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Dan Wesson Patriot Expert Review |
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Date: |
11.8.2002 |
| Type: |
Firearm |
| Manufacturer: |
Dan Wesson |
| Author: |
Stephen A. Camp |
| Part 4: 25 Yards and Conclusion |
| Today, I was able to get back to the range to do the 25 and
50 yard portion of the report on the Dan Wesson Patriot Expert
Stainless .45 ACP. I could NOT do the 50 yard shooting today.
Too many folks were on that range trying to get their deer rifles
at least on the paper before moving to 100 yards. Sorry. The
farthest I could shoot was 25 yards. To "make up"
for the lack of 50-yard groups, I fired some off-hand and rested
groups at 25 yards and there are more rounds fired at both 7
and 15 yards.
Today, I also used several different magazines in the pistol.
It's been my experience that most 1911 guys have quite a few
magazines and they're not all the same make. Here's what was
used today:
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| Left to Right: Wilson 8-round, Wilson 7-round, Pachmayr 7-round,
McCormick 8-round (came with gun), Colt 7-round, and an old Randall
7-round. |
| There were zero failures to feed or lock the slide
back on the last shot with any of them. Most of the time the
weapon was fired with a full magazine and one in the chamber
as that's the way most would carry their pistol. As most know,
magazines can have different shaped lips and this, too, made
no difference; they all worked. |
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| Here's the McCormick magazine on the left and the old Colt
magazine on the right. Both are loaded with a CSWC handload.
You can see differences in the magazine lips. |
| The pistol: The pistol was used as received and had
not been cleaned internally since all of my shooting with it
began. I'd estimate that at about 350 rounds ago. The exterior
WAS wiped off after each session. While the Fed Ex package containing
the new magazine release did arrive today, I was already back
from the range when it did! I'll put it in and if there are
any problems will report back, but I expect none. This explains
why the magazine release on the gun in these pictures is blued;
that's what I had in my spare parts!
Ammunition: As you might recall, I had some problems
initially with a handloaded 200 gr CSWC. The slide, on occasion
would NOT go fully into battery. Last night, I did some checking
and measuring around and found out that this was likely NOT
the gun's fault; it was mine. What happened was I'd been loading
some of the same bullets for Auto-Rim cases for use in my
Model 625 and had altered the seating depth a tad. When I
changed plates and did some ACPs, the LOA was about 0.02"
too long! I bumped back to 1.25" before going to the
range today. These work fine, but in my opinion will be seated
another 0.01 or 0.02" shorter to freely work in any magazine
I have. Right now they barely work in some. The Dan Wesson
barrel is sized for minimal slop. I checked them in another pistol
I have with a match barrel and the same problem was present.
The problem was my ammo, not the gun.
No ball was fired today. A friend had asked me to run a "motherload"
of SWC through the gun. The motherload today consisted of
200 rounds of the CSWC handload; the same one that caused problems
before, but shortened as mentioned above. I also used mixed,
fired and resized cases to see if any particular brand case
causes problems. This likely DOES affect the load's accuracy,
but I don't shoot well enough for it to show up unless it
grossly affects it; it didn't.
I also fired 50 rounds of a handload using Hornady's 200 gr
XTP.
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| The Loads:
Hornady 200 gr XTP
7.2 gr Unique Powder
New TZZ Cases
Federal LP Primer
LOA: 1.215"
Rucker 200 gr Cast SWC
5.0 gr Bullseye
Mixed, fired cases
Winchester LP Primer
LOA: 1.25"
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| Shooting: This was done at 15 yards off-hand, 7 yards
off-hand and rapid-fire, 25 yards off-hand and rested. |
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| Here's the targets at 15 yards using the SWC handload.
They are 9-shot groups using the McCormick magazine fully loaded
and the gun "topped off." |
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| Also at 15 yards, here's a group with the Hornady XTP handload.
It, too, was fired with a "full" gun, but using a
Wilson 7-round magazine. |
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| This 9-shot group was fired with the XTP handload; I like
it. It was fired from a rest. Even so, I pulled one low. |
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| This 25-yard group was fired standing, w/2-hand hold, no
rest. It was fired slow-fire and uses the CSWC handload. Pulled
a couple there, too! |
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| This group was also fired at 25 yards, but was from a rest. |
| I do not really remember how many rounds were fired, but several
more than usual as this was also a check on feeding reliability
with the pistol and this load.
7 Yards: Starting at either a low or high ready position,
I fired sets of controlled pairs at this target using the
CSWC handload.
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| By this time, I've lost track of which magazines were used,
but all did get used more than once and all worked fine! Sorry.
It was pretty muddy, so I also did the obligatory "mud
expansion test" using the XTP load.
Doesn't prove anything, but I've had good luck with them
on animals.
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| One gentleman had remarked that I'd not shown the relieved
area under the Patriot triggerguard. Hopefully, the picture
below corrects that. It doesn't appear as "relieved"
as my STIs, but I think I prefer the more subtle DW in this
regard. |
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| Observations:
Now that I've fired something over 500 rounds through the pistol,
I feel that I can make some comments.
The trigger's smoothed up a bit from when I first got it
and is a very, very good trigger out of the box.
The sights have held true and adjustments have been positive
and repeatable.
Fit and finish on the pistol are very good.
Barrel-to-slide fit is such that there is no movement when the
gun's in battery.
Frame-to-slide fit remains very, very good.
There were no problems whatsoever from the small, 9mm-size
firing pin. There were zero misfires and primers were well
dented.
There were utterly no problems with extraction. The external
extractor does work in this pistol. I note NO abnormal or
unusual wear on it after these shooting sessions. Spring tension
remains strong.
The Patriot seems to be a very reliable pistol. The problems
were due to improper handloads. This gun's been fired with
factory ball from more than one maker, factory JHPs and handloaded
JHPs in different weights. When the SWC handload was corrected,
the gun ran with them just fine, at least for 200 rounds. I
think it works fine.
We did have a minor parts breakage, but that was the first
one magazine release I've ever seen break. As mentioned in
the original report, I think it was a fluke. I'm going to
replace it with another just like it; we'll see.
In short, I consider the Dan Wesson Patriot Expert to be
a very fine pistol and appreciate the chance to wring it out
for myself and others.
This has been as objective and straight as I know how to
do it.
Best. -Stephen A. Camp
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