but not identical to the old Colt D-Frame. Like the old Cobra, it’s a six-shooter, but it has a stainless steel frame rather than an aircraft-grade aluminum frame. The current-production Cobra is not an identical copy of any DA/SA revolver built by Colt in the past, but it is similar to the famous Colt snubbies in many ways. But the biggest surprise came when a Colt engineer told me at the 2017 SHOT Show that the new Cobra revolver used the classic Colt flat V-spring operating system instead of coil springs. I was really surprised to see Colt back in the DA/SA revolver business since I’d been told several years ago by a factory representative that this was very unlikely. Of course, a bit of the wind came out of my sails when I started seeing full-page ads for the new Colt Cobra in gun magazines. After all, waiting 50 years to purchase something you really want isn’t exactly impulse buying. Given that Colt wasn’t making any more DA/SA revolvers, I immediately bought it.

Then, in 2016, I saw a 4-inch-barreled Diamondback in better than 90-percent condition on for a very reasonable price. The “little snake” didn’t come home that year, and over time I wished that it had. 38 Special I’d ever seen. Unfortunately, it cost a whopping $125, and I already had a Police Positive. In 1967, I saw my first Colt Diamondback in a hardware store in central Illinois, and it was the nicest.

Colt diamondback history