The Return Of The Colt Anaconda .44 Magnum

Manufactured from approximately 1990 to 2003, the massive Colt Anaconda came late to the DA .44 Magnum revolver market, and at a time when Colt was phasing out of that type of handgun, thus it never gained great popularity. However, those who did own them generally loved them, and it became a case of “you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.” When Colt returned to the DA wheel-gun market recently, with updated Cobra and then Python models, the Anaconda seemed a natural follow-up. Here we test a 6″ barrel sample designed to compete with S&W’s Model 629 and Ruger’s Redhawk and Super Redhawk.

Made entirely of stainless steel, this .44 Mag. tips the scales at 53 oz. unloaded and is spec’d for 59 oz. with the optional 8″ barrel. Like the Python before it, the Anacondas have a full-length barrel underlug bringing the weight, and point of balance, forward toward the muzzle making it feel even heavier when extended to arm’s length. It’s roughly three-quarters of a pound heavier than the standard S&W 629. A Redhawk is a quarter pound lighter than the Anaconda with the same barrel length, and the Super Redhawk will exactly equal the 6″ Anaconda’s weight if the Ruger has a 71/2″ barrel. The Anaconda’s finish was nicely polished: not quite comparable to the Royal Blue of a 1955 Python, but really, what is anymore?

Action

I tried a couple of old Anacondas from the Jeff Boss collection and found they each had a very slight cylinder wobble. Not the new incarnation. With the trigger back and the hammer down, its second cylinder hand locks the chamber in line with the barrel absolutely motionless. It was this signature Colt feature that always helped give the Python and the old Officer’s Model target revolvers their reputation for unsurpassed accuracy, and it’s good to see it in this newest Colt revolver.

The updated lockwork also gives this gun a very sweet double action trigger pull, as good or better than its current competition out of the box. Only the most experienced trigger finger will feel any “stack,” or increase in resistance in the double action stroke, and then only in the slowest of slow fire. As soon as the shooting got a little bit faster, it felt to the several of us who handled it that the pull seemed perfectly even. Several auto pistol shooters could not detect any stacking at all. My only Ruger and Smith .44 Mags that were better were custom guns: a 29 built by Russ Jefferson, a 629 tuned by the late great Andy Cannon, and a Super Redhawk with action by Ron Power. The custom work would have brought those guns up to at least the same price as the 2021 Anaconda.

On a Lyman digital scale from Brownells, pull weight averaged 10 lbs., 1.4 oz. single action averaged 6.55 lbs. As I’ve found with the 2021 Python, SA pull on Colt’s current model, big six-guns tend to be heavier than we were accustomed to with 20th Century Colts. However, the pull did give a clean break, and as we’ll shortly see, the heavy single action pull did not seem to impair the gun’s accuracy.

Handling

As noted, the DA pull was very sweet, and the SA pull crisp, if a bit heavy, and as also noted earlier, it felt distinctly muzzle heavy.
The adjustable rear sight differs from those of yesteryears: Read the owner’s manual on that! The red ramp front sight is interchangeable with a 0.50″ Allen wrench, and the owner’s manual says, “Optional sights (sic) configurations are available in either a Tritium sight, brass bead configuration, or a fiber optic.” Medium thread locker is suggested when changing the front sight.

The test gun came out of the box with the rear sight far to the left of center. Did they have to adjust it that far to get it to hit? Nope. A test shot aimed at high chest from 25 yards put the bullet well left into the silhouette’s shoulder area. The idiosyncratic rear sight has a “windage lock” that needs to be loosened with an Allen wrench to adjust the rear sight blade laterally. After some experimentation, we got it dialed in, but the adjustment felt mushy.

Previous Anacondas came with Colt-logoed and medallioned Pachmayr grips, which nicely cushioned the web of the hand. The 2021 version comes with Hogues, which felt great but left a bare steel backstrap; thus, the grip cushioned the proximal joints of both thumb and trigger finger, but not the web of the hand that generally takes the brunt of the recoil.

HKS Size 29 speedloaders worked fine with the Anaconda. We experienced no sticking of spent casings in the chambers, even with our hottest loads. With the muzzle turned up, more spent casings than not fell without touching the ejector rod, and when we rapped the latter, all the rest cleared with alacrity. A good thing. Unloading, one live cartridge would sometimes hang up on the left side of the grip, but there were no issues or glitches in rapid ejection of spent brass. All primer indents were centered and deep. The cylinder latch did require a stronger rearward pull than Colts of the past which generally offered an effortless release.

Accuracy

Handheld from a Matrix rest on a concrete bench at 25 yards, we tested light, heavy and traditional loadings for this versatile chambering. For a hunting load the choice was Winchester Supreme 250-grain JHP, churning 1,250 feet per second velocity and 867 foot-pounds of energy. This hardest-kicking load of the test put five rounds in 1.30″ measured center to center, the best three in 0.70″. (I measure to the nearest 0.05″.)

For a traditional .44 Mag. loading I selected the economical Federal Champion 240-grain SJHP, rated for 1,230 fps and 807 fpe. Recoil was surprisingly manageable thanks to the Anaconda’s heft. Group measurements were 1.45″ for all five, with four in 1.25″ and the best three in 0.70″ — again.

The .44 Special has always been a favored practice load in a .44 Mag, and certainly adequate for self-defense with faster recoil recovery. PMC’s .44 Special JHP weighs 180 grains and runs at a nominal 980 fps, duplicating many proven .45 ACP defense loads. The Anaconda had a 1.10″ group going with the PMC, but I unknowingly honked a shot that stretched the five-shot measurement to 3.55″. This is why I always measure also for best three. Decades have taught me this factors out enough unnoticed human error by an experienced shooter to make “best three” from the bench closely comparable to “all five” from a machine rest. The machine rest is cool — I have two — but they are tedious for the tester to set up, and impossible for most readers to duplicate without significant expense and effort. The best three .44 Specials went into 0.85″. By the way, it’s a cliché to say, “That .44 stuff kicked like a .22,” but in the weighty Anaconda, this was true of the .44 Special load.

Reliability And Durability

We had zero malfunctions of any kind with the test Anaconda. In the midst of the worst ammo drought of my long lifetime, we didn’t have enough .44 Mag for our usual “buckets o’ bullets” testing, but fortunately, Colt did. Justin Baldini at Colt’s told American Handgunner, “We’ve shot 14,000 rounds of .44 Magnum on one single gun. We don’t estimate a lifespan but after 14,000 rounds the frame was still well within spec, so it’s more than that. We also put a gun on a machine which performed 70,000 trigger pulls, with no issues there either.”

Value

Value is always subjective. At $1,499 MSRP, the Colt Anaconda is plus/minus half again the price of its Ruger and S&W counterparts. What you’re getting for the added money is a very slick double action, a very nice finish, and of course “the pony on the pistol.” For perspective, older Anacondas are starting in the low two thousands on GunBroker and going well into the $3,000-plus range. Gun dealer and Colt collector Jeff Boss, who graciously provided the older specimens for Handgunner, said he liked the action of the new one better than any of his several old ones. And of the seasoned shooters who tried the test sample, several are waiting in line to buy one.

For more info: Colt.com

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