Each Dan Wesson Firearms revolver bears the name of Daniel B. Wesson, who founded Wesson Firearms Co., Inc. in 1968. The great-grandson of D. B. Wesson, co-founder of Smith & Wesson, his goal was to build the finest revolvers that the shooting world had ever seen. He accomplished this by creating guns that were innovative, virtually indestructible and capable of match-grade accuracy right out of the box.
Dan Wesson was a perfectionist, preferring to build a few truly great guns, rather than many merely good ones. In an era of mega-corporations and bottom-line management, he would never allow quality to be sacrificed for the sake of quantity. And it didn’t stop there. His philosophy was “You can never be fully satisfied. You can always make something better.” This kept him on a course of constant improvement, while providing his customers with the very best revolvers that money could buy.
The Company continued to develop its product line from the introduction of the model 12, .357 magnum in 1969 to the Large frame 44 magnum series in 1977 to the massive SuperMag frame series in 1982. In 1996 the Company was acquired by Robert Serva and in 1998 moved to Norwich, N.Y., to reestablish the revolver line. From 1998 to 2000 very few revolvers were produced. Efforts were made to retool the revolver line with new equipment and fixturing to produce production revolvers at the highest quality possible using modern manufacturing techniques. In 2000 a small production run began starting with the Large frame and SuperMag series of revolvers. Yes, this did take several years of very hard work and dedication by the personnel of the company, bringing in new equipment, producing new tooling, fixturing, programs and processes. To achieve the standards of the core Dan Wesson Company these steps had to be taken and personal sacrifices made.
In 2005 a great opportunity came to Dan Wesson Firearms in the form of the world’s largest firearms producer CZ. CZ had been looking at Dan Wesson Firearms for its revolvers, innovative thinking and implementation of new products within the marketplace. CZ-USA in early 2005 acquired Dan Wesson Firearms and is now managing it as a part of the CZ corporate group. With the union with CZ, Dan Wesson Firearms is now positioned with the recourses and personnel to make it a top manufacturer in the global firearms market. This history will continue to step forward with new and exciting products and innovation from the excellent people of CZ and Dan Wesson Firearms.
