Dan Wesson's .357
Magnum Is Back!

Nestling down in the Creedmore position, I placed the left side of the revolver solidly against my right leg. Lining up the sights with each other and also with the target, I slowly squeezed the trigger. At the shot it seemed like an eternity before I got any feedback. This would change in future years as we got more powerful cartridges, and when shooting at 200 meters the clang and bang was almost instantaneous.

Not this time, though. I watched and waited, and waited and watched — and then I thought I heard a ping as the bullet hit steel. Slowly, ever so slowly, the black painted metal ram started to change color as it ever so more slowly fell backwards. I was shooting a Dan Wesson .357 Magnum using .38 Specials.

This goes back to the early days of silhouettes when the Dan Wesson Heavy Barrel 8″ or 10″ .357 Magnum was absolutely the best revolver available. One of the drawbacks was 158 grain bullets could not always be depended upon to take down 100-meter pigs and 200-meter rams consistently. The Dan Wesson revolver had the accuracy — but not the energy.

We got around this by using 200-grain cast bullets dropped from RCBS molds designed for use in the .35 Remington rifle. We had to use .38 Special brass to keep the overall length down when crimping for use in the relatively short Dan Wesson cylinder. Muzzle velocity was just over 1,000 fps, hence the long time interval from the shot to the bullet hitting the target and putting it down. The projectile was moving very slowly; however, it never failed to take down a target.

Early Days

in the early days of Long Range Silhouetting, Dan Wesson was the number one company when it came to listening to shooters as they constantly improved both their barrel configurations and their sights. Dan Wesson Arms was a relatively new company; however, the roots went back more than 100 years. All the way back to the time of Daniel Baird Wesson and his partner Horace Smith, who founded Smith & Wesson and began a long line of firearms innovations.

Horace Smith did not stay with the company very long but Daniel Wesson maintained the company name and kept things going in the right direction. In 1935 Daniel Wesson’s grandson, Col. Doug Wesson was instrumental in bringing out the first Magnum, the .357.

Fast-forward to 1938. Dan Wesson, the great-grandson of Daniel Baird Wesson joined the company at the age of 22 as a machine operator. Three years later he was named assistant superintendent. In 1963 the youngest Dan Wesson was named plant superintendent; however, trouble was on the horizon. In 1966 Bangor Punta acquired Smith & Wesson which was a move Dan Wesson tried to block. When he failed, he resigned from the company.

Back in 1948 Dan Wesson had formed his own side company, D.B. Wesson, Inc. for producing tools and dies. When he left Smith & Wesson, Dan Wesson’s company became Dan Wesson Arms. One year later the public got a look at the first Dan Wesson .357 Magnum. By 1970 shooters could purchase a new Dan Wesson .357 Magnum.

DW Model 12

The new Dan Wesson .357 Model 12 was a radical design in more ways than one. This new revolver featured interchangeable barrels, interchangeable grips, and even interchangeable front sights. Everything about this new sixgun was totally modern. Instead of two pieces of wood bolting together to become the grip, Dan Wesson used a stud on the frame which accepted a one-piece grip bolting on from the bottom. However, this was not the most unique feature about the Dan Wesson Model 12.

Originally Dan Wesson planned to offer interchangeable barrels and cylinders so one frame could be used for multiple cartridges. This was changed to an interchangeable barrel system only, allowing the shooter to easily change barrels. With this system, the shooter received an extra bonus of excellent accuracy. Accuracy was also aided by the fact the cylinder locked at the front of the cylinder not just at the rear.

On the Dan Wesson revolver the relatively thin barrel is screwed into the frame until it bears against the feeler gauge which is provided. Then a heavy shroud is placed over the barrel and a hole in the back of the shroud matches with an aligning pin on the frame. The barrel nut is then screwed on the muzzle end of the barrel and, using a special wrench provided with each gun, is tightened against the shroud.

The first Dan Wesson .357s were not very pleasing to the eye with the barrel nut hanging seemingly in space on the end of the barrel. Once the nut was concealed in the shroud, Dan Wesson didn’t stop there, bringing out 8″ and 10″ heavy barrel versions with a heavy shroud, giving the Dan Wesson a quite handsome Python-esque look and making them very popular with silhouette shooters.

Continually Improving

In the 1980’s Dan Wesson Arms was the most responsive gun maker when it came to listening to silhouette shooters around the country. They continually improved rear sights and added different interchangeable front sight blades. They soon added a larger framed revolver in .44 Magnum, which would be followed by the .45 Colt and .41 Magnum, and then stretched the frame to produce the .357 SuperMag, .375 SuperMag and the .445 SuperMag.

By 1983 the Wesson family was out of the company and then things beyond the company’s control happened, causing a downturn in sales. As with any sport, Long Range Silhouetting peaked and then started to regress. At the same time really serious shooters were discovering a revolver which was even more accurate than the Dan Wesson, the Freedom Arms revolver — which cost two to three times more than a Dan Wesson! But this didn’t stop serious shooters.

Things were looking pretty bad when Dan Wesson’s son, Seth, along with his wife Carol and sons Seth Junior and Eric, got the company back. They were a wonderful family and I always enjoyed visiting with them. However, as hard as they tried they could not keep the company going and they had to close the doors.

Bob Serva purchased the company, added all new machinery, moving the operation to New York. He also began producing 1911’s. In 2005 I looked for Dan Wesson Arms at the SHOT Show and although I had a map and booth number I couldn’t find it. I was standing right in front of it, but all I could see were 1911’s.

CZ Takes Over

The company was purchased by CZ-USA and began producing new Dan Wessons; however, they were mostly 1911 Models; very nice quality 1911’s I might add. For the very first few years CZ-USA did produce a few revolvers, mostly large frame versions.

Now here we are 10 years later and CZ-USA, the parent company of Dan Wesson Arms, has decided to bring back the original Dan Wesson, a real sixgun. Just as the first original Dan Wesson was a .357 Magnum, the new iteration is also a .357 Magnum, the Model 715. The original Dan Wessons went from the Model 12 to the Model 15 when the barrel nut was enclosed within the shroud, and then the stainless steel version became the Model 715.

The first model off the line has a 6″ heavy under lug barrel with rubber finger groove grips. It comes shipped in a hard plastic case with partitions for extra barrels, telling me we soon should be able to purchase other barrels. This original frame size was also offered in .22 Long Rifle, .32 Magnum and .32-20. The original pre-dated the .327 Federal Magnum; however, I would expect this cartridge to be offered in the new production.

The newest Model 715 comes with a barrel wrench and feeler gauge and the barrel can be removed and replaced exactly as the original. First use the wrench to remove the barrel nut, then slide off the shroud which is followed by unscrewing the barrel. To replace simply do the same operations in reverse and use the feeler gauge to set the barrel/cylinder gap.

As we mentioned earlier the cylinder latch is at the front of the cylinder on the frame instead of the rear of the cylinder. At first, shooters may think this is awkward. However, for a right-handed shooter it’s actually easier to operate a Dan Wesson than other double action revolvers. The left hand grasps the revolver, the left thumb pushes down on the latch to open the cylinder, the ejector rod is pushed to remove the empties, and then the right-hand places new cartridges in the cylinder.

Before switching to stainless steel in the original production guns, Dan Wesson revolvers had a blued finish which rivaled, or topped, the Bright Blue of Smith & Wesson and the Royal Blue of Colt. High polish bluing is mostly left to custom gun makers today so I expect we will only see stainless steel Dan Wessons. This is not necessarily a negative, as production Model 715’s are very nicely polished with no rough spots anywhere. The lettering on our test gun is very crisp, lock-up is tight, and the whole revolver speaks of high quality.

Still Shoots

The greatest selling point of the Dan Wesson sixguns has always been accuracy. For some reason, Dan Wessons normally shoot slower than other revolvers with the same barrel length; however, they make up for this by normally outshooting every other double action revolver in the accuracy department.

I fired 30 different loads through this new Dan Wesson, consisting of .357 Magnum factory loads, .357 Magnum handloads, .38 Special hand-loads and .38/44 handloads. With 12 different factory loads ranging in weight from 125 to 180 grains, the average group for five shots at 20 yards was under 1″. Notable groups were the Hornady 125 XTP-JHP at 1/2″; Hornady 158 XTP-JHP, 5/8″; CCI Blazer 158 JHP, Cor-Bon 140 JHP and Winchester 145 SilverTips, all at 3/4″.

My .357 Magnum handloads averaged right at 1″ and I was especially pleased with my loads assembled with the Lyman/Thompson #358156GC over 14.0 grains of #2400 for a muzzle velocity of just under 1,300 fps. It delivered 5-shot groups of 3/4″, and the same bullet over 15.0 grains of H110 for 1,200 fps delivered a nice 5/8″ group. My heavy-bulleted loads using 180- to 187-gr. bullets also shot exceptionally well, taking me back to my early days of silhouetting.

We’ve been waiting a long time for the return of the Dan Wesson revolver. Let us hope this is only the beginning.

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