Solid Snake

After generating more rumors and speculation than a soap opera cliffhanger, Colt’s revived Cobra revolver started shipping units to stores last year, and for 2018, Colt followed up the Cobra by doubling the number of revolver models in its catalog.

Well, they sort of did, anyway.

The new gun is just a variation on the existing Cobra, but it includes a number of upgrades to make it more concealed carry friendly than the base model.

Tritium night sight is standard on the Night Cobra.

Dubbed the “Night Cobra”, the new variant is most immediately recognizable by the fact that its stainless construction is finished with a satin black Diamond-Like Carbon. The only part of the gun that isn’t an inky black is the white outline around the tritium vial in the front sight blade. For a compact revolver, this is a pretty usable set of sights, actually.

The hammer spur on the gun is bobbed to prevent snagging on clothing during a concealed draw, and the single action notch is gone, leaving a double-action only trigger pull. We’d hate to try and guess the trigger weight based on the sample at the show, especially since there’s no telling how many dry snaps the passing crowds had put on it, but the pull was eminently manageable. If this is what new production guns are going to feel like, there shouldn’t be a problem getting hits.

Bobbed hammer for snag-free draws.

Rather than the usual soft rubber grips that bind on clothing which are commonly found on small revolvers, the Night Cobra has lightly textured G10 grips that are scalloped to clear a speedloader.

Common with the base model, the Night Cobra sports a shrouded ejector rod as well as a six-round cylinder, a pair of features that differentiate it from its J-frame rival at Smith & Wesson.

All told, the various upgrades bump the MSRP of the gun a full two hundred dollars, to $899, but you’d pay well more than that to have them all done in the aftermarket, so the price differential is not a bad deal.

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