Handguns 1862 J.H. Dance .36 Replica

sourdough

Corporal
Joined
May 29, 2017
Location
Pe Ell, Washington
Howdy folks!

After three years of searching for a replica Pietta 1862 Dance .36 revolver (which Pietta does not market these days), I finally found one.

It is cased with accoutrements. It has a squareback trigger guard which is not historical, but I have a round Pietta trigger guard that should work with maybe a bit of fitting. I expect to receive it by mid-week for further investigation insofar as date code, proofs, etc. I will find out what the accessories are when I receive it.

I paid $300 for it.

There are a few more replica Dance .36 and .44 revolvers where I found this one, if interested, and the prices are very fair.

Any comments will be appreciated very much.

Regards,

Jim

Pietta-Dance-36-Cased-001.jpg
 
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.

Regards,

Jim
 
Congratulations. Seems like a great find at a good price. In many ways I enjoy my reproductions more than my original period guns. I will take a reproduction out and play with it. While I don't have original revolvers I do have a few period pocket pistols. I enjoy shooting my Piettas but will not shoot my Allen & Thurber. Along that line, I have a Colt's Patterson reproduction only marked "PATENT ARMS MG.CO PATERSON N-J COLTS'S PT." Does anyone know any thing about the company. I can't even find anything about them on Google.
 
Wow, sourdough! Did you make my day. That is my pistol but mine is in a little better shape and does not have "EHLERS" stamped on it. Mine also has a nine inch barrel not the seven and a half and most of the parts have a sr#. I didn't pay anywhere near the $1,150.00 price but they are probably worth it. When I first saw mine at the gun shop I asked it was an original. I will try to get a photo this weekend but you can see a shot of it in my thread "Care of a display".
 
Wow, sourdough! Did you make my day. That is my pistol but mine is in a little better shape and does not have "EHLERS" stamped on it. Mine also has a nine inch barrel not the seven and a half and most of the parts have a sr#. I didn't pay anywhere near the $1,150.00 price but they are probably worth it. When I first saw mine at the gun shop I asked it was an original. I will try to get a photo this weekend but you can see a shot of it in my thread "Care of a display".

Z, your Paterson in the display looks a bunch better than that auction revolver.

Here is another in better shape with the 9" barrel, and it sold for $200 less. Go figure.


And another:


I once read that the company was in business until 1980.

Regards

Jim
 
Sourdough:
patterson revolver.jpg
Here is the pix of the Patterson. I included an 1851 repro for scale . This one has a lower serial number than any of the others I have seen and does not have an engraved cylinder or frame. I'll ask again, does anlyone know anything about the manufacturer?
 
Last edited:
Howdy folks!

After three years of searching for a replica Pietta 1862 Dance .36 revolver (which Pietta does not market these days), I finally found one.

It is cased with accoutrements. It has a squareback trigger guard which is not historical, but I have a round Pietta trigger guard that should work with maybe a bit of fitting. I expect to receive it by mid-week for further investigation insofar as date code, proofs, etc. I will find out what the accessories are when I receive it.

I paid $300 for it.

There are a few more replica Dance .36 and .44 revolvers where I found this one, if interested, and the prices are very fair.

Any comments will be appreciated very much.

Regards,

Jim

View attachment 337560
I'm surprised you had trouble finding one, but maybe you were looking for one with the box. I bought one about a year ago from Taylor Arms in Winchester.
 
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:

Leech-Rigdon-001.jpg


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:

Pietta-Dance-44-Rebated-Cylinder-C00156.jpg


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:

Pietta-Dance-44-Cyl.jpg


Current production Pietta Dance .44:

Pietta-Dance-44-001.jpg


Sorry to be so wordy but I hope this makes sense to you.

Regards,

Jim
 
a34,

That cased set is absolutely outstanding!! I am supremely jealous, sir! If I may ask, when did you acquire that set?

What is the date code of those beauties? I believe they are much earlier than the Pietta revolvers such as mine.

These are quotes from Dr. James L. Davis RPRCA (Replica Percussion Revolver Collector Association) from a post on the CAS City forum, April 28, 2010

"Thanks to this Forum I have just been able to purchase an original, not "scrap", Uberti Dance Replica on Gun Broker. It was not listed in the right place so there were no bids on it. The Pathfinder put me in touch with this find. There were 50 of these manufactured by Uberti. This is only the second one I have ever seen for sale in twenty years. The first was a set, #3 & 4, which RPRCA was able to purchase around 14 yrs. ago.

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."

Thank you very much for posting this!

Regards,

Jim
 
Last edited:
a34,

That cased set is absolutely outstanding!! I am supremely jealous, sir! If I may ask, when did you acquire that set?

What is the date code of those beauties? I believe they are much earlier than the Pietta revolvers such as mine.

These are quotes from Dr. James L. Davis RPRCA (Replica Percussion Revolver Collector Association) from a post on the CAS City forum, April 28, 2010

"Thanks to this Forum I have just been able to purchase an original, not "scrap", Uberti Dance Replica on Gun Broker. It was not listed in the right place so there were no bids on it. The Pathfinder put me in touch with this find. There were 50 of these manufactured by Uberti. This is only the second one I have ever seen for sale in twenty years. The first was a set, #3 & 4, which RPRCA was able to purchase around 14 yrs. ago.

Thanks! I picked these up about a month ago. They are 1985 manufacture. I believe they are from Mr. Davis's collection. Like I said, I'm a huge Dance Brothers Fan. Attached are pics of 2 defarbed ones I have, now numbered 38 and 39. Also, a consecutive pair of "old silver finish".

Dance brothers defarbed.jpeg


image0.jpeg


Dance brothers pistol  (3).jpg


Dance brothers pistol  (2).jpg
 
Back
Top