The old King Cobras were excellent guns. As a matter of fact a 4" stainless model was the first gun that I ever bought. Sadly I sold it to a friend of mine 3 years ago when I needed money and he promised to sell it back whenever I wanted it. I've been chasing him for 29 years to get it back but he loves it so much that he won't sell it to me.

Nope. Don't do it. The cylinder turns the wrong way. Obviously defective. Go Smith without the stupid ILS. No wait don't. Then there will be one less for me.

I bought the new King Cobra, and absolutely love it! Been flawless!! Don’t have an older one to compare, but have an older Trooper, Mark V-which is about as close as you can get. Trigger is much better on the Mark V, and like the blueing. Still, like the new purchase.

The new production (NP) Cobras and King Cobras that have come through our shop have for the most part been of very good quality. Compared to a comparable factory DA Ruger or S&W, their double action triggers are considerably smoother, with none of the grit or stacking that can be an issue with either of the two rivals. Of the brands of revolvers we sell, only the Kimber K6S has a generally sweeter trigger (dogs DO happen; make SURE you are allowed to dry fire a K6S if you're buying one). Build quality of the Colts as they're built today is good, more or less on par with a standard production Ruger or Smith. Keep in mind that NONE of them offers what I would consider superb build quality; that's just the reality of production builds in today's world. Kimber IMHO offers the best of this lot when it comes to fit and finish. When it comes to these new Colts we've had only to deal with a single return to the factory (NP Cobra in .38SPL), and that was only for some nickpicky mark in the frame's finish. It's the sort of flaw that I would've let it pass if it were my gun, but to Colt's credit they took care of it and the customer was pleased as he could be, both with the gun and with Colt. We have not had to take care of any NP Cobras for any functional issues. One NP 6" Python OTOH...

The first NP Cobras to hit the market a couple or so years back did have a lot of commentary regarding their rather fugly metal finishing, looking a lot like something Charter Arms or Taurus would've done...a decade or two ago. Even to my usually uncaring eye it was indeed rather homely for the money Colt was asking, but then again I think S&W's 686 scratchy/scruffy stainless finish work sucks almost as bad and those aren't exactly cheap either.

EDIT: oh and BTW I didn't vote. Shooting .357 out such a relatively small frames does not usually go well for me, so my op/ed is rather biased in other ways than build quality.

Do yourself a favor and take a look at the Kimber K6s.

I have the DASA model with a 3" barrel and fixed sites. Good to go out of the box. 3 dot sites.

Size of a J-Frame S&W but holds 6 rounds.


Kimber K6s 1 jpg by Dave Steier, on Flickr

GP100 if you want a full sized frame, SP101 if small to medium-ish is acceptable. Either one is excellent and I’ve never had a problem putting full house .357’s through either one. Best tank you’ll ever buy.