Full Review of Dan Wesson's New DMX Pistol

Two great tastes!

September 13, 2025 By Patrick Sweeney

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The late Jeff Cooper didn’t have much use for the 9mm cartridge. Not even in subguns. He did, however, appreciate good engineering and proper ergonomics, and he really liked the grip contour of the CZ-75. So much so that he approved of it being borrowed for the Bren Ten concept. However, the CZ-75 trigger wasn’t so good a thing back in the 1970s and 1980s. That-era design is a combination traditional double action paired with a cocked-and-locked single action thumb safety. You could carry it hammer down as a double-action (DA) pistol, or hammer cocked with the safety on, like the 1911. But the extra parts made the trigger pull not as good as the 1911, which was then (and now) the benchmark of good triggers.

Thumb safety — The bright part (just reflection from the lighting) is the trigger parts module, and it is the serial-numbered part, and thus the firearm. All else are only parts. (Photo provided by author.)

Pistolsmiths and competitors improved on the CZ-75 trigger, and it is now one of, if not the winningest pistol in IPSC competition, but you have to learn the DA trigger dance to use it. Well, that has changed.

The DWX can be described as the love child of the 1911 and the CZ-75. A better description would be “all the good stuff from each, and none of the lesser stuff from either.” The frame is steel, shaped very much like the CZX-75. I’ve got a ’75 on hand, so I compared the feel of the original with the new DWX. Similar? More like twins, with subtle differences that I ascribe in large part to the aggressively-checkered bright-red anodized aluminum grips on the DWX, plus a few sculpting touches to improve the already good ergos of the ’75. The grip of the DWX is every bit as sexy as the original. So, if you were worried about that, don’t.

DWX pistol left side view — The DWX is the combination of the CZ-75 and a 1911. (Photo provided by author.)

The steel frame has the marked inset at the backstrap where the web of your hand can really nestle in and lock up to the tang. The bottom of the backstrap curves away from the inset at the right point and correct angle to make it comfortable in your hand and to index properly. The frontstrap is both lifted at the top, to get your hand high on the frame, and bumped out at the bottom to lock your hand in place. Plus, it adds to the mag well opening funnel to speed up reloads. The front and back are checkered, this added to the checkering of the aluminum grips means the DWX sticks to your hand when you grip it. If you find that the checkered aluminum grips are just too aggressive, or the color is too gaudy, then you’ll be pleased to know that the DWX uses the same grips as the CZ-75, and you can swap out the aluminum for something else whenever you like.

The frame has an ambidextrous thumb safety, the 1911 part of the assemblage, and it sits right where it needs to be, given the shape of the tang and the upper backstrap. I had no problems riding the safety when firing, which is the accepted 1911 practice. Ahead of the thumb safety, on the left side, is the slide stop lever. Again, something that is perfectly 1911 normal. Below it the trigger is flat, with the top and bottom ends angled to encourage your trigger finger to find the center. The trigger is aluminum, anodized the same bright red the grips are. Out in front of the squared trigger guard (the originals had a loop, almost circular) is a full-length accessory rail. The rail is not just a place to park a light or laser, it also adds weight to the DWX, in the location that is most useful: in front of your hand and below the bore axis.

Right side view of DMX — On the right side you can see the ambi safety and the full-length accessory rail. (Photo provided by author.)

The slide of the DWX is proportioned like that of the 1911, and not that of the CZ-75. The ’75 had a narrower slide than that of the DWX, and the front of it had a step in it, much like that of the Hi Power, that brought it down below the width of the rest of the slide. Not here, not on the DWX. The DWX slide is full 1911 profile, and added to that it is full profile all the way out to the end. This again adds weight, and it adds it to the unlocking portion of the cycling mass, which helps control recoil by keeping slide velocity down.

The slide has cocking serrations front and rear, and while they are not deep or particularly sharp-edged, I found them fully up to the task of getting the slide retracted to function. The extractor is not 1911, it is external, on the right side, it is a lengthy hunk of steel, and it has plenty of leverage to require compliance with the directive empties have to leave the vicinity. The ejection port is generous. The top of the slide is flattened, and grooved the length of it to provide a non-glare sighting track, should you opt to stick with the iron sights. If you do not want to stick with the iron sights (which are a fiber optic front and an adjustable rear with a serrated steel face) then you can take advantage of the optics mounting plate. Select which optic you are going to use from the Dan Wesson website and get it ordered, and then use it to mount a red-dot. The DWX rear sight is mounted on the filler plate, so when you install an optic you lose the irons, but that’s the way things are some times.

Front sight — The front sight is a fiber optic blade, and it glows in the sunlight. Like a nuclear furnace. (Photo provided by author.)

The DWX barrel does not use a bushing, it locks directly to the slide at the muzzle, and the muzzle is deeply crowned. The barrel locks up in the ejection port, and uses the same one-piece lower lug design as many modern pistols to lock and unlock. The barrel is numbered to the frame. Contrasting with the bright-red grips, the slide and frame of the DWX are given a black DLC finish.

The big deal about the DWX is not just that it is a melding of the ’75 and the 1911, but how they did it. First, the CZ-75 has a “slide inside” arrangement. That is, the frame rails are exterior to the slide rails. The slide rides inside of the frame. This makes the slide lighter than on a 1911, and thus more-suited to the 9mm cartridge. It does mean that there is less slide to grip when working the slide. Also, when we all adopted the .40 S&W for competition back in 1990 (almost overnight) the slide velocity was ferocious. Those using a 75-derived pistol (there were many copies) in .40 soon learned they could not get an adjustable rear sight to survive for very long.

Disassembled pistols — The DWX comes apart easily, and cleans up just as easily. (Photo provided by author.)

On the DWX, the slide rails are exterior to the frame, as on the 1911. This gives it a bit more mass, to soften recoil, and it provides all of the gripping surface you’d ever need. Also, the firing parts, while you start out disassembling it much like a 1911, ends with the last part, the sear and disconnector, coming out in a single assembly with the hammer already removed. So, those small and easily dropped parts don’t have a chance to get dropped and skitter under the workbench.

One detail on disassembly to know ahead of time: the bottom edge of the slide is beveled to remove a sharp edge. This makes the disassembly notch a bit difficult to find. I found that gripping the DWX much like that of a Glock helped me get the notch lined up just right to then press it out of the frame.

The DWX magazines hold nineteen rounds, and both lock the DWX open after the last shot, and drop free of their own weight when instructed to. The DWX uses the same CZ (and other brand) magazines that also fit the CZ P-10 and CZ P-9. But any magazine that is shorter will not work. The tube is the same shape, but the baseplate on the shorter magazines hits the frame before you can get the magazine in high enough to lock in place.

Pistol and mag — The DWX comes with a pair of nineteen-shot magazines. (Photo provided by author.)

In testing, the DWX was soft in recoil, very soft. You’d expect that, with the frame a husky hand-filling size (but not too large to grip comfortably) and there’s also the weight. The Dan Wesson specs list the DWX at 45 ounces, and a quick check with the scale showed that to be spot-on. A 45 ounce 9mm pistol is just not going to recoil all that much. The trigger was clean and crisp, and fell with monotonous regularity at four pounds, eight ounces. Somebody out there is going to object, “Two-plus grand, and the trigger isn’t a hair trigger?” In my initial dry-fire testing, the DWX demonstrated the same effect of a clean trigger feeling lighter than it actually is. I’ve been doing this for decades, and it still works the same: a clean trigger that feels a pound or more less than it actually takes to drop the hammer. If you don’t put a trigger weight scale to your DWX, you are unlikely to feel it take as much as four pounds to drop the hammer. Yes, it is that good.

As far as accuracy is concerned, this is another “not worry” subject. In testing, I found that only occasionally did a bullet stray off of the two-inch aiming pasters I use. Commonly, five rounds would fit onto the paster without even touching the edges.

Accuracy target — Accuracy? The DWX has got accuracy. Tight clusters at twenty- five yards were the norm. (Photo provided by author.)

So, a really nice trigger, great accuracy, a lot of capacity, and optics-ready. What then is the DWX for? Given the weight, my first suggestion would be as a competition pistol. A lot of competitors run pistols that weigh even more than this, for the recoil reduction, the steadiness in aim, and to reduce wear and tear of tens of thousands of rounds a year for years at a time. As a carry gun, the DWX and the two magazines that come with it will gobble up almost an entire box of ammo. A C&G kydex holster would be comfortable for daily carry, fast on the draw, and secure enough to keep the DWX in place during strenuous physical efforts. Add in a pair of mag holders and you can be walking out the door with 39 rounds of 9mm on your person. Yes, 45 ounces is a bit to pack, but with the correct holster it can be very comforting.