The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

I was more than a little flattened by the tax man this year and will have to say goodbye to some plans I had long cherished. After crying in my beer for a time, I ordered a Dance & Brothers revolver from Dixie Gun Works. I know nuttin about them at all, I just saw the listing on the website and thought it looked interesting.

The 44 cal revolver arrived a bit less than a week later and I have to say that it is very pretty with good wood and a bright color case hardened steel frame. Some of the other CCH is dull rather than glossy. I do not know why. Pietta made this pistol and they certainly made a good job of it. It looks nice and works as it should. I have not fired it yet.

I can't speak to authenticity as I have been able to find nothing about the history or features of the real ones. This is the blurb from the webpage:

"The John Henry Dance & Brother handgun manufactory begin the winter of 1861-1862 with money being advanced from the state of Texas. Has 1 piece European grips with a steel frame. Barrel is .44 caliber, blued ,7 3/8" octagon to round. 1 in 30" twist. Brass blade front sight and a V-notch in hammer nose for rear sight. Features brass backstrap and triggerguard, color casehardened frame, loading lever, hammer and trigger. Recommended load is 22 grains FFFg powder, .454 round ball, with a .44 revolver wad. Manufactured by Pietta/Italy."





Vintage Paul

Nice, yes, this is based on authentic Confederate made revolvers by Dance, a basic Colt copy with some things like the rear cylinder shroud removed.

I think this revolver should be called a Dance Brothers revolver rather than Dance & Brothers. From the web complete with pictures of an example that is or was for sale:

http://www.oldsouthantiques.com/os3108p1.htm

"The .44 caliber revolver shown here with the inlaid coin Silver Star was made by the Dance Brothers of Columbia, Texas. Having been Brazoria County plantation owners the family purchased land on the Brazos River in east Texas in order to start a commercial enterprise. In 1858 John Henry, George Perry and David Etheldred Dance operated their own machine shop on Front Street, known as J.H. Dance & Company. Columbia and the surrounding county were growing rapidly due to the new rail connection with Houston. By 1859 with John Henry at the helm, the Dance boy’s machine shop was booming and the business was expanding. Not only an astute businessman, J.H. was an inventor, having invented a type of grist mill.

With the coming of war, John Henry Dance enlisted on March 1, 1861 in the Brazoria Volunteers with the intent of capturing the Federal Garrison at Brownsville, Texas; when they surrendered without a fight, the Volunteers went home and were discharged; John’s service lasting nineteen days. He re-enlisted in the 35th Texas Cavalry the following October. He was soon detailed to his own factory as his services were more important there than anywhere. The Dances did several small jobs for the Confederacy, but their first recorded arms work was in finishing and mounting two cannon.

John Henry had a much bigger vision; he intended to become the Sam Colt of Texas. In the spring of 1862 the Dances offered Governor Lubbock their factory and services at very reasonable terms, including having them detailed to work in the factory. As early as the beginning of July, 1862 the Dances had produced three or four pistols, which is remarkable when compared to the extensive time needed by other pistol manufacturers in the Confederacy to produce the first prototype. Only two months later they are referenced by the Houston paper as producing pistols “superior to Colt’s best” and on the 2nd of the following month the San Antonio Arsenal wrote a receipt for eleven six shot pistols. Production continued to increase in the following months. Based on these aforementioned numbers, serial number 46, shown here, could have been produced in late 1862 or early 1863. In February of 1863 the Dance Brothers donated a “very fine revolver” to a benefit to raise money for disabled Confederate Veterans. This revolver is the only one known to be inlaid with a silver Texas Star, and I cannot help but have the fun of speculating that this was the very revolver.

In all, the Dance Brothers produced approximately 475 revolvers from start to finish. Serial number 46 remains in excellent condition. The serial number is stamped into the cylinder, backstrap, leg, rammer, frame and trigger guard. The gun is shown on pages, 42-44 of Gary Wiggins Dance & Brothers. The gun retains traces of blue, the edges remain sharp, all screw heads are in good condition, even five of the six safety pins remain, which says as much about its condition as any description could. The grip stock still shines with its original varnish.

The Dance revolver is one of the most desirable handguns in American history, but few collectors ever have the means and opportunity to own one of these iconic weapons. And the chance to own this presentation grade Dance is a once in a lifetime opportunity-there are no other known examples."

Howboutthat!

It sure is a good looking revolver.

It is! The day it arrived I spent a good half hour looking it over for flaws & enjoying its good looks. It will be a while before I can get it out to the range but it feels right and I'll bet it will shoot right.

hudson29 wrote:It is! The day it arrived I spent a good half hour looking it over for flaws & enjoying its good looks. It will be a while before I can get it out to the range but it feels right and I'll bet it will shoot right.

Now that is a shame.

Twenty years ago the local indoor pistol range used to allow my old black powder crocks on evenings when one of the local PDs were not scheduled to use half of the range. If business was slow I could blast away and smoke the place up. The kids that ran the place must have thought I was rather odd messing with the old guns but they never said so.

Sadly, NONE of the local indoor ranges will allow me to shoot black powder anymore and ALL of the local rifle ranges are gone. Now it is more than an hour's drive to get to the closest one. Just another of the hidden prices paid by those of us living in Megolopolis.