And grip styles are interchangeable, too. Yes, I know that grips are interchangeable on nearly all handguns, but Dan Wesson goes a little further than most. On most traditional-form fixed-barrel revolvers from other manufacturers, a "full-profile" grip frame is used. That is, the grip frame is itself the size of the full outline of a standard-type grip, which consists of two panels or a two-piece wraparound unit. This limits the size and shape of the grips themselves. Square butts are square butts, round butts are round butts, and there is very little versatility.

The new revolvers performed as well as Dick's original Dan Wesson in the African hunting fields. Irlene Mandrell (L) dropped a trophy springbok with one shot from the new .357 Mag. revolver, and Dick took this warthog with his vintage .445 SuperMag gun.

On Dan Wesson revolvers, the "grip frame" is a small stud protruding down from the rear of the frame body with a single threaded grip attachment at its base. It allows for nearly unlimited versatility in size and shape of grip configuration. And that makes a lot of sense when you realize that the same basic Dan Wesson .357 Magnum revolver frame might be used one day for deer hunting with a scoped 10-inch VH barrel and used the next day with a 21/2-inch barrel for police duty.

With the wood and rubber accessory grips that Dan Wesson offers, you can equip those setups with an oversize two-hand unit for the heavy scoped version and switch to a sleek little roundbutt service style for the short-barreled form. Is there a Dan Wesson setup that will suit your particular handgunning purposes? I'd be surprised if there weren't.

The Old & The New Compared
In Africa the first thing we did was sit down at the Professional Hunter's outdoor range and do a side-by-side session with my tried-and-true Model 445S and the new version Model 445S that Poluchova had brought along. We used 240-grain JHP and 300-grain JSP .445 SuperMag ammunition that CZ is having commercially loaded and marketed under the Dan Wesson label, as no mainstream ammomakers as yet offer it.

With 4X scope settings, both revolvers shot about 1.5 inches at 100 yards. No difference I could see at all between the old gun and the new gun--except that mine was two inches longer and had a slightly crisper, personally tuned, trigger pull than Poluchova's current eight-inch, heavy shroud version.

Using the 240-grain ammo I used her gun to evening-stalk a trophy-grade (but nonetheless diminutive) Steenbok antelope to about 75 yards and shot it chest-on, for full penetration and exit out the hip. It went down in place--performance like you'd expect from a 20-percent more energetic .44 Magnum-caliber load. The next day I also shot a small warthog that had gotten on the wrong side of a farmer's fence, using my own .445

SuperMag (I couldn't resist the nostalgic appeal). At 125 yards broadside, he went flat from the full-penetrating impact. Two days later Irlene Mandrell, CZ's celebrity spokesperson, dropped a trophy springbok at about 150 yards with one shot using a scoped Dan Wesson .357 Magnum.

I am delighted that the great Dan Wesson revolver design will be reentering the mainstream. The CZ-USA people are all serious hunters and shooters and are committed to putting this superb tool back in front of serious handgunners. I'm particularly happy that one of the initial models on the resurrection list is the Alaskan Guide version of the stainless Model 445: a four-inch, compensated version with Hogue grips and a matte black finish, designed as a dangerous-game companion sidearm for wilderness security. Dig up some previous Dan Wesson catalogs and see if there's a chambering or a configuration that interests you. Then let the folks at CZ-USA know. They can make just about anything if there's customer interest.