October Country Dance Revolvers

[sourdough]

I found a link to the October Country site late last week and am wondering if anyone here has had any dealings with this outfit. They seem to be all over the map with prices: current production models are priced fairly reasonably, but the "collectible" replicas are overpriced. Be forewarned that they must not have much of a clue as to what they are looking at, based upon the titles of the listings.

http://www.octobercountry.com/

Last week they were offering three NIB Pietta Dance .36 revolvers, but with a squareback trigger guard, S/Ns 52, 53, and 127, for $300 each. They have either been sold or OC took them off the market as the listings no longer appear. All of the Pietta 1851 Navy type revolvers I have sport 6-digit S/Ns, so that raises a flag to me. I managed to grab a photo of #127 before it was removed:



They also offer this $1700 cased set, listed as Uberti 1862 Dance Dragoon .44 cal, 1855 Navy .36 cal Prototype. Clearly defarbed replicas: One is an ASM (S/N E58496) 1848 Dragoon 3rd Model (with a flattened trigger guard, shortened barrel/lever, and with the wedge and load lever pivot screw entering on the right side of the gun like a Walker) and the other is an 1851 Navy with a turned-down barrel (possibly an Uberti L&R). Where they got the description from is beyond me.



Also offered is what I consider an exceptional deal for the price of $225:

http://www.octobercountry.com/uberti-1862-navy-police-36-cal/

Thanks in advance for any info you all may have.

Regards,

Jim

[AntiqueSledMan]

Hello sourdough,

Looks like they purchased someone's collection.
I have purchased some Horse Blanket Cases for my long guns, very good quality.

AntiqueSledMan.

[sourdough]

Looks like they purchased someone's collection.

Yes, they say they purchased the collection of Dr. James Davis, better known as Dr. Jim L. Davis who started and maintained a website for the RPRCA (Replica Percussion Revolver Collector Association) many years ago. I believe OC purchased only a small part of the collection as Dr. Davis' collection was VERY large, and contained many pistols manufactured by obscure Italian makers and long gone US importers.

I have no evidence, but I believe Dr. Jim has passed as that site was his baby even several years ago. I tried to go to the RPRCA site this morning and if you click on any link Davis provided you will be inundated with demands that you create an account. I tried to get out of that unending loop and had to resort to restarting my machine. Ugly!

Glad to hear your dealings with OC were satisfactory. The jury is still out in my mind.

Thanks for the reply, sir.

Regards,

Jim

[sourdough]

I found this on October Country this morning and purchased it. Pietta Dance .36 cased with somewhat spurious accoutrements, which is not a big deal to me. The wood figure and the case colors are very good IMO. It has a squareback trigger guard (which I will replace with a round TG when I get it), and the frame case colors are not historically original, but I do not think Pietta has offered one in .36 for years. I don't care for the bottom blue case lining with the "satin" lid lining, but the compartments are not bad. It also appears to have an 1860 length grip/gripframe which is just fine with me.

I paid $300 and $25 shipping for it.

I will apprise it when I receive it in about a week.

Any comments appreciated, good or bad.

Regards,

Jim

[ShotgunDave]

That's a real beauty Jim! Good for you.

Can't wait for the report, once you have it in hand.

[sourdough]

I have since learned more about Pietta Dance Revolver production. This was written by Dr. Jim L. Davis on April 28, 2010 on the CAS City forum.

"Many of those who share on the various forums may have seen the postings of my requests for information about various replicas that have been produced.  One of these has been the Confederate replica of the Dance Brothers revolver which was originally made in Texas.  After 15 yrs. of research into the replica revolvers that have been manufactured since the early 1950’s, I have finally been able to put together production numbers for all replica Dance revolvers that have been manufactured.

It turns out that the Pietta .36 cal. revolvers that were marked DANCE FIREARMS CO. - ANGLETON, TEXAS are the fewest in number at only 35 guns.  These start with serial # C00001 and continue through # C00047.  There were an additional 4 guns produced that are marked DANCE FIREARMS CO. - ANGLETON, TEXAS in .44 cal. with rebated cylinders, # C00048-C00051.  The .44cal. revolvers were prototypes of a possible .44 cal. series.  These were produced in 1996.
 
Pietta continued shipments of the .36 cal. Dance revolver that are only marked F.LLI PIETTA MADE IN ITALY on right side of the barrel.  This was at about the same time that they discontinued the marking of any revolvers with anything other than their own name. These terminated with serial # C00127.  All production of the Pietta Dance revolver in .36 cal. were discontinued with serial # C00127.  This is a total production of only 75 revolvers.  The only revolvers left are only available from Tony Gajewsky.  These now sell for over $1000. I acquired one of these Pietta Dance revolvers off the internet recently.  It is like new condition with serial # C00096. This is the only resale I have ever seen.  These were also produced in 1996.
 
Pietta resumed production of the .44 cal. with 7 1/2" barrels and REBATED CYLINDERS with serial # C00128.  This production was modified to the current STRAIGHT CYLINDERS and 8" barrel at around serial # C00233. There were only 105 Dance revolvers in .44 cal. made with rebated cylinders.

The Dance in Adler's book is the current .44 cal. available from Dixie and Traditions, which are made by Pietta. He does not even mention the original Uberti or Pietta .36 cal.
 
Uberti made 50 Dance Commemoratives with only 44 being accepted by Tony.  They all have an AR prefix on the serial number starting with AR001 and have a Certificate of Authenticity with each gun.  After the Commemoratives the "Shooter Model” was introduced starting with serial # 0001.  These revolvers had plain cylinders and are marked SMLS INC ANGLETON TEXAS.  These were all sold the first year they were introduced in 1985.

Both the Uberti and Pietta replica Dance revolvers have square back trigger guards.  This was done intentionally as a deterrent to counterfeiters which seemed to be a fear of collectors of original revolvers.

There was a Uberti Dance revolver recently auctioned on Gun Broker.  It sold for around $325 which was a correct price since it was what I categorize as a Scrap Gun in our book.  A Scrap Gun is a gun that is assembled from parts left over from special edition guns and commemoratives that a manufacturer produced.  Armi San Marco produced many of these.  Uberti also used left over or seconds parts to assemble the Dance recently sold on Gun Broker.  These guns have a very limited interest to the collector.  They are oddities but have little monetary value."

The cased Dance I purchased is S/N C00013.

Regards,

Jim

[sourdough]

I took delivery of the Dance about 1600 yesterday and have been disassembling the wedge and barrel from the frame. It appears that Guido the Pietta Gorilla was at work back then, too. The wedge was driven in very hard and it took about 5 whacks with a big mallet to get it out even after I let oil penetrate the wedge/slot for about an hour, and it does not allow for any part of wedge spring tip to show outside of the right barrel lug. The barrel was almost as hard to move off the frame. I don’t believe it has ever been fired as there is absolutely no residue and the bore is mirror bright.

The gun is date code BH/1996 (both the frame and barrel lug) like Davis stated, and has DANCE FIREARMS CO. – ANGLETON, TEXAS on the top of the round barrel and <FAP> F.LLIPIETTA-MADE IN ITALY on the right side of the round barrel, both filled in white; BLACK POWDER ONLY  36 CAL. on the left side of the round barrel, not filled in white. Alas, it has the normal Pietta large beveled load aperture on the barrel lug. Historically the Dance should have no aperture.

It also has the “tail” grip profile like my CM/2014 Navy Second Model .36, and the wood is walnut with lots of figure on both sides. If I wanted a round TG for it I would have a hard time finding one.

The walnut case wood is very good, but the bottom liner cloth is pretty scuffed up where the gun/flask compartments are, like it had previously been used for an 1860 Army with a rebated cylinder and 4-screw frame. The key and lock work but presently I cannot remove the key from the lock when in the locked position, something I will have to work on.

The used flask and 2-cavity mold (round ball and conical) have no markings; the brass cap tin (“pill box” on the inside label) is one from Cash Manufacturing. The generic nipple wrench appears new with no markings.

I am glad I was mainly interested in the gun and not the rest. It would have cost me much more than $300 to create a Dance from a Navy donor.

Pictures to follow in a few days.

Regards,

Jim

[sourdough]

[ShotgunDave]

That is a real beauty Jim! You lucky dog!

It's got some darn nice wood on it too. Congrats on the great find.