Dan Wesson .357 with 3 barrels, value?

[Fishman]

I'm looking for opinions on the value of a revolver a LGS has for sale. It is a Monson built blued Dan Wesson .357, with 4", 6", and 8" barrels. It does not have the original grips or box, but it does have the barrel tool. The frame has a couple of minor scuffs on it, the 4" barrel shroud has two dings near the sight, the 6" barrel shroud has some minor surface pitting in one spot from long-gone corrosion, and the 8" looks mint. The grips on it are plain Pachmayer presentations. Overall its a pretty good looking gun. What kind of prices are these revolvers commanding presently?

I have a fond memory of one of the very early 4" models of Dan Wesson that my dad owned and unfortunately sold. I was able to chew the center out of the bullseye at 25 yards repeatedly using my cast Lee 158 gr tumble lube design lubed with lee alox.

[M-Tecs]

On Gunbrokers it would sell for $750 to $1,000

[kingstrider]

I saw one at the fun show last weekend for around $1800 IIRC. I thought it was high but it had the box etc.

[PerpetualStudent]

I bought mine, 6in barrel only, for somewhere between 600 and 650. Had original grips but was chipped and had a separate set of grips mounted.

[Artful]

Each barrel on Ebay is now going for 250 ish - so if you take PerpetualStudent's $600 and add $500 that's 1,100

[Fishman]

Good grief! Are they really going for that much? Seems high. Appreciate the replies so far.

[Fishman]

Wow! I checked Ebay and these have the heavy barrel shroud which are going for more than $300 a pop.

[wv109323]

I have exactly what you are looking at. Model 15 with 4",6",8" vent heavy barrels. $750 would be on the low side. Like everyone said barrels are $250+ on fleabay, That would be $250 for pistol and a barrel. The barrel wrench goes for $30.00 on E-bay.
One comment, With the 8" barrel the pistol is heavy and nose heavy. DW has re-introduced the pistol and the MSRP is around $1100.00 with one barrel. Pistol pak is $1800.00 IIRC.

[runfiverun]

daaang wish I would have kept all of the 357 and 44's that have went through my hands over the years now.
I know the 44 barrels are in the 2-250 area or were when I bought a few some time back.

I might have to let go of some of the super-mags and some of the barrels I have now.

[Fishman]

Well all is well that ends well. The pistol and barrels now reside at my house. I may have to fight off my dad though :)

[M-Tecs]

I love mine. I am sure you will be having with it. Do you mind sharing what you had to pay?

[Greg S]

I sold a 715 Pistol Pac on GB this past spring for $1700. The 715 is basically a SS pistol, standard barrel no vented. The Pac was case, belt buckle, patch, tool, additional sight, two grips and 2.5", 4, 6 & 8" barrels. Yea, surprised the beep outta me. Go figure. I don't see what is driving the market on these but then again, who am I to tell them.

I was plinking out in the woods about 3-4 years ago and ran into a kid with a DW blued 22. It was operable but look like it spent 20 years as a truck/combine gun. Talked about DWs with the kid and he woulda dumped it for 2 bills and the spare barrel. I think it was a 6 & 8" Pac. Times were tight then, shoulda woulda coulda.

[Fishman]

I love mine. I am sure you will be having with it. Do you mind sharing what you had to pay?

One of the benefits of patronizing the local gunshop is that occasionaly you get a deal. I've gotten some great deals but this one wasn't great, just good. I walked out with it for $640 with tax. I've always wanted to try one with an 8" barrel but never have. So the 6" that is on it will probably come off. Money is a little tight right now after Christmas, so if I don't sell it to Dad, I'm probably going to sell the two shorter barrels.

[saleen322]

You got a very good deal. If it is in any decent condition at all, the revolver and two extra barrels would bring $1000 quick and you could hold out for more. You did good!

[Forrest r]

Ya, dw's are going up in price fast. Bought this anib dw a couple years back for $400. Sold it this year for $600 within 5 minutes of walking into a gunshow. Wanted a springfield ro in 9mm and the dw and $50 bought a new ro last year.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/dan8inch_zps13414d91.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/dan8inch_zps13414d91.jpg.html)

Been shooting dw's for years, always been excellent pistols. I just wish cz would of come out with the silhouette models seeing how they starting to make the dw revolvers again. Bought these before dw's went up in $$$$.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/danwessons_zps0b011f85.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/danwessons_zps0b011f85.jpg.html)

Dw's are hot right now, allot of people still have the mindset that their only worth $300 to $400 a complete pistol and $100 bbl/shroud sets. I like those kind of people.

Enjoy your dw set

[Stick_man]

I picked up my first DW back in 1993. A friend's brother was looking for a lighter double-action .357 with a 6" barrel and I had a S&W model 19 that I was not real happy with. He fell in love with my model 19 and offered a straight across swap for his DW model 15. A couple days later he stopped by with a 2" barrel that he could no longer use and gave it to me.

I picked up my latest DW just a couple years ago at a LGS. It was a 744 with ported 6" and 8" barrels. Walked out with it, a gun rug, and a set of Pacmyer grips for $650. Recently picked up a non-ported 6" tube direct from DW for $80 so I could shoot cast with it.

[Fishman]

Yes, I really need to shoot it. Spent about 6 hours on the range saturday with some rifle work and did not get around to the Dan Wesson. I also need to come up with a .006 feeler to change out the barrel.

[Bullwolf]

Yes, I really need to shoot it. Spent about 6 hours on the range saturday with some rifle work and did not get around to the Dan Wesson. I also need to come up with a .006 feeler to change out the barrel.

It's not a Dan Wesson thread without pictures!

Here's one of my favorites.
My fixed/service sight 714 with the DW fantastic plastic barrel multi-tool

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=53541&d=1338931287

Sometimes it's in your best interest to experiment with the barrel to cylinder gap for accuracy and reliability.

Make sure that your cylinder is square by checking the gap on all 6 holes rather than just one. Try running between .002 and .006 for fun sometimes, and see what kind of a difference it makes for you.

I like to run .004 on my 714, and it has never bound up on me even after 100-150 rounds of cast in a range session. I've ran it both tighter and looser, but I seem to get the best results from .004 with that gun.

If you want to round out a pistol pack that's missing a couple items, you can often find original cylinder gap tools on Gunbroker as well as other auction sites.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=62556&d=1403146318&thumb=1

Most Dan Wesson revolvers came with a .006 shim, Like the 15-2 and the 44's

Some of the Supermag's (but not all) came with a .002 feeler shim for reasons best known to Dan Wesson.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=159698&d=1444354470


You can also use an automotive feeler gauge set to set the barrel to cylinder gap with, on the cheap.
http://www.topgearrules.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Feeler-Gauge.jpg
Eric Wesson makes some neat new stuff over at http://www.danwessonarms.net

One of the items being made is a reproduction of the .006 feeler shim. Nice if you just want to have an inexpensive .006 shim to toss around for about $7.00

http://www.shop.danwessonarms.net/images/1416277973201-1491982031.jpeg

http://www.shop.danwessonarms.net/Dan-Wesson-revolver-correct-0006-stainless-sstl-gap-shim-DWRCGS.htm

Dan Wesson Arms makes a few other cool reproduction items as well, such as replacement barrel nuts, colored sight inserts, patches, belt buckles and grip badges.

EWK arms also has a nice selection of Dan Wesson accessories as well.

http://www.ewkarms.com/zen8/

EWK sells a durable all-steel barrel take down tool, a hard to find small parts assortment kit, (which including springs) and is known for producing high quality barrels and shrouds. EWK offers replacement barrel nuts, muzzle brakes, non ported barrel tubes, fiber optic sights, conversion sights, and varying front sight height sets (from .225 to .350) for Dan Wesson revolvers as well.



- Bullwolf

[M-Tecs]

Bullwolf

Nice post. Thanks!!!!!!!!

[Forrest r]

Bullwolf is spot on with trying different cylinder gaps. All my dw bbl's are more accurate with the gap set at .002/.003th's.

It's interesting that ewk sell 1 in 12 twist bbl's now. Might have to pick a couple of them up and test them. EWK used to sell 1 in 10 twist bbl's and I picked 2 of them up. Man those bbl's love the longer bullets!!!! I really shows up down range with the longer bodied bullets like the hbwc's or home swaged bullets made from 9mm cases.

The hbwc's have longer bodies than their wc counterparts, all bullets weigh 148gr.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/dc44d532-2147-4b13-a1e3-ea78e83a02a6_zpslae3gtad.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/dc44d532-2147-4b13-a1e3-ea78e83a02a6_zpslae3gtad.jpg.html)

The long bodied 147gr home swaged hp next to a lyman 158gr 358439 hp and a lyman 358477 138gr hp. As you can see the jacketed hp is longer than the lyman 358439.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/8f0cb351-6345-423a-a574-39d92bcd36cd_zpsksi3fk9x.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/8f0cb351-6345-423a-a574-39d92bcd36cd_zpsksi3fk9x.jpg.html)

That's why I love these dw's, you can tune the bbl by applying tension on the bbl with the bbl nut (1/4 turn/1/2turn/etc). Fine tune them with the cylinder gap along with the ability to buy bbl's with different twists for different length bullets. Add to that the ease of changing the sights from low profile to 6 different height of partridge target sights to colored inserted sights to fiber optic sights.

Those dw's that I posted a picture of in post #15 that have the heavy bbl shrouds and muzzle breaks eat full house loads of 357's like popcorn. It's nothing to shoot 300 to 400 rounds of 357's (158gr mihec 640's/8.0gr of power pistol) in a range session with them.

Enjoy your dw, they're the 10-22/ar15 of the pistol world.

[Fishman]

Wow Bullwolf and Forrest r, you guys are the best! I'll try and get a pic posted soon.