Dan Wesson Kodiak... well now I know why they sold it.

[cas]

Months ago now I bought a gently used DW Kodiak. Got it, swapped out some parts to make it usable for me (installed a long flat trigger, a deactivated grip safety and lost the ambi-safety), did a trigger job on it.. then nothing. That says a lot about where I am mentally and physically with shooting, that I spent close to $2k and a pistol, sunk another $150+ into it, then didn't shoot it for two months.

Anyway, it was very gently used. Some wear on the barrel hood and barrel cone, but otherwise near pristine. That actually worried me. "What's wrong with it that they didn't shoot it?" I hoped it was just ammo prices. Well today I think I found out why. lol I won't feed any rounds from the magazine by hand. If you drop the slide you get a "two point" jam. Tried it with a different mag, same results. If you gently close the slide and give it a little massage as you do, some times it will feed.

Now the interesting note is, if you single load a round, close the slide and then insert a magazine, it will fire the whole magazine just fine! I ran through several magazines this way with no issues. I didn't shoot it on paper, just off hand at a 3/4 scale steel IPSC target at 50 yards which it hit every time unless i did something really stupid with the sights or trigger.

Another interesting note, I fired a few rounds at 200 yards, some off hand, some resting my forearms on a structure. When I did that, the semi rest, it would also malfunction about half the time.

I'm thinking there might be way too much extractor tension, or maybe in need of some contouring/polishing.

[tj3006]

Sounds like a extractor to me too.
By all means keep us posted. I like Dan Wesson 1911s...tj

[pacecars]

I guess I need to go shoot the Bruin I just bought!

[cas]

Man this is one fussy gun coming apart and going back together. I couldn't get the extractor out, it put up a fight. Reassembling,I couldn't get the firing pin back in! Dozens and dozen of attempts to get it to line up with the hole. Must be some tight tolerances.

Appears to have an EGW "Practical extractor", the style where the lengths of it are round instead of flats like a traditional extractor. The ambi safety it came with is also EGW, which they confirmed a while back. I assume other parts as well.

The extractor didn't seem to have too much tension, I don't think. The bottom of it had no radius at all. I gave it a little kiss with a diamond lap. Reassembled, it will feed the coated 200gr truncated cone dummy bullet I was testing it with. I need to make a dummy 180XTP which is was what I was mostly shooting today and what wouldn't feed manually.

[x101airborne]

Thank you for keeping us updated. I wish you good luck getting this one sorted out.

[cas]

It seems that perhaps some more tweaking and polishing is in order.

Put one 180gr XTP in the mag and tried, no bueno. Put two in the mag, same same, it jammed.

So I loaded the magazine to capacity, and the slide drops. So I unloaded it and tried it again, with one less round. It also fed. Unload, repeat again minus one round. And it just kept working, down to the last single round, though it closed a little slow at times, with a bit of a hiccup on a few.






I'm not crazy about the look. I have a couple dark 1911's with stainless controls, but I just don't know that I care for it on this one. I bought this trigger with the intention of putting it in another gun, and then using the trigger in that one, in this one. Then replacing the parts with blued ones. But for reasons I don't recall now, I didn't like this trigger in that gun. So I put it in the Kodiak. Then I thought if it's going to have silver, you might as well get stainless parts instead. Then you can thin the safety if you like. So here we are. Unsure.

[cas]

Just an update after shooting it a bit more yesterday. I did a little more bevel/radius on the bottom of the extractor where the case rim slips in and it did the trick. Feeds nice and smooth like it should.

Did some shooting on paper at 27 and 50 yards. Also a little 100 yard plinking at steel. In my head I keep comparing it to the 6" Para I had. With the one and only load I tried, the Kodiak is as accurate at 50 yards as the Para was at 20. Getting velocities a good 75 fps or more higher in the DW with the same a loads?? This DW doesn't seem to throw the brass that far. My DW Razorback flings them a fair bit father. Or maybe the trajectory on this one is just lower. The Para, despite having a squared off firing pin stop, a very heavy recoil spring and me adding a very heavy hammer spring, still wanted to throw them into the next zip code.

All and all I'm very happy with it. Now if the sights weren't so blurry and didn't more around so much, I might be able to get some real work done with it.

[bigbrowndog]

I would guess that slide speed is a bit slower on the longer slide due to weight, thus less vigorous tossing of empties.

Trapr

[cas]

Ja, but the Para was a long slide as well.

[bigbrowndog]

I read your comment as the Razorback was throwing them farther.

Trapr

[rjm52]

"In my head I keep comparing it to the 6" Para I had. With the one and only load I tried, the Kodiak is as accurate at 50 yards as the Para was at 20. Getting velocities a good 75 fps or more higher in the DW with the same a loads??"

..funny about that... Have a PARA-USA Elite LS Hunter with the 6" barrel...the Kimber Stainless Target II with a 5" barrel shoots the same velocity. Have not chronoed the same loads with the 6" Kimber Stainless Target I picked up last year...

[cas]

The Para was very inaccurate, the most inaccurate full sized auto I've ever owned. That combined with the slower speeds makes me wonder if the bore wasn't over sized.

It also had really poor lockup, which didn't help accuracy, but I wonder if it contributed to slide speed and brass chucking.


Yes the Razorback throws them farther, which makes sense. But the Pare blew them both away. The more I think about it, I think it had a lot to do with trajectory and how high it threw them, because often I would shoot and turn my head to easily see where they were landing. (so I'd know where to look to pick em up)

[rjm52]

Zero issues with my PARA...dumped a whole mag into an 8" gong at 100 yards from the seated backrest position. Did the same with the Kimber.

[cas]

Minor update. I haven't been shooting it a lot, or any pistol for that matter. Been shooting lots of scoped rifles, so when I go do that I bring it along. Might shoot a few rounds or a full mag, or not.

Last trip while letting some things cool, I pulled it out. 3/4 scale steel IPSC target at 200 yards. Resting my elbows on my range bag, took two shots to get the hold. Put the fiber optic bead even with the top of the rear sight blade. Then put the whole target on the head of the front sight. Loaded a full mag and rang it through the whole thing, it was so easy I got bored and stopped. 180gr XTPs and Longshot. Thus far, I am very happy with it.