Dan Wesson Patriot Pictures & Report

[Zak Smith]

Here are some pictures of my new Dan Wesson Patriot Expert (Blue). I picked this up locally for a decent price and have put about 500 rounds of S&B ball through it so far. The trigger is good, and it shoots to point of aim when I do my part. The adjustable sights needed no changes from the box.


(click for large image) Right-hand side profile


(click for large image) Left-hand side profile. Blemishes are my fingerprints.


(click for large image) Right-hand rear quarter profile. Bluing is deep and consistent.


(click for large image) Left-hand side from the front.


(click for large image) Muzzle front view. Polished grain on slide flats is perfect.


(click for large image) Left-hand side view outdoors. The sunlight brings out the blue very well. The white on the underside is just a visual effect of the matting.

The pistol smoothed out considerably in this break-in period. Ejection has become flawless and consistent. The trigger remains excellent. The thumb safety "snickiness" has improved considerably. Frame/Slide fit was and remains tight. There is a small amount of barrel/slide play, just a hair over "perceptible movement." Feeds okay from CMC 8-round mags and Wilson 47D. The tight chamber won't work with my SWC handloads which work fine in a Kimber and Colt, but it chambers Proload 230's fine.

The pistol only had two imperfections out of the box:


The rear sight rides aweful high when zerod. It could use a shorter front sight.


There's a recess in the right-hand side of the trigger raceway. It looks like someone took a soldering iron to some plastic. The word from Dan Wesson is that this is from the "broaching tool for the trigger" and it's "OK", "not a defect", and "some frames will have it." I found it disappointing that they weren't embarassed it left their factory, but I did buy this pistol for shooting a lot, not looking at.

I don't have a picture, but there are rub marks on the last 1.5" of the right-hand side of the slide where it intermittently rubs the top edge of the dustcover. This is somewhat annoying. D.W. said they'd refinish the slide, later.

The original cross-pin for the Bomar-style sight was junk, and I had my local smith replace it with a full-width properly sized solid pin.

I will probably replace the FLGR with a 1911A1-style plug, since the two-piece FLGR keeps unscrewing itself (even with med. locktite).

All in all, I like it.

 

[Stephen A. Camp]

Hello, sir. Thank you for a detailed report with pictures. I appreciate it.

Best.

 

[Berg01]

A friend of mine recently bought one just like yours; it is accurate and reliable with numerous kinds of ammo, and he is doing very well with it in a Tactical Shooting League that he belongs to.

 

[Zak Smith]

WARNING: Thread resurrection.

This pistol was my USPSA Limited-10 gun for over a year (while I shot that division), and then I used it in 3-Gun for a little while until I got a couple SV raceguns.

The Patriot had a few break-in and teething issues-- let's see if I can remember. First, I broke the rear sight pin several times. This was ultimately fixed by replacing the "Bomar Copy" sights with rear Bomars; they've been solid since. Next, I broke one extract when it got gummed up. When I replaced it, I made sure to stone down the top and bottom surfaces so it had enough clearance inside the frame cut, and it's been fine since. I had a local gunsmith put in the red SV/STI trigger and do a trigger job. It's had over 12,000 rounds through it, and has been virtually 100% reliable for the last 10k of those (ie, after the extractor was fixed).

It had a lot of holster wear and much of the finish was gone, so I sent it off to Tripp to get hard chromed before he shut down his HC operation (again). Here are the results. My scrappy DW looks better than new.

Here's what it looked like in 2004-- when it was 16 months old -- with just a fraction of the wear it had before I sent it off.


............... Larger version of above photo.

Back from Tripp:


............... Larger version of above photo.

............... Larger version of above photo.

 

[Stephen A. Camp]

Hello. It looks really good in my view.

Best.

 

[VHinch]

Nice. Dan Wesson is a glaring omission from my 1911 collection. This report and pics confirm that I am long overdue to pick one up.