Dardick 1500 purchase at Tulsa 3-31-12

[Joseph Scott 0]

I just purchased a Dardick 1500 pistol in factory box with full box of trounds, a .22 carbine conversion kit in long factory box, but no instruction book. Does anyone have a manual (original or reprint) for sale. Pistol is white metal and also a black shell. How do you open the left side? Also box has two long cutouts as for a magazine and or a tool?? What goes there? I need a full education on this weapon. Thanks, Joseph Scott

[TomW 0]

Joseph- I found the Dardick Firearms and Ammunition Brochure at home, on the Dardick 1500 Pistol, Rifle and the Trounds, that I was telling you about in Tulsa on Saturday. It is beautifully illustrated, in color, and is 12 pages folded. It shows how the TROUND is loaded-i.e. components of the 38 Dardick Special are : primer, primer holder, Fortiflex* plastic case, powder, Fortiflex* plastic wad and 158-grain lead bullet. It also nicely illustrates the placement of the components. Also of interest is the principle of the Dardick Gun Cylinder. It is being loaded and moves 120 degrees into firing station, where it is fired, and moves on to ejection. I find the sequence very similiar to the mechanics of the Mazda rotary engine.

It shows the placement and use of the Firing Pin Selector and safety factors incorporated into the use of the inter-changable Center Fire (.38) to Rim Fire (.22).

In addition it illustrates how the Series 1500 is instantly converted into a Lightweight Rifle by removing the pistol barrel and inserting the basic mechanism into the rifle-stock assembly. It is a 23 1/2 inch barrel that features a fine-grain walnut stock. Joseph- You were right about it being a fine-grain walnut stock.

Joseph- Are those loose Trounds in the box- A Cal. .22 Adapter, which allows you to insert conventional Cal. .22 rim fire ammunition into it to fire?

Also in answer to one of your questions about long open cut outs in your box. One of them probably held the Dardick Strip-Clip(illustrated) which can be used to load through the side loading gate, or it can be loaded singly. (I do not remember seeing it in your box) I would guess the other open cut out, held a Box of Fifteen Cal. .22 Adapters, enabling use of all conventional cal. .22 rim fire ammunition.

Years ago I asked Ed Johnson a question about my Dardick Firearms and Ammunition Brochure, which he answered and subsequently started the Dardick portion of the Johnson Web-Site. At that time, Numrich Gun Parts carried Trounds for sale(if my memory is correct) along with a few parts. As I told you on Saturday, check out the great number of parts offered for sale @ Numrich. They offer a much greater supply of parts today, but do not appear to still offer the Trounds (it might be worth asking them about the Dardick Strip-Clip and Box of .22 Adapters!). Numrich also offers a Schematic of the Dardick 1500.

I will give you a top quality copy of this information, if you will confirm your mailing address. Is your address the same one which you gave me in 2003? I want to make sure you have not moved since then.

I am envious of your acquisition, but happy that you found it, and know it will give you many hours of study and pleasure. It sure caught the eye, of many passing your table this weekend.

Tom Wygant

[Ed Johnson 0]

Joe,

Check with Walt Liss regarding the serial number on your Dardick receiver. Additionally, if you have any ownership history prior to your aquisition, that would help. The ammo for that piece is becoming quite rare. Numrich may have parts but very few of their assembled pieces were actually capable of firing. I'm not clear on whether you obtained a conversion kit which would actually include a .22 cal barrel. You indicate "white metal"....does that include the barrel? If so, it probably would have been "assembled" at Numrich and not at the Dardick plant. But these things are getting quite rare.

I am assuming that you have already read pp 229 - 232 in the Johnson book. When and if you get a chance, take photos of your products and E-mail or snailmail them to me when you can. When you receive Tom's brochure, make standard copies of the pages...just regular copies...and send them along as well.

Tom,

Yes, that brochure you describe will help him very much. Thank you for doing that.

For both...and other readers....

Dad always figured this for a military application for very rapid fire machine gun. More on that at another time. The pistol itself was designed by David Dardick to bridge the gap between the reliability of a revolver and the magazine capacity of a semi-auto pistol. From a practical viewpoint, the trigger pull was excessive because of the friction of rotation to bring the next cartridge up to firing position. A belt-fed machine gun with external power would not have had that problem. Anyway, I could go on and on...and Steve Dardick himself (Dave's son) could go on even more.....

[TomW 0]

The Dardick Handguns evidently came in a Series 1500 and a Series 1100.

The DARDICK HANDGUN SERIES 1500 - 15 shot capacity, Double Action cal. .38-.22 with cal. 38, 6 inch tapered barrel (interchangeable). Fully adjustable rear sight and fifteen cal. .22 adapters enabling use of all conventional cal. .22 rim fire ammunition.

The DARDICK HANGUN SERIES 1100 - 11 shot capacity has the same characteristics as the Series 1500 including interchangeability of caliber and conversion to a lightweight Cal. .22 rifle.

The DARDICK RIFLE CONVERSION CAL. .22 - 23 1/2 inch barrel for either Series 1500 or Series 1100 Handgun. Sold separately, or as a complete kit.

[Ed Johnson 0]

Tom,

Yes, that is basically correct. There was also a model 2000 which was a 20 shot pistol with 2 .38 special cartridge columns side by side. The grip was rather thick and they didn't proceed with any production on that one in the beginning. Finding a model 2000 now would be extremely rare...only a very few were actually constructed...less than 5, I think.

Again, all 3 models (1100, 1500 & 2000) fired .38 special rounds constructed in the Celanese Fortiflex plastic trounds. This was the popular police revolver caliber at the time, although semi-auto 9mm was coming into the police picture as well. This was back in 1958 - 1960.

As you indicated previously, yes, the .22 ammo came intact in brass cartridges which could be inserted intact into the (modified) .38 caliber sized trounds and then (I think) the tround could then be re-used...not positive about this....to keep costs down. The rifle conversion was only in caliber .22 as far as I recall.

[Joseph Scott 0]

I will post pictures as soon as I edit them. The .38 cal. pistol is bright aluminum but there is a black .38 barrel and two black sides for the pistol. The rifle is .22 cal. There is no peep sight on the rifle, nor screw holes for one so I assume it is assembled parts. The pistol has an etched serial number on frame and barrel. Someone at Tulsa told me the few factory guns were stamped numbers. He also said Dardick lost 5 million dollars on development. Also found a website showing pictures and discusses trying to make rounds. www.somethingawful.com (here's a shortcut to it, http://bit.ly/xe31sA )