Replica Dance Revolvers

Many of those who share on the various forums may have seen the many postings of my requests for information about various replicas that have been produced. One of these has been the Confederate replica of the Dance revolver which was originally made in Texas. After 15yrs of research into the replica revolvers that have been manufactured since the early 1950’s, I have finally been able to put together production numbers for all replica Dance revolvers that have been manufactured.

It turns out that the Pietta .36cal. 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 .44cal. 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 .36cal. Dance revolver that are only marked F.LLIPIETTA –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 Dance revolver in .36cal. discontinued with serial # C00127. This is a total production of only 75 revolvers. The only revolvers left are only available from Tony Gajewsky. These now sell for over $900. I acquired one of these Pietta Dance revolvers off the internet recently. It is like new condition with serial # C00096. This is the only resale I have ever seen. These were produced also in 1996.

Pietta resumed production of the .44cal. 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 .44cal. made with rebated cylinders.

The Dance in Adler's book is the current .44cal. available from Dixie and Traditions, which are made by Pietta. He does not even mention the original Uberti or Pietta .36cal.

Uberti made 50 Dance Commemoratives with only 45 being accepted by Tony. They all have an AR prefix on the serial number starting with AR001 and have a Certificate of Authenticity with each gun. After the Commemoratives the "Shooter Model” was introduced starting with serial # 0001. These revolver had plane cylinders and are marked SMLS INC – ANGLETON – TEXAS. These were all sold the first year they were introduced in 1985.

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.