Dan Wesson 15-2 357

I found that picture!!!

Riomouse911 said:

I have two Monson Mass. DW-15”s: one came as part of the 2-4-6-8” Vent-Heavy shroud pistol pac with all the goodies described in the earlier post and one I bought as a frame and added a 3” VH EWK barrel/shroud and Hogue wooden grips. Both guns are in great shape, and I do what I can to keep them like that.

I love DW guns: stout, versatile and more accurate than I am.

$500 isn’t the worst I’ve seen, but I’d offer $425 right now to the proprietor and see what happens. You may just get it for something close to that.

Now, if I could just get a DW .357 Max Super Mag or a .22 Magnum DW to appear in my stocking on Christmas...

Stay safe.

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I used to have a 357 mod 15 for yrs, great shooter, lucked into this mod 40, 357 Supermag, base gun with 8" barrel for less than my original mod 15. Yrs if Ebay shopping got my almost complete kit.

stonebuster said:

I went to look at the gun today cash in hand. It looked great, no worn bluing, no plum color blue anywhere, the forcing cone showed no wear and no flame cutting. The balance the gun is fantastic and you'd never think it was nearly 40 years old by looking. The cylinder locked up tight and the locking lug was barely showing any wear at all. Single action was excellent.. I asked him to take the rubber grip off and it showed no rust underneath or frame wear. He offered to take off the side plate. No rust and no signs of problems except very oily and looked like someone had used some light grease inside. Also the hammer had an arc rubbed in it on the left side deep enough to easily feel with you finger nail. Then I tried DA and something was wrong. The trigger would go back some and hit a wall and have to be forced by more pressure to get past it if you were pulling the trigger DA slowly. If you pulled the trigger more quickly it wasn't as noticeable. It was binding. I checked the B/C gap and pretty much wasn't any as it took some effort to get a .002 gauge in. I looked at the face of the cylinder and you could see marks where it had been binding on barrel. The cylinder didn't have excessive build up on it. He had no barrel tool so we couldn't reset the gap. Also he had put a Wolff "competition" trigger return spring in and several times the trigger stuck back and wouldn't return without help. I suggested he put the stock trigger return spring back in and order a barrel tool so we could unscrew the barrel some to get .006 B/C gap and see if that was the problem with DA. This is his first revolver so I offered to help him with the barrel adjustment when the tool comes in. He honestly didn't realize there was a problem as he only shot it SA. We both left disappointed. After we adjust the BC gap, I'll try it and make a decision. Hopefully the barrel will unscrew without a major problem after who knows how many years.

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The barrel is under tension and should unscrew easily once the shroud is removed. I've had a few DW's and currently have a Model 40 and have never had a problem removing a barrel, if there's no obvious rust and oil/grease in the action, the barrel shouldn't be a problem, and the .002 gap definitely will affect the double action rotation of a model 15. My mod 40 is supposed to use .002 but caused cylinder bind on a specific area, backed out to .003 and enough clearance for easy double action without bind.

Congratulations on your new Dan Wesson.
Fear not about taking it apart. These are some of the simplest revolvers to work on.
The long side plate screw will capture your mainspring, and everything can be done with the barrel tool wrenches.

These are some of the most robust revolvers ever made.

robhof said:

View attachment 856364I used to have a 357 mod 15 for yrs, great shooter, lucked into this mod 40, 357 Supermag, base gun with 8" barrel for less than my original mod 15. Yrs if Ebay shopping got my almost complete kit.

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If I could like x3 I would, that’s one rare beauty right there!

Stay safe.

I 150% agree with Middletown @stonebuster . Mine with the laminate grip would bind when I screwed it tight. The screw will go up until it hits where the mainspring rides and stop it.
I ended up acraglassing in a sleeve for the screw to bottom out in the grip to have it out far enough to not bind.

Dan Wessons hold the yoke in place with a small wire c-clip inside the frame. This can easily be overlooked if the revolver is disassembled.
It is number 42 on this schematic...

Dan Wesson's aren't as highly sought after as their design, build quality, accuracy and flexibility would suggest they should be and their prices reflect this.

I own a Dan Wesson 744 that I paid $680 for and the biggest problem I have with it is that I have lost all interest in owning or even shooting a S&W or Ruger... it is kind of hard to appreciate a Chevy Malibu after you have owned a Ferrari! When I bought my 744 my biggest worry was that it was too cheap for such a quality revolver so there must be something wrong with it... I was wrong.

The cylinder latch on the DW's is different, and superior, to a S&W, Ruger and most other common revolvers. I suppose that if you grew up with thumb latched cylinders it would take a bit to get used to the DW center cylinder latch. After getting used to the center latch on my DW I prefer it to a thumb latch as the cylinder naturally swings out of the frame into the support of my left hand.

P.S. The CZ production barrels/shrouds are every bit as high quality as the original Monson barrel/shrouds. I love being able to switch from my 8" barrel at the range to my 4" barrel for carrying in the woods. The EWK muzzle brakes are an excellent design, very effective, incredibly reasonable priced, can be mounted or removed in under a minute and will easily switch between the different barrels. I love my EWK brake for target shooting at the range... it is too loud for hunting and such though.

stonebuster said:

Thanks for the schematic. I didn't explain myself well. The yoke assembly is retained and doesn't slip out forward so I believe the clip is in place. What I meant to say was, when I release the cylinder latch the cylinder will drop down freely and bottom out in the loading position if I don't ease it down. Letting it fall can't be good for the mechanism I wouldn't think. I thought there might be something to prevent it dropping down so freely. I'm new to the DWs. They're a different animal than my Smiths and Rugers.

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With the cylinder latch on the crane, the revolver will only open as fast as you allow it to with your thumb. Just allowing it to fall isn't good for any revolver; regardless of brand.

dbmjr1 said:

Congratulations on your new Dan Wesson.
Fear not about taking it apart. These are some of the simplest revolvers to work on.
The long side plate screw will capture your mainspring, and everything can be done with the barrel tool wrenches.

These are some of the most robust revolvers ever made.

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Yes on the model 14 and 15's, don't try the Supermags without a tutorial from the DW forums, I learned by trial and ERRORS to take apart and rebuild the model 40, it's a whole new animal; no side plate; the trigger group drops out and everything must come out in a specific order and replacing the trigger group requires a 3rd hand to line up everything.

As for your side plate I would guess someone tried to pry it off. They are a tight fit. The way to remove side plates after your remove the grip and screws is to use a rubber mallet to pound on the area where the grip screw goes. It will take a few whacks but the side plate will come right off. If someone tried to pry off that tight fitting side plate I can see where it would cause a crack. You may have to send it in to have the side plate fitted to your gun which is probably the best route to go. I've put many thousands of rounds through my Dan Wesson .357 and can't imagine anything falling out or cracking. I've had the gun apart a number of times too and have seen no problems or potential problems. It's my most accurate handgun. I would go to: danwessonforum.com. It's members are the best knowledge base for Dan Wessons that I know of on the internet.

EWK barrels and shroud assemblies are all sold out and have been for many months, maybe longer, years? The only thing they list is a 4" barrel tube (no shroud). It's easier to find DW barrels than EWK on the used market.

The Karl Lewis design is outstanding but dated at this point. Ruger has incorporated the stud main-spring housing and yoke detent into their GP-100 in the 1980's, although the yoke detent was featured on the much earlier S&W triple-lock, and now S&W has incorporated a yoke detent again on their latest iteration of the 19 and 66. S&W has also incorporated the two-piece barrel, which Ruger has also adopted for their recent Super GP-100, though the more common S&W barrel and shroud assemblies do not use a muzzle nut or allow for user assembly, adjustment or changeout. The muzzle nut on the DW also allows for easy installation of a brake. In my opinion, the Karl Lewis DW design is still better after all these advances by their competitors, but it lacks features and options that are critical to the contemporary market. There is market-demand for 8 shot cylinders (USPSA) and Dan Wesson / CZ aren't offering anything. There's also demand for 9mm. For IDPA, the DW remains a viable option but a Ruger Match Champion or S&W SSR is probably a better starting point. For ESR, the Dan Wesson lacks support for moon-clips from the factory. This would also be a shortcoming if it were viable at all for USPSA. Maybe you don't compete, so you don't care. I don't compete either, but I absolutely find 7 or 8 shot capacity a desirable feature in my carry gun. I can get that from Taurus, but not Dan Wesson. I also use moon-clips in my carry gun even if it's only on the initial load to ensure full ejection of all shells. I also find moon clips indispensable for training because in most classes where people are swapping magazines, loading from dump pouches or speed strips at least twice as often will leave me behind the ball. The Safariland speedloaders are fine but limited to 6 shot models and they still leave me pecking for brass.

The reason I say all this is because I sincerely hope CZ is going to do something with the Dan Wesson revolver. I'd like to see a new frame that supports larger cylinders, moon-clips, a top-strap machined for revolver-specific optics (not just crudely adapted slide-rides), while maintaining their features like the grip stem, forward cylinder release and locking, with the two-piece tensioned barrels. If they don't do it, maybe Colt or Kimber will. It would be a pity if CZ just idles Dan Wesson indefinitely.

TK Custom used to modify small-frame Dan Wessons for full moon clips for not just the 38 Special and .357 Mag, but the .38 Super and 9mm as well. If I'm not mistaken, the clips they used were for the K-frame S&W.
https://www.tkcustom.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIgJTBleGu5AIVAdvACh3l7ACiEAAYASAAEgLOv_D_BwE

I agree the price is not too cheap to be true I bought a decent one with a 4 inch barrel for 400. That said that was a steal of a deal and if I had with paid 500 I would have.
I sincerely doubt there's anything wrong with it but give it a good check over but I agree with what someone else said the Dan Wesson's are pretty darn hard to break you're not dealing with a week Smith & Wesson model 19.
I can personally attest the Dan Wesson are the most accurate revolvers in my arsenal

SG1 said:

I just read the posts that went up while I was editing my last post. On second thought, without the original grips, freckled and turn lines, I'd say it's over priced.

My LGS has a DW 15-2 Monson Mass pistol pack with all 3 (or 4?) barrels, presentation box, tools, etc., and the gun looks perfect. However, the price is $1800

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which is cheap mate.

thewelshm