Colt Python

The Colt Python is a double-action handgun revolver that uses a .357 Magnum cartridge. It was first produced by the Colt Manufacturing Company in 1955 an remained in production until 1996. Pythons have a reputation for accuracy, smooth trigger pull, and a tight cylinder lock-up. The average weight of the Python varies between 38 to 48 ounces depending upon the barrel length. Standard barrel length on some models is 2.5 inches, but may go as high as 8 inches.

In horror fiction, the Colt Python is the weapon of choice of one Rick Grimes, the main character from the AMC television series The Walking Dead. He is seen wielding this hand cannon in most promotional posters created for the show. In season one of the show, Rick Grimes was a Sheriff's Deputy for the King County Sheriff's Department in the state of Georgia. Rick was injured during a shoot-out with an escaped convict and awakened months later at Harrison Memorial Hospital. He discovered that during the time that he had been unconscious, the world had gone to Hell, lost in the wake of a zombie apocalypse. Rick befriended a man named Morgan Jones and his son Duane and brought them to the police station so they could stock up on weapons and ammunition. Rick grabbed the Colt Python and first used it to shoot his former colleague, Leon Basset (now a zombie) in the head between the links of a chain-linked fence. Before leaving King County, Rick returned to the grassy area outside the hospital and finished off a bicycle girl zombie named Hannah who no longer had the benefit of her legs. As he journeyed forth from King County towards Atlanta, Rick came across a little girl zombie outside of a gas station. Tormented over seeing someone so young turned into something monstrous, Rick provided another mercy killing by firing the Colt into her head.

Towards the end of Summer, Rick and the other survivors of his group discovered that one of their own, a young girl named Sophia Peletier had become a "walker" and was restrained inside of a bar on the farmland belonging to Hershel Greene. Rick, Shane Walsh and several others opened fire on the other walkers that began emerging from the barn after Shane had unlocked it, but it was Rick who had the solemn duty of firing a bullet into little Sophia's zombie brain.

A short time later, another member of their group became a walker casualty - Dale Horvath. Dale had been eviscerated by a walker that had managed to sneak onto the farm. Rick's lieutenant, Daryl Dixon, told him that he "shouldn't have to do all the heavy lifting" and took Rick's Python and shot Dale before he could turn into a walker.