“Hello there,” I said to myself as I stumbled across the Dan Wesson DWX Compact. With just a passing glance you’d think it was another one of the many 1911s in the Dan Wesson lineup. However, the DWX Compact is a bit more than that.
The DWX Compact is an experiment in blending some of the better parts of the 1911 and CZ 75 series of pistols. This amalgamation of two of the world’s most legendary pistols looks to be a winner.
It’s a heavy steel pistol that uses the ergonomics of the CZ 75 compact’s frame with what appears to be a 1911 slide. The DWX Compact takes CZ 75 magazines and grip panels. That opens it up to a very large lineup of magazines, including the ultra-cool 26-round CZ 75 magazines.
They hybrid pistol also uses CZ 75 compact grips, so again, your options to customize are many.
The gun’s designers adopted a 1911-style safety as well as a single action only trigger. The gun ditches the 1911 link system and uses the simpler CZ-style takedown with a lever. It’s nearly identical to CZ’s P-series guns.
The 1911 side of the gun offers users the ability to use some of their favorite 1911 gadgets and gizmos to customize the gun even more.
The sights are also a mix of CZ and 1911. There’s a 1911 dovetailed style sight in the front and CZ Shadow 2 rear sight. This gives you plenty of options, but will make finding a set a little tricky.
As a CZ fanboy, I’m in love with the gun’s ergonomics. It fits perfectly in my hand and would be an amazing carry gun as far as I’m concerned, although the high price may scare some away from carrying the DWX Compact. MSRP is $1,799.
The Dan Wesson DWX Compact is the best thing I saw at SHOT Show 2020 and I’m excited to get my hands on one.
