Dan Wesson 9MM Specialist Issue

[Jim Watson]

On further consideration, the gun is going back to DW. The failures and completely poor QC on the firearm's finish was too much for me to "figure it out" after spending that amount of money. 4-6 week turnaround time on their gunsmith's bench to try and get it right......the second time.

Without getting into the philosophical aspects of selling incomplete guns, I think that is a good move.
Could be an undersize chamber, short leade, tight extractor, narrow breechface, or general tightness. Let them figure it out.

[Tango]

Wanted to give an update on what occurred.

The Specialist went back to DW after having 40-60 failure to feed in 300+ rounds. The rounds would die on the feed ramp. This in addition to a poor finish led to the guns return to DW.

DW was on top of the return and a pistol smith e-mailed me upon their receipt. Wrote that the gun had been manufactured incorrectly and the feed ramp was cut at the wrong angle. 6+ weeks later a "cured" pistol with a newly cut feed ramp, polished internals and fresh finish was back at my front door.

Another 200 rounds and the gun continued to fail in the same manner it did before being "fixed". Some research led to removing the factory 10lb main spring for a 14lb spring. 100 rounds of ammo later and 1 failure to extract led to a belief of "that's a wrap for $1700+ dollars".

E-mailed the company and was rudely greeted by e-mails of disbelief in failure of the product. Asked for a parting of ways and full refund. They get their paper weight back and I move on.

Weapon was again returned to DW. A terse e-mail from a corporate head stated the company had run 300+ rounds of ammo through the gun with no issues. Wanted to know what, "THEY WERE DOING WRONG". Of course they had only run 20 rounds of what I carry and 280 rounds of what they wanted but I digress.

Stayed professional, just stating the facts of usage in the field for a duty weapon and desire to move on. Request was not responded to, just a question of where do you want your gun shipped to, as we are done with it. 6+ weeks after its second trip back to the factory it was again at my door.

I spoke with a local gunsmith who carried 1911s for 20+ years as a LEO and then 5-8 years as a contractor in Iraq. Individual said put the 14lb spring back in, run it for several hundred rounds and report back.

Gun now has 550 trouble free rounds through it. While it is a tack driver, the "beware of things that fix themselves" mantra remains. I basically have a gun that has somehow fixed itself after putting the 14lb spring in, with 1 failure to extract. I really don't "know" what they did upon the weapon's second return. Overall, the extreme rudeness of the company via e-mail was appalling. I really can't stress that enough. A highly placed corporate head who e-mailed me with such disdain I had to shake my head. A duty weapon that didn't work, that was by their own admission manufactured incorrectly and it was MY fault.

So, at this point I have a DW 9MM Specialist, with a non-factory Woff 14lb spring that is 550 rounds into a no issues count. I will continue to run the gun as $1700 dollars just doesn't lay around, nor can it be fully recouped. If it continues to work, it may stay around. If I continue to hear great things about the STI Stacatto P, it may get sold for funding.

[Trukinjp13]

I am sorry to hear about your troubles. I recently bought a vigil 9mm commander. I just did a good Vickers style lube job on her and shot over 250 rounds it’s first trip. Zero issues with multiple ammo types. Then after breakdown lube and grease the rails I shot another 270 rounds with more ammo types and it still ran perfect. I am pretty sure that Wesson’s come with a high quality 12lb spring from the factory. But as said before, this is not a exclusive problem to Wesson. But 9mm 1911s in general. They just prefer more spring.

They seem to be up there as companies that can build 9mm 1911s that work well. Have you tried to grease the rails and slide? I prefer to do that on metal/alloy guns and especially stainless. I know a lot of people had problems with lube and galling in stainless guns before. How does the slide feel on the frame with no barrel/spring? Any hiccups in fit?

[jeep45238]

DW commander/govt models should both have a 19lb mainspring from the factory. Gov should have a 10lb recoil spring, commander 12.5lb.

These are factory weights for 9mm models.

[HCM]

I am sorry to hear about your troubles. I recently bought a vigil 9mm commander. I just did a good Vickers style lube job on her and shot over 250 rounds it’s first trip. Zero issues with multiple ammo types. Then after breakdown lube and grease the rails I shot another 270 rounds with more ammo types and it still ran perfect. I am pretty sure that Wesson’s come with a high quality 12lb spring from the factory. But as said before, this is not a exclusive problem to Wesson. But 9mm 1911s in general. They just prefer more spring.

They seem to be up there as companies that can build 9mm 1911s that work well. Have you tried to grease the rails and slide? I prefer to do that on metal/alloy guns and especially stainless. I know a lot of people had problems with lube and galling in stainless guns before. How does the slide feel on the frame with no barrel/spring? Any hiccups in fit?

If the feed ramp was cut wrong it’s not out of the question that other dimensions were off. Not directly Dan Wesson related but I have seen at least two Sigg P229 which had the frame rails cut in properly causing binding on the slide.

[Robinson]

The 9mm 1911 is a good concept and they are great when they run. I have owned several Colt 9mm guns and they all ran just fine, I mean thousands of rounds with no problems. But in the end I started to suspect that I had just been lucky. I've gone back to using 45 and 38 Super guns and left the 9mm 1911 behind for the third time. I shoot the 45 and 38 Super better than 9mm anyway.

That said, they sure are fun and relatively inexpensive to shoot. The 38 Super is just as fun but is a lot more expensive. So yeah, I understand the allure of the 9mm 1911.

[fixer]

Wanted to give an update on what occurred.

The Specialist went back to DW after having 40-60 failure to feed in 300+ rounds. The rounds would die on the feed ramp. This in addition to a poor finish led to the guns return to DW.

DW was on top of the return and a pistol smith e-mailed me upon their receipt. Wrote that the gun had been manufactured incorrectly and the feed ramp was cut at the wrong angle. 6+ weeks later a "cured" pistol with a newly cut feed ramp, polished internals and fresh finish was back at my front door.

Another 200 rounds and the gun continued to fail in the same manner it did before being "fixed". Some research led to removing the factory 10lb main spring for a 14lb spring. 100 rounds of ammo later and 1 failure to extract led to a belief of "that's a wrap for $1700+ dollars".

E-mailed the company and was rudely greeted by e-mails of disbelief in failure of the product. Asked for a parting of ways and full refund. They get their paper weight back and I move on.

Weapon was again returned to DW. A terse e-mail from a corporate head stated the company had run 300+ rounds of ammo through the gun with no issues. Wanted to know what, "THEY WERE DOING WRONG". Of course they had only run 20 rounds of what I carry and 280 rounds of what they wanted but I digress.

Stayed professional, just stating the facts of usage in the field for a duty weapon and desire to move on. Request was not responded to, just a question of where do you want your gun shipped to, as we are done with it. 6+ weeks after its second trip back to the factory it was again at my door.

I spoke with a local gunsmith who carried 1911s for 20+ years as a LEO and then 5-8 years as a contractor in Iraq. Individual said put the 14lb spring back in, run it for several hundred rounds and report back.

Gun now has 550 trouble free rounds through it. While it is a tack driver, the "beware of things that fix themselves" mantra remains. I basically have a gun that has somehow fixed itself after putting the 14lb spring in, with 1 failure to extract. I really don't "know" what they did upon the weapon's second return. Overall, the extreme rudeness of the company via e-mail was appalling. I really can't stress that enough. A highly placed corporate head who e-mailed me with such disdain I had to shake my head. A duty weapon that didn't work, that was by their own admission manufactured incorrectly and it was MY fault.

So, at this point I have a DW 9MM Specialist, with a non-factory Woff 14lb spring that is 550 rounds into a no issues count. I will continue to run the gun as $1700 dollars just doesn't lay around, nor can it be fully recouped. If it continues to work, it may stay around. If I continue to hear great things about the STI Stacatto P, it may get sold for funding.

What a fiasco. Wow.

I'd run the pistol as a trainer/beater/range gun despite the price. I have a DW I use as my main hard-use pistol. I have Springers as my home defense and carry units.

I'll probably send it to Wilson if I need any major repairs or modifications...not sure if I want to get into a boondoggle like this. Thanks for sharing.

[Tango]

If the feed ramp was cut wrong it’s not out of the question that other dimensions were off. Not directly Dan Wesson related but I have seen at least two Sigg P229 which had the frame rails cut in properly causing binding on the slide.

That is one of my concerns. They addressed one seen issue but are there others? How does a gun go from having issues to running like a top? 550 rounds is not a lot of ammo but it is spread over three different sessions, with no cleaning between two of the range trips. Again, not a ton of ammo but at least it is running!

The only thing an FI and I could come up with was when the 14lb spring was inserted it ground down whatever was causing the issue (outside of the feed ramp needing to be recut). DW got the gun back, ran another 300 rounds through it and whatever "wearing" in needed to be done was complete.

Just to clarify, non of what I wrote above is acceptable with a duty weapon. We were just trying to figure out why the gun now runs like a house on fire.

[Tango]

What a fiasco. Wow.

I'd run the pistol as a trainer/beater/range gun despite the price. I have a DW I use as my main hard-use pistol. I have Springers as my home defense and carry units.

I'll probably send it to Wilson if I need any major repairs or modifications...not sure if I want to get into a boondoggle like this. Thanks for sharing.

As you stated, the plan at this time is to run the gun at the range. I have time on my side and plenty of 9MM ammo. It will just continue to get used. Time and ammo can see what it is truly made of.

[TC215]

DW commander/govt models should both have a 19lb mainspring from the factory. Gov should have a 10lb recoil spring, commander 12.5lb.

These are factory weights for 9mm models.

Mainspring is 18lbs and the commander recoil spring for 9mm is 12lbs.

Like I said at the beginning of this thread, the DW 9mm's are sprung really light. Nothing wrong with going up to 12lb spring for a 5" gun or 14lb spring for a commander.