-NEW- Dan Wesson/CZ USA

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Sevens

New member
I am starting to see some offered on Gunbroker now, but I've still not seen one in the flesh at any shop or gun show. Has anyone else handled one yet?

It sure seems to me that Dan Wesson 1911s have only gotten better since CZ acquired them. Will DW revolvers enjoy the same fate?

I've owned two Monson DW's, kept one of them. Decent guns, accurate and quality, but the DA triggers fall miles & miles behind Smith & Wesson in my opinion. I'm excited and hopeful that these new ones improve in this area.
 
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VTRich

New member
I handled one at an FFL about 2 months ago. I guess it was one of the first ones out. For the price, I would have much rather had a S&W. They wanted about $1100 for it if I recall correctly. The trigger pull was not even close to being as nice as a S&W. I also did not like the cylinder release location, but that is just personal preference. I guess the idea of being able to change the barrel lengths is nice (if they ever come out with additional barrels), but I doubt that is anything I would ever take advantage of. I guess for the price I was expecting it to be a bit more like a performance center Smith.
 
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Model12Win

Moderator
I certainly won't complain about a re-introduced classic revolver on the market, but for me, I just don't dig the Dan Wesson 715 so far.

I know other barrels are supposed to be made for it, but all that I'm seeing right now are the ones with 6" barrels with the huge underlug on it. No thanks. I'm a defensive revolver shooter and I just don't dig full underlugs, much less on 6" guns. I know they're all the rage right now and look really cool in movies and video games, but I just can't stand them.

If CZ can crank out some 4" half-shroud barrels for the 715, that would pique my interest! Until then, I'll just have to make due with my other revolvers. :cool:
 
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buck460XVR

New member
LGS has a new 715 in stock and the box is marked "blem". Owner told me that's all he can get right now. I couldn't see any thing noticeably wrong on the gun, but wonder if there is something somewhere outta sight that is not up to snuff or if they were just really picky about the finish. They still wanted considerably more for it than a new 686. I too was not impressed with the trigger, but then it just could be they're different.
 
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Sevens

New member
When you say that you were not impressed with the trigger, are you talking about the new CZ Dan Wesson with the blem? Or are you referring to any/every DW from the 1970s & 80s?

The blem program that Dan Wesson has offered is pretty fantastic if you ask me. They truly are blemishes, not functional issues of any manner. If you search some Gunbroker listings, maybe half the time or so they even include a picture of the "blem" ID page shipped with the gun. The manufacturer has a generic photo of the base gun and there will be a circle clearly noting the blem or multiple blemishes. Often, it's an anomaly in the checkering or a surface abrasion, in all the ones I have seen (and I've looked at a few!) these tend to be slight finishing errors. Truly, it seems to me that Dan Wesson is marking some guns as "blem" models that many or even MOST other gun companies simply ship out the door. The kind of marks and visible issues that I have seen on recent Sig pistols are -FAR- worse than the marks that Dan Wesson are calling "blems" and Dan Wesson also denotes a firearm designated blem with and upside-down letter "Y" at the end of the serial number.

These guns seem to be selling around $100 less than the regular guns that are not designated blem.

A fairly easy way to investigate this further is to run a Gunbroker search with the terms "Wesson" and "blem" and sift through the results. There won't be a lot of them and only some of the sellers are good enough to also show the blem ID page that is shipped with the gun.
 
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KyJim

New member
It's my understanding the Blems come with a warranty that cover functional problems. For example, there's a thread on another forum where DW did not consider a less-than-stellar fitting thumb safety to be a functional issue even though the poster said it resulted in his thumb "getting beat up." http://forums.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=342669. I would never have thought this to be a warranty issue but people have different expectations.
 
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