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===End of production===
In October 1999, Colt announced that it would cease production of Python revolvers. In a 2000 follow-up letter to distributors, the company cited changing market conditions and the costs of defending lawsuits as the reasons to discontinue the Python line, as well as a number of other models.<ref>
For several years before that, however, the mighty Python's days were numbered, and some collectors believe the sterling quality of these guns were not the same during the "strike years," which began on January 24, 1986, when more than 1,000 workers struck the Colt Firearms division of Colt Industries and Colt hired replacement workers. [http://calnra.com/COLTupdate.shtml Update from Colt's Manufacturing Company, Inc.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070220085219/http://calnra.com/COLTupdate.shtml |date=February 20, 2007 }}</ref> The Colt Custom Gun Shop continued making a limited number of Pythons on special order until 2005, when this limited production ceased.<ref name="hawks"/><ref>The New York Times, October 22, 1986, "After 8 Months, U.A.W. Sees Shift in Colt Strike."</ref> The Colt Python's had a higher cost due to the "hand fitting" by gunsmith specialists that were required due the variations that came from that era's limited capabilities with regards to the mass production and machining of precision steel parts. This required expensive gunsmith specialists to file and hand fit parts together, contributing to high labor costs. The 2020 reintroduction of the Colt Python was partially made possible with the increased precision of machining and improvements of tolerances and strength of metal injection molding, negating the need for "hand fitting" by expensive specialists.
===Production return===
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