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D.B. Wesson was co-founder of Smith & Wesson in 1852. D.B. Wesson II was a Smith & Wesson employee, who, after failing to convince the company to revise and improve their revolver designs, left S&W and started Dan Wesson Arms in 1968. The goal was to build high-quality revolvers, and that’s what the company became known for. But in 1999, they started building 1911 pistols, and when CZ-USA acquired Dan Wesson in 2005, 1911s became the company’s focus. For a time, Dan Wesson 1911s lacked the premier reputation of the switch-barrel revolvers that had made them famous, but all of that has changed. Dan Wesson’s new 10mm Kodiak is a prime example of the high-quality 1911-style pistols the company is producing today. Here’s my full review of their newest model.
Quick Overview
Dan Wesson Kodiak
Pros
- Tack-driving precision
- Quality construction
- Good trigger
Specs
- Chambering: 10mm Automatic
- Action: Single action 1911
- Sights: Adjustable rear, fiber-optic front and optics-plate compatible
- Barrel: 6.0 inches
- Length: 9.7 inches
- Weight: 47.0 ounces
- Frame: Steel, Nitride finish
- Slide: Steel, PVD finish
- Trigger: 3.0 pounds (as tested)
- Capacity: 8+1
- MSRP: $3,699
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A Closer Look at the Dan Wesson Kodiak
No other pistol design has been copied as often or customized as much as the 1911. One popular customization has been the addition of a longer slide and barrel, and that’s the approach Dan Wesson took with the Kodiak, which has a 6-inch, match-grade barrel and a slide to match. However, unlike most conventional 1911 pistols that have a barrel bushing, the Kodiak uses a coned barrel that mates directly to the slide.
The long slide has the traditional grasping grooves at the rear but none at the front, and the top-front of the slide is dovetailed for a green fiber-optic front sight. The rear of the slide has a large optics cut, and the cover plate that comes with the pistol is held in place with two screws. It has an adjustable rear sight. (Dan Wesson offers various optics mounting plates for the attachment of dot sights, but none were available at the time of testing.)
The slide stop, magazine release, and ambidextrous thumb safety have a bronze finish, and the pistol’s grip frame is checkered at 20 lines per inch. This is a steel-framed pistol with a Nitride finished frame and PVD finished slide. The three contrasting colors—black frame, pewter slide, and bronze controls—combined with the multicolored G10 grips makes for a very attractive and distinctive-looking handgun. The mainspring housing at the rear of the grip is also checkered, and the dust cover on the frame—the section of the frame extending beyond the trigger guard—has a single slot accessory rail. An extended and beveled magazine well is also standard. All in all, the build quality on the Dan Wesson Kodiak is superb.
Related: Best Handguns for Deer Hunting
Dan Wesson Kodiak Test Results
The longer barrel and slide on this pistol would suggest it is capable of extreme precision and accuracy, and it is. The average group size for 20 groups fired with four different loads at 10 yards from the bench was an impressive 0.66-inch. These groups were fired with the factory open sights, and I tend to shoot with about 30% more precision with a dot sight, which suggests this pistol might shoot so damned well you would not believe it. I fired one group at 50 yards with the open sights that measured just a smidgen more than 2 inches!
The pistol was subjected to several defensive-style handgun drills, but admittedly, this is a big and heavy pistol, not an everyday carry gun unless you are maybe living in grizzly country. As you would expect, with its longer slide, it was a bit unwieldy out of the holster, but once on target, it delivered the bullets where you wanted them. The pistol’s excellent trigger played a role in its performance on target as well.
The single-slot accessory rail would be perfect for the attachment of a light, which could well serve a hunter or hiker in low light while chasing feral hogs or fighting it out with a marauding bear. However, I installed a Spartan adapter to the accessory rail, which allowed me to shoot the pistol from a Spartan tripod/bipod. This is a feature that could most definitely come in handy for a hunter.
The Kodiak also fired and extracted every load tested without exception; however, a few of the 10mm loads fired—not listed—were just a little bit too long to reliably feed through the magazine. After a couple rounds were loaded, their overall length prevented them from feeding up through the body of the magazine. Aftermarket 10mm Auto magazines might correct this issue. Regardless, from the top spot in the magazine, every load that was tried fed perfectly.
Related: Best 22 Pistols, Tested and Reviewed
Final Thoughts on the Dan Wesson Kodiak
My preference for a handgun intended for hunting big game has always been a revolver, primarily because of the more powerful cartridges they can shoot. The Dan Wesson Kodiak is one of the few semi-automatic pistols I’ve thought was ideally adapted for hunting large game. This is especially true now with the resurgence of interest we’re seeing in the 10mm, because this interest has brought with it a wide array of big-game-capable loads. Additionally, with deep-driving loads like the Federal Solid Core, this pistol deserves consideration as a predator-defense sidearm, too.
I think another appealing aspect of the 10mm Automatic is that now with Marlin’s introduction of the 10mm Trapper lever gun, you could arm yourself with a quality pistol and rifle that share the same ammunition. Though both have limited reach, a hunter who knows how to hunt would be well armed. So too would a wanderer in big-bear country be adequately prepared to deal with claws and teeth. Either way, one thing’s for certain, and it’s that at least based on this pistol, Dan Wesson is building 1911s of fantastic quality and performance. If you can afford this pistol, I don’t think you’ll ever be disappointed, and you might well be the envy of all your hunting and shooting friends.
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