I've had two different Dan Wesson .357's, both Monson guns. In my experience, good and bad. First off, you did fine at that price considering you got two barrels... mostly because you got the more elusive 8-inch barrel that sometimes goes for hundreds all by itself at auction.
I'm curious at your report of "both barrels have fixed sights", each barrel should have a front sight that is fixed, but the top strap of the frame likely has an adjustable rear sight?
The good: the Dan Wesson is an extremely strong design and it forged this reputation in the long range metallic silhouette game. It is almost universally agreed upon that in a double-action .357, the Dan Wesson is a ROCK. What I find interesting is that the cylinder itself is smaller and uses dimensions similar to a K-frame rather than a slightly larger, beefier L-frame or N-frame, but still, the reputation for toughness is long-standing.
Also very good: these revolvers are inherently accurate by design, something about the barrel being locked to the frame at both ends lends itself extremely well to accuracy, and both of the ones I had agreed with this.
Not so good-- the double action trigger on the Dan Wesson is genuinely lacking, in my opinion, and I use the S&W as the standard. Both DW's I had were fine guns but my affinity for shooting double action meant that these simply didn't have a home with me.
Furthermore-- the double action on BOTH of mine would actually get worse in each/every shooting session and for absolute CERTAIN, it was not any manner of binding at the forcing cone from a barrel screwed on without enough clearance. I'm completely certain of this. I believe the cylinder would expand slightly with great heat and the rear of it would bind slightly around the ball bearing on the cylinder face.
BEWARE: never ever ever torque that barrel nut on too tightly. You gain nothing whatsoever, it absolutely does not need to be on gorilla tight and it's a nightmare to remove if you do.
In summary, I think they are extremely durable and extremely accurate. If you would do the lion's share of your shooting in single action, this is a fantastic choice and a lot of gun for the money. But if you love to shoot in double action (and especially if you have honed your love for revolvers with S&W K and L-frame .38's and .357's) then the Dan Wesson will never feel up to the task. It didn't for me and I have them years and many hundreds of rounds to do it and neither could.
Final word: I have handled just one example of the new production CZ-made Dan Wesson revolver and I was impressed at the build quality, feel and lock-up. I think these are precision built and simply impressive revolvers. I believe these may be of utmost quality and everything that CZ does just drips of top-notch quality and production. These new revolvers follow the earlier ones in design very, very closely (but I am no expert), they basically seem like the same exact guns, except built NOW and made even better. However... wait for it... the double action feels basically the same to me.
I'd own one of these new CZ-made Dan Wessons, but only if I could find a used one at deep discount. And I have made peace with the older ones... I honestly think they are darn good guns, but the double action makes them "not for me."
