Dane Burns Custom Work on 1911s - Opinions Sought

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Anthony

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Dane Burns Custom 1911s and the 9x23mm Winchester - Opinions Sought

Hello Everyone,

Has anyone ever had a 1911 customized by Dane Burns?

He is profiled in this month's "American Handgunner" and the first pistolsmith to offer a complete package which matches EXACTLY what I want in a handgun. I know very little about him though. Judging from his website his work seems to be excellent. He also champions the 9x23mm Winchester.

Any opinions on the 9x23mm Winchester as a self defense round?

As always, thanks for the help.

- Anthony
 
Drop over to http://www.1911forums.com and see some of his stuff, talk to his customers, and speak with the man himself.

From what I hear, his work is fantastic. As for the 9X23, it's a great round that suffers only from lack of factory support for the cartridge.
 
He's never done any work for me, but I have handled more than a half-dozen Burns pistols, both his and customers'. His guns are classic 5" pistols for the most part. He's pretty busy right now, so that should be an indication that people are pleased with his work.
 
If you are looking for a no nonsense working pistol, Dane will do a great job for you. He is very knowledgable on that matter. One note. He will not install Novak sights, so if that's what you would like you'd either have to find another smith or just get another smith to do the sights.

As to the 9x23, everyone makes too big a deal about the "best" round for defense. Having said that, the ballistics on the 9x23 should be sufficient to deal with any social situations, assuming you do your part.
 
Anthony,

I haven't exactly had a pistol "customized" by Dane, but I did have him convert a Colt 38 Super to 9X23 Win for me.

The Colt is one of the "South American" models; it is highly polished stainless, originally in 38 Super that I bought specifically to get changed over to 9X23 Win. I bought it, and shot about 100 rounds just to get a feel for it. It was accurate, and the trigger was about what you would expect from Colt; not bad, but not up to the level of my Kimber Gold Match.

I had contacted Dane in advance, and although I got the feeling that he didn't do conversions like this very much, he agreed to do the work. In addition, he agreed to install a trigger. We agreed on a price, and I sent it off to him. I would have had him do more, but I was short on $$$ and was trying to pay off a Les Baer.

I got the gun back in about 4-6 weeks (I don't remember exactly). The price was as agreed, and I took it out to the range as soon as I got some factory 9x23 Win Silvertips.

WOW! The gun is easy to shoot accurately. It is low recoil, as long as you don't push it when you reload. Up until this gun, I have always said that the *&* 625 with a red dot is the most accurate handgun I own; this 9X23 Win 1911 is either just as good or better. The trigger that Dane put in and adjusted is a dream!

I have changed e-mail accounts, and can't easily find the information about EXACTLY what Dane did, but as I remember it was a trigger, extractor change, BarSto barrel, and Wolff springs. I am sure this also involved a small amount of fitting/tuning/whatever to get it all to work correctly.

The only problem with this gun is the fact that there is little factory support, other than Winchester. Starline does make brass, but the Winchester brass is much better by all reports. All I shoot is the Winchester brass, so I can't comment on the Starline. The pistol has been dead on reliable since I got it back; I have put about 2000 rounds of target reloads and about 200 rounds of much hotter loads through it without a single problem. Not one.

I would STRONGLY recommend Mr. Burns for work on a pistol. He was easy to deal with, got the work done in the time and for the amount of $$$ agreed upon, and contacted when he needed any additional information. And, I think he REALLY likes the 9X23 Win!

Sorry Dane, if you didn't want me to tell anyone!

Almost forgot to talk about the 9X23 Win as a defensive round. The only negative I can think of is the fact that when you load this round up, it makes a lot of noise. Of course, so does any other round that you load to a similar level.

I load some rounds to 357 Magnum levels, without a hitch in either function of the 1911, or the brass. The rounds push a 125 gr JHP to about 1700 fps, which is plenty good enough to provide expansion of the slug. When you get above 1500 fps, you need to be using rifle primers.

I have high quality 1911's in 45 ACP and 40 *&*, and I think that the extra length of the 9X23 Win case must allow it to feed better. Although I can't knock the accuracy of my Kimber in 45 ACP, this gun is more accurate already.

I am sold on this caliber!

Casey
 
In a sentence, Dane is one of the best. He really is. Years ago, when he decided to cut back on his gunsmithing work, he sent his waiting customers to Mark Morris(while Mark was still relatively unknown). After Mark got hot and Dane decided to get back into gunsmithing, Mark sent his customers in waiting over to Dane. This should tell you something.

Dane is the master of the 9x23, which is one hell of a defense round. It's like having a HOT .357 magnum with an eleven round capacity that recoils less than a .45, while also having the ability to reload ten more rounds extremely quickly. And all this in a 1911 platform! Not bad, huh?

You can't go wrong with Dane. He is one serious gunsmith.

Hope that helps.
 
All I can tell you is that I am starting a project with Dane right now and he comes with the highest of accolades by some very serious professionals that I know.

As for the 9X23...I am not aggressively opposed to the 9mm caliber in general, but the data for the 9x23 on Dane's site shows a 125gr bullet at 1450fps if I recall correctly, and that is the same as the factory .357 Sig.
The 9x23 needs a large platform (.45 size gun), and the .357 Sig takes a small platform, (the same size gun as a 9mm).
Furthermore, you take the 1911 .45 and make it into a 9x23, and you get a whopping 2 more rounds of capacity. That seems like a big drop in caliber for 2 more rounds of capacity. Okay, I am not opposed to carrying smaller calibers if they offer a lot more capacity, but 2 more rounds just does not get me too excited. In short, I would rather have 9 rounds of .45 (+P?) than 11 rounds of 9x23 in my gun.

Lastly, I have found that I just really like the felt recoil of the big heavy bullets over the light fast ones. The .45 gives me a pleasant "push" in my hand, and the harder cracking light-fast rounds make my followup shots slower.

You asked for opinions, and that is just mine, humbly submitted.
 
Anthony

As one who retails the Custom 1911 (Wilson, Brown, Baer, and any one man shop I can find).

Dane is without a doubt. GOOOOOOOOOOOOD.

If you want a one man shop who will work with you to the utmost to get what you want the way you want with the best components available Dane Burns is highly recommended.

Be prepared for a wait. With the recent American Handgunner article on him the backlog will increase.

Be safe and keep the brass flying

Terry Peters

http://www.pt-partners.com
 
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