A Direct Synthesis of making organohalosilanes with greater selectivity to the dialkyldihalosilane is disclosed herein. By using nanosized copper catalyst precursors, and preferably nanosized promoters as well, D/T values of greater than 10, and preferably greater than 15, are obtainable with silicon conversions in excess of 80 wt. %. Shorter induction times are realized using the nanosized copper catalysts in the Direct Synthesis. The nanosized copper catalyst precursors most preferably have an average particle size of less than 100 nanometers.