Dan Wesson .45 ECP First Impressions

[TheotherMikeG]

I love the look of this pistol. The slide is non-traditional with angled cuts down toward the recessed bull barrel. Not for everyone. It's not quite commander length at 4", has tapered Hogue G10 grips, a flat trigger (that breaks cleaner than any other I've owned), checkered front strap, a bobtail msh, and some ugly fat slide serrations. Groovy looking squared-off commander hammer too.

I purchased this as a carry gun, so I'm looking forward to see if the bobtail msh helps with concealment. It'll ride in a TT Leather iwb holster. No carry though until I wring it out a bit more.

Sights are black ledge u-notch rear and a too-small brass bead front. I really wanted to like that bead but it's not visible when backlit and is hard to pick up with ambient light on a dark street. No hurry, but I may get around to changing the front to tritium later.

The pistol has an aluminum frame and feels very light in hand at 29 oz empty. Recoil is very snappy. I'm used to shooting my old stainless Commander so it took a box or two to get used to the extra muzzle rise. Once I did though the pistol was right on target. For whatever reason, my groups on paper are average at best, but I was able to hit the line of small steel targets from 11 yards consistently and quickly. I hate to judge before all the facts are in but I believe this may be the most accurate handgun I own. We'll see if that carries over the next few times I go to the range.

Little annoyances:
The flgr and bushingless barrel. I'll just need to get used to keeping paper clips around so I can field strip the gun.
It's a very tightly fitted gun, so the barrel, hood, and lugs get pretty well scraped and scratched.
It doesn't love my hand loads too much. I shot 300 rounds of factory ball without issue but my 200gr lswc causes the gun to occasionally not feed/go into battery. My rounds passed the plunk test so I'm going to keep playing with it.
The light weight causes the beavertail safety to beat up the web of my hand a little bit. And as I already mentioned, the sights.

All in all, a pretty awesome package. I dig that all the internals are tool steel and I dig the quality of the build. None of the negatives I mentioned would prevent me from purchasing it again.

 

[bannockburn]

Looks nice and sounds like it's built to very close tolerances. Not a fan of the bobtail mainspring housing; just doesn't fit my hand comfortably (much prefer a flat mainspring housing). I have found lighter loads with 185 gr. and 200 gr. bullets help to cut down on recoil and muzzle flip in 1911s with lightweight frames and with 3" to 4" barrels.

 

[Spats McGee]

My first impression is that I can't wait to hear how it shoots after a couple of hundred rounds.

 

[Reinz]

Congrats on your fine pistol!

I hope to pick up a DW some day, but have yet to see one in the wild.

As far as the paper clip thing, it’s a little weird at first. As you disassemble it more down the road and or buy more 1911s with bull barrels it will become more natural to you.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

Nice! Dan Wesson makes some good stuff.

 

[TheotherMikeG]

My first impression is that I can't wait to hear how it shoots after a couple of hundred rounds.

300 rounds of ball with one failure to go into battery. DW mentions in their manual that this is common until the pistol is broken in. 50 rounds of my hand loads with about 5 or 6 of the same, and 24 rounds of Federal HST 230gr that ran perfectly. All were equally accurate. The pistol actually makes me look like a decent shot.

Getting it tuned to my hand loads is my priority. If it won't reliably feed lswc (can't understand why it wouldn't) then I'll change to a ball style bullet.

 

[Spats McGee]

300 rounds of ball with one failure to go into battery. DW mentions in their manual that this is common until the pistol is broken in....

It's my understanding that's pretty common with the tighter-fit 1911s. Not that I have any experience with them, mind you.

 

[JR24]

My VBob had a few failures to go into battery in the first few hundred but became a well tuned machine after. Remember DW wants you to run them WET to start.

If I wasn't settled on the EDC X9 as my next and new carry gun I'd consider the ECP fairly strongly, but in 9mm.

I've found my CCO Valkyrie doesn't actually conceal all that much better than my VBob (Vedder light tuck, 2 o'clock IWB) and I carry it with the 9 round Wilson ETM mag that makes it roughly the same size. I prefer that 4" barrel for my eyes and overall balance and had the ECP been out when I got my Valkyrie I might have gone that way instead, though I am not crazy about the flat trigger.

I stick with the Valkyrie as my back has decided 35 oz loaded is all the carry gun it will tolerate anymore.

For the FLGR and bull barrel, if it's anything like the Kimbers I had, you can avoid the paperclip with some strong fingernails (and fingers) and some finagling. Took me a while and a few shattered fingernails to get the method down on my Ultra but once I did it was relatively painless to do without the paperclip. I still kept one in all my cleaning kits though.