Stone:
About 3 years ago when I first got the itch to get a Pietta Dance .36, found that Pietta only made them (currently) in .44. I wrote to Pietta a few times asking them to consider making them in .36 also. I received one reply stating that the Pietta marketing division would have to decide, and I never heard from Pietta again. I was not aware at the time that a man, Tony Gajewski, had commissioned Pietta to create a limited run of Dance .36 revolvers (mine is #C00013 of that run) but there was a contractual dispute/lawsuit that forbid Pietta from making any more of the .36 guns.
This is a quote from Dr. James L. Davis (April 28, 2010) who owned several of these, including mine:
"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.
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."
I then decided to possibly create one using a Pietta 1851 Navy .36 using a part round/part octagon barrel and a smooth cylinder and milling off the recoil shields. This was my donor candidate, a Pietta Leech & Rigdon .36, which Pietta also does not market that I created from parts:
A couple of weeks ago I found my Dance .36, so I still have my L&R.
This is a photo of a Pietta Dance .44 revolver with a smooth, unengraved rebated cylinder (like the 1860 Army .44 engraved cylinder), #C00156:
The current production Pietta Dance .44 revolvers use a Pietta 1851 Navy frame that has had the water table (the frame area under the cylinder) lowered to accommodate the straight .44 cylinder, which is the same diameter as the front section of the 1860 Army rebated cylinder, but all the way to the rear of the cylinder. If someone is contemplating creating a Pietta Dance .36 by substituting a Navy .36 cylinder for the .44 cylinder, the bolt height is not sufficient to fully engage the cylinder bolt stop slots and it will not lock into battery securely.
This is a comparison photo of a Dance .44 straight cylinder and a 1851 Navy .36 cylinder:
Current production Pietta Dance .44:
Sorry to be so wordy but I hope this makes sense to you.
Regards,
Jim