EAA Witness Firing Pin Safety Recall Serial #s AE00000 - AE70000

[jwc007]

Safety Upgrade Notice - From the EAA Website

http://www.eaacorp.com/Owner_Safety_Upgrade_Notice-Final.pdf

This recall is for EAA Witness Pistols of the Affected Serial Numbers AE00000 thru AE70000.  If you own an EAA Witness pistol in the affected Serial Number Range, you should field strip the slide and send it to EAA Corp. , 411 Hawk Street, Rockledge, Florida 32955.  Upon receipt, EAA Corp. will replace the original firing pin with an upgraded firing pin.

If you have questions, please call EAA Corp at (800) 536-4442.

[todd f]

So were all pistols in the serial # range affected? I took the firing pin out and there is no way you could put it in wrong. There is a flat on one side of it that has to go against the block pin.

[jwc007]

So were all pistols in the serial # range affected?

Yes!

I took the firing pin out and there is no way you could put it in wrong. There is a flat on one side of it that has to go against the block pin.

It is my understanding that is not the issue prompting the recall.

[todd f]

Thanks JWC. Do you have any idea what the issue is? I am wondering if they would let you install the new firing pin or if there is a fitments issue?

[Rod Slinger]

Todd F ........I was told by Paul at EAA that the firing pin would have to be installed at EAA.  The problem stems from someone removing the firing pin safety and reinstalling it incorrectly.  The story goes that the gun went to full auto.   I hope this helps.  R S

[todd f]

Rod,
         Thanks for the reply. I got worried over nothing. Aparently they changed the prefix from AE to EA on the serial# I have the latter of the two and therefor not included in the recall. I spoke with them this morning. Thanks again.

[Jaymo]

What were the production years for these serial numbers? I bought my 2 .45 Witnesses(consecutively serial numbered, no less) new in 1999.

[jwc007]

What were the production years for these serial numbers? I bought my 2 .45 Witnesses(consecutively serial numbered, no less) new in 1999.

Now, before you asked this question, did you look at your Serial Numbers to see if they were in the affected range? 

Chances are, by that time period, the Pistols you have are EA prefix Witnesses and not affected, unless they sat on a Distributor/Dealers shelf for a time.  Actual production end of the AE serialized Witnesses was supposed to have ended during the 1994/1995 production run.  Actual importation and sales could have dragged into 1996.

[meskes]

Todd F ........I was told by Paul at EAA that the firing pin would have to be installed at EAA.  The problem stems from someone removing the firing pin safety and reinstalling it incorrectly.  The story goes that the gun went to full auto.   I hope this helps.  R S

I'd still like to know how the gun could go full auto with a mis-aligned firing pin. That excuse makes no sense to me, since the thing is in no way connected to the action. Now I can understand the bit about the pin block would be nonfunctional, the newer models (after that production run) have a couple straights cut into both the pin and block to ensure proper alignment but full auto? I highly doubt it.

[Rod Slinger]

meskes ........

I'd still like to know how the gun could go full auto with a mis-aligned firing pin. That excuse makes no sense to me, since the thing is in no way connected to the action. Now I can understand the bit about the pin block would be nonfunctional, the newer models (after that production run) have a couple straights cut into both the pin and block to ensure proper alignment but full auto? I highly doubt it.

   As a rule I don't try to defend as true what I have not seen with my own eyes.  On the other hand neither I or Paul would have any reason to lie about this so I tend to believe what he told me. 

Mr. Meskes  I think your questioning  and trying to understand is a very good thing for any forum including this one and my posts.  I only wish I could have been of more help.   R S

[Southern Forester]

If the firing pin became fixed forward, where it protruded from the bolt face, it would convert the pistol to a simple submachine gun.  Every time the round was chambered, it would fire the instant the slide moved forward enough to ignite the primer.  That would slam the slide rearwards, extract the empty case, and force the next round into the chamber, which would fire when the firing pin hit the primer, slam the slide rearwards, extract and eject the empty case, chamber a new round, fire it, and so on until the magazine emptied.

[Peter Eick]

Having had a firing pin jam forward (not in a CZ/EAA but in another tilting block design) I found it jammed the gun up tight.  Take a spent round and remove your springs and try it some time.  My bet is it will jam just like mine.

As the round leaves the mag, it slides up the breachface under the extractor and heads toward the barrel. 

Oops, the darn firing pin sticking forward stops the round sliding up and with part of the extractor groove caught in the extractor we have a classic failure to feed jam. 

This was my experience with a stuck firing pin forward.

[Southern Forester]

I could see how that could happen.

[eric0424]

I'd still like to know how the gun could go full auto with a mis-aligned firing pin. That excuse makes no sense to me, since the thing is in no way connected to the action. Now I can understand the bit about the pin block would be nonfunctional, the newer models (after that production run) have a couple straights cut into both the pin and block to ensure proper alignment but full auto? I highly doubt it.

The pic below is what happened to two rounds when a 45 had a stuck firing pin.  These two rounds were struck by the firing pin while in the chamber on two separate occasions.



The rounds did not fire and this particular pistol did not become full auto.  The force from the slide closing on the loaded chamber pushed the firing pin back into the slide where it belonged after it dented the primers.  The recalled eaa pistols could be different depending on what is holding the firing pin forward and, more importantly, how far out of the slide it sticking.  If it's far enough out it will actually prevent the a round from even chambering considering the rim of the cartridge is riding up the breech face as Peter Eick mentioned.  It seems to me that if the firing pin is out far enough to set off the primer it's probably out far enough to jam the slide as in the last two pictures below.  It doesn't take much breech face obstruction to lock up most pistols.  It's very unlikely a pistol with a stuck firing pin will fire full auto, but I won't say it's entirely impossible.

[Southern Forester]

Eric, a fixed firing pin was a common, and cheap, method of building submachine guns.

A small amount of crud is all it takes to make an SKS go full-auto.  A handgun can, too.  I have seen it.  My grandfather's first cousin, a chemical engineer in Pensacola, Florida, had a Beretta do just that in the early 1980's.