I recently bought a stainless 5" barrel DW Pointman in 10mm. I shopped around for a long time looking at S&W, Kimber, Springfield Armory, Colt, and any other kind of 1911 I ran across. I simply wanted the best pistol I could find for less than about a $1,000 if possible and had no real brand loyalty. I also was not constrained on price really and would have paid more for a better pistol...I didn't find it short of a custom shop gun for a LOT more. I had previously owned a couple of Springfield Armory 1911's in .45 ACP and a Colt Delta Elite 10mm as well as a Glock 20 (ugh), and a Norinco 1911 which was more accurate than either of the Springfield pistols which cost three times as much. My son still has the Norinco.
I don't like the Kimbers...dislike the looks, the big logos and all that crap. The Kimber stainless Target II that comes in 10mm has a matte finish that looks like it was blasted with beach sand...rough. A couple of Smith & Wessons were flawless in fit and finish with tight slides but most had some play in the slide. I didn't like the ambi safety on the Springfield and again the slides tended to have some play. The Dan Wesson rear sight is a Bo-Mar clone and is melted down into the slide nicely. The Kimber adjustable sight sits higher.
The Dan Wesson slide was tight as a $2,500 Les Baer. I pulled the barrel and lapped the slide with polishing paste and a drop of teflon oil about a zillion times while watching tv before I fired it. I found everything about the pistol to be flawless for a production gun. Machining, fit, finish, excellent, feed ramp is hand polished. Beautiful diamond checkered coco-bolo grips that fit perfectly vs. black rubber on the Kimber Target II. DW uses good parts: Ed Brown slide release and grip safety, STI thumb safety, Chip McCormick internals, all Wolff springs, and less MIM parts than Kimber and does a great job assembling the pistol. I don't have a trigger gauge but it is very light, smooth and short...perfect. The Dan Wesson has a checkered front strap, most others are plain or have verticle grooves, and the back strap is checkered steel unlike the plastic on the Kimber and some others.
To me the DW doesn't need anything right out of the box. The recoil spring is stiff (22-24#?) and works well with Winchester Silvertips and the hotter loads but is a little stiff for gun show reloads for plinking. I bought a Wolff 18# for that.
The only problem I had was square edged hollowpoints hanging up on the feed ramp. That is typical of 1911's and nothing peculiar to Dan Wesson, one guy told me he had the same problem with his S&W and sent it to the factory for a ramp job. I don't trust many people to work on my guns so I did my own rework of the DW ramp and no problems now.
I think the Dan Wesson is a good clean looking pistol, very small laser etched model number on the left side and very small etched name and serial number on the right hand side of the frame just under the slide.
If I could find something to bitch about on the Dan Wesson I would do it but that is one fine pistol in my opinion. Most of the complaints I have seen were with the earlier pistols when DW was buying components from different suppliers and before they settled down on the configuration.
Price much better than the competition...I paid $725 out the door with sales tax from a dealer although I am told CZ-USA has raised the wholesale price since then.
In fact I liked the pistol so much I went to the same dealer and bought a Dan Wesson Pointman Major (rib on the slide) in .45 ACP. Also nice, slide is tight but not as tight as the 10mm (being real picky here) and the trigger is not quite as clean. It does feed perfectly and the larger radius on the .45 ACP bullet does not have the hang-up problems the 10mm had. I paid $825 out the door for the Pointman Major.
My two cents and more. I don't know how any real discerning person could find fault with a Dan Wesson.
p.s., I second the opinion on the 1911 chamber as far as support and full loads. I have a bunch of the old 1980's Norma 10mm squirrled away and my DW shoots it with no problems and eats it up as fast as you can handle pulling the trigger. THAT is some heavy duty ammo.
