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Old 09-23-2014, 07:41 PM
scooter123 scooter123 is offline
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Location: Metro Detroit, Michigan
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I have a DW 15-2 and a bunch of S&W's. The Dan Wesson's are an interesting revolver and every bit as accurate as their reputation states.

However, the double action trigger in the Dan Wesson stacks A LOT. When I purchase my 15-2 it had been "tuned" with a lighter than standard Wolff mainspring to a DA trigger pull of 11.5 lbs. at the stacking point and it was misfiring 50% of the time with Federal primers. After installing a new factory strength mainspring the ignition is reliable but stacks up to about 14 lbs. I've already done a lot of polishing on the DA sear surfaces and an slowly cutting coils of the mainspring but do NOT think it possible to get the DA trigger under 12.5 lbs and have reliable ignition. It also takes a LOT of effort to cock the hammer for single action shooting.

To be blunt, there is NO COMPARISON between the Double Action trigger on a S&W and the Dan Wesson. Anyone who claims to have a Dan Wesson with an 8 lbs. DA trigger either doesn't fire live ammo or they have never actually measured their trigger.

BTW, the most effective work around for the stacking on the DW is a strong and rapid trigger pull. Do that and you can get through the stacking point without really noticing how heavy it gets. Try and stage the DA trigger on a DW and you'll probably end up with your hand starting to shake due to the effort.

Now, the good news is the single action triggers are about the same, good crisp break with a weight in the 3-4 lbs. range. BTW, I've tuned all my S&W's to break at 3.0 lbs. and the DW is 3 lbs. 2 ounces, so nearly a complete match. Another plus for the DW is the Target grip is distinctly on the large side and makes shooting full house 357 Magnums feel a bit like +P in a S&W.

So, is the Dan Wesson a better made revolver. Not really, in terms of machining and finish quality they were about equal when DW was at their peak. When DW fell on hard times financially they weren't even close to a S&W.

However, the Dan Wesson was clearly way ahead of the times in terms of innovative Engineering. They started in the late 60's and it's only been in the past 10 years or so that S&W has started using tensioned barrels. As for the Crane Lock on the DW, it was 2014 before S&W started using a ball detent crane again and the still don't have the end shake resistance of the Dan Wesson. Finally, S&W still doesn't offer a revolver with interchangeable barrels or a tunable B/C gap. So S&W still hasn't quite caught up to some aspects of the Dan Wesson. The shame on Dan Wesson is that they chose to use a coil mainspring instead of designing their lockwork to use a leaf type mainspring.
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