I've had three Colts worked on by Grant & I've discussed them with him. Also discussed the Python & it's action with other outfits like Cylinder & Slide and Colt itself.
Nowhere have I said the V-Springs are "delicate".
I DO say they are not the equal of a Ruger in longevity, I will continue to say that, and anyone who thinks that old Colt action can hold up to sustained use of full-bore .357 Mag loads as well as or better than the Ruger is simply ignoring reality.
Grant mentions that those Colts do require more routine maintenance, and that the hand (as I said) is the most vulnerable wear point.
I have personally owned two V-Springs that WERE out of time, both were sent to Grant, and he had extreme difficulty in finding acceptable replacement hands.
Even when they had them, Colt would not sell hands outside the factory.
Now they have none left for even in-house repairs.
As far as routine maintenance goes, where would you propose to get that done?
There are maybe four places in the nation I'd trust to work on them, and aside from Colt each one has been hampered to at least some degree by that parts availability problem.
Colt and others can still stretch a hand as part of correcting timing issues, but only once, and once stretched if you shoot the thing enough it'll eventually shorten and/or wear again.
With Grant you'll wait at least a year to get on his list & another one to get your gun back.
I will continue to enjoy owning my Trooper .357 and the Official Police (in .38 caliber
), and my Dick Specials (the oldest of which I carried regularly as an off-duty gun in the 80s), but I'll also continue to use Smiths & Rugers for working guns.
Denis