Colt King Cobra Target Matte Stainless 22 LR 4.25 in. – Superb 10 Shot

Description

Colt sells the King Cobra Target in two finishes at the same barrel length, and the choice between them is not really about money. The Colt King Cobra Target Matte Stainless is the one built to be used: a bead-blasted, non-reflective surface over the same forged stainless frame, the same one-piece vent rib barrel and the same ten-shot cylinder as the bright gun.

The word Target in the name is literal rather than decorative. Colt fitted a fully adjustable rear sight and an elevated fiber optic front, which means the Colt King Cobra Target Matte Stainless is meant to be zeroed to a particular load rather than shot at whatever the factory settled on. That single detail changes how you should buy ammunition for it.

Colt part number KCOBRA22-SM4RFO. Ten rounds of .22 Long Rifle, a 4.25 inch vent rib barrel with a full underlug, black Hogue overmolded grips and an exposed hammer. Distributor MSRP is $1,149, and we are holding 46.

Colt King Cobra Target Matte Stainless at a glance

• Ten shot double action / single action rimfire revolver in .22 Long Rifle, exposed hammer.
• 4.25 inch stainless barrel with a ventilated rib and a full length underlug.
• Stainless steel frame and cylinder, all three surfaces in a matte stainless finish.
• Fully adjustable target rear sight and an elevated fiber optic front sight.
• Black Hogue overmolded rubber grips.
• Same barrel, frame and cylinder as the polished 4.25 inch gun, which Colt lists at 34 ounces.

Why the Colt King Cobra Target Matte Stainless finish is the one to shoot

• A matte surface does not throw sunlight back at the shooter. On a revolver with this much flat top strap and rib, a polished finish can put a bright line right where the sight picture is, and outdoors that is a real nuisance rather than a theoretical one.
• Bead blasted stainless hides handling marks. The Colt King Cobra Target Matte Stainless will look the same after two hundred range trips; a polished gun will show every holster pass and every bench rest.
• Fingerprints do not read on it. That sounds trivial until you have wiped a bright stainless revolver down between strings.
• Nothing underneath the finish changes. Same forged frame, same lockwork, same barrel, same cylinder, same Colt warranty.
• The trade is looks. A polished Colt double action is a handsome object and the matte gun simply is not, so if the revolver is going in a display case the other finish is the better buy.

Colt King Cobra Target Matte Stainless specifications

• Colt part number: KCOBRA22-SM4RFO
• Caliber: .22 Long Rifle
• Capacity: 10
• Action: double action / single action
• Hammer: exposed
• Barrel: 4.25 inches, stainless, vent rib, full underlug
• Barrel finish: matte stainless
• Frame: stainless steel, matte stainless finish
• Cylinder: stainless steel, matte stainless finish
• Front sight: elevated fiber optic
• Rear sight: fully adjustable target
• Grips: black Hogue overmolded
• Distributor MSRP: $1,149

One note on the distributor record: it lists the trigger as exposed, which is a field mislabel. The hammer is exposed; the trigger sits inside a conventional guard. We have flagged it rather than repeating it.

Sights and ammunition: getting the Colt King Cobra Target Matte Stainless zeroed

An adjustable rear sight is only worth having if you use it, and most .22 revolvers never get the chance because most .22 revolvers do not have one. Pick a load, shoot it from a rest at twenty five yards, and move the sight to it. The Colt King Cobra Target Matte Stainless will then shoot to the sights with that load, which is not something you can say about a fixed sight gun.

The other advantage a revolver holds here is that it does not care whether a cartridge makes enough pressure to work an action. Subsonic, standard velocity, high velocity and match ammunition all function identically in the Colt King Cobra Target Matte Stainless, so the load can be chosen on group size alone. A semi-auto rimfire removes half the shelf from consideration before you start.

For serious accuracy testing, Eley Match 22 LR 40 grain EPS is the obvious benchmark and we hold it in the thousands. It is not expensive by match standards and it will tell you what the gun is actually capable of, which is the honest starting point before blaming yourself.

For volume, Winchester Wildcat 40 grain copper plated in the 1,500 round jug is the cheap way to put a season of practice through the Colt King Cobra Target Matte Stainless. Copper plating also keeps fouling down a little compared with bare lead, which matters more on ten chambers than on six.

That is the one maintenance demand this revolver makes. Rimfire is dirty, and a ten shot cylinder collects carbon around the chamber mouths faster than a six shot one does. A chamber brush and the habit of cleaning the cylinder face, not just the bore, keeps extraction easy.

Double action, single action, and what the Colt King Cobra Target Matte Stainless teaches

Pressed from the front, the trigger cocks and releases the hammer in one long stroke. Thumbed back first, it breaks short and light. Both modes are useful and they measure different things: single action tells you what the gun and the ammunition can do, double action tells you what you can do.

Shoot the same ten rounds each way on the Colt King Cobra Target Matte Stainless and compare the groups. The gap between them is your double action technique, measured rather than guessed. Because this is a heavy all steel revolver under a cartridge with almost no recoil, nothing masks a bad pull, so every error shows up where it can be worked on.

The Hogue overmolded grips deserve credit here. Rubber is the unglamorous choice and the correct one on a gun meant to be shot a lot: it fills the hand, it does not slip when hands are cold, and it lets the shooter think about the trigger rather than about holding on.

Colt King Cobra Target Matte Stainless against the rest of the family

• The polished stainless 4.25 inch King Cobra Target is mechanically identical and better looking. Buy it if the gun is as much an object as a tool.
• The six inch matte King Cobra Target is the same finish with a longer sight radius, and it is the better choice if the revolver will live on a bench. We sell it at the same price, so the decision is genuinely about handling rather than budget.
• The .357 Magnum King Cobra Target at 4.25 inches is the centerfire gun this one understudies, with the same manual of arms and a running cost several times higher.
• Against a budget .22 revolver, the differences are the forged frame, the adjustable sights and the trigger. Those are the three things cheap wheelguns cut and the three things that matter most on a gun bought to practice with.

Who the Colt King Cobra Target Matte Stainless suits

• Shooters who want a rimfire understudy to a centerfire Colt and will put real volume through it.
• Anyone learning double action trigger control properly, where recoil should not be part of the lesson.
• Small game and pest control at close range, where ten rounds and a sight you can zero beat magnum power.
• Owners who would rather the gun looked used than looked new, which is the whole argument for the matte finish.
• Not the collector. For a safe queen, the polished version is the one worth the extra.

This is an expensive .22 and worth it for a specific job: learning and keeping a double action revolver trigger, with a sight you can actually adjust and a finish that will not fight you in daylight. Specifications here come from the distributor record and from Colt’s own King Cobra Target page.

The Colt King Cobra Target Matte Stainless is a serialized firearm and ships to a licensed dealer for transfer. We are holding 46, which is deeper than this model usually sits, so there is no wait on it.