Tanfoglio/EAA Witness Successes

[papajohn]

Fair Enough!   First up is a bit of a Hybrid, both my 45ACP Witnesses were owned by a former bigshot at EAA, and he had this one built up as a dedicated CCW gun, complete with a spare slide in 9mm and a custom holster.  The gun is a Witness Compact, but features a delightful single-action trigger, improved rear sight, ambi safety, and coned match barrel.  It holds 10+1, and I carry it off-duty quite often.  I just put these checkered walnut grips on it a few days ago, and like the feel a lot.







The second gun was apparently the first Witness Match gun EVER imported into the U-S, it was sent to the American Sales Manager so he could send it to all the gun magazines, and he specified that it be as cosmetically perfect as possible for all the photos to be taken of it.  It's a bit less perfect now, but it's seen several thousand rounds of warm 45 ammo since I got it.  This gun shoots groups that make me stand in awe, especially when I'm the one pulling the delightfully sweet trigger.  (It has the originally-called-for polygonal rifling, long since discontinued, or so I hear.)   It's been passed around at the range a lot, shot by a few dozen people, and at least one liked it enough to go out and buy his own.  It took him awhile to hunt it down, but his is the one with the light rail out front.  I like mine the way it is, so we're both happy.



45 Match Target, 10 rounds, 2-inch paster, 25 yards, with me shooting.  21 months after I shot it, I'm STILL bragging about this one!  



The last of my three Witnesses is the oldest, an early small-frame model, bought new in 1990, the first CZ-pattern gun I ever saw that wasn't a 9mm.  It's seen upwards of 45,000 rounds, NONE of them mild, nearly all jacketed, and I'm kind of surprised by the amount of rifling left in the barrel.  I worked up a load for bowling pin shooting that sent a 200-grain bullet out at an honest 1050 fps, and the gun never once whimpered.  It still gets carried a lot off-duty, the 40 is no slouch defensively with good bullets and I have TONS of ammo loaded for it, so I still get a lot of practice in with it.  



And then of course, there's the obligatory Family Photo.  

[detroiter]

Impressive collection papajohn! I've bought some parts off of that  EAA guy also, he's a good fella. I have never seen those walnut checkered grips for the compact .45 before. Did they come with the gun? I may have to shoot EAA an email inquiring about them. If you decide you don't like them and want to sell them I would happily buy them or maybe trade some Witness parts for them.  PM me if you have any interest in that.  The .45 compact you have is a very unique pistol, I like it alot, one of a kind.

-Scott

[papajohn]

PM Sent.   

[dwldwl]

10mm full-size Wonder Witness. Well, with the heavier recoil spring, the non-Wonder finish replacement slide (Wonder one cracked), heavier magazine spring, Tanfoglio .45 acp follower, (the latter two sacrifices 2rds capacity of the mag -small price to pay) some vertical electric tape strips on the right side/top1/3 of the mag to stop the side-to-side motion of the mag at the top, and using round nose (not round-nose flat tip)  copper- plated hollow-base 155 gr. bullets, ...so far the mag is actually working! But I've been fooled before. I need to put a lot more rounds through it though to be sure. I'll let you know.

[kingofquartz]

Witness steel 9mm full size frame

1. Very accurate out of the box
2. Wont feed hollowpoints due to factory mags with the front spacer. New style mags will fix the problem
3. N/A
4. Not really used for defense at this point. I carry a revolver in the woods and use a shotgun for the house.
5. Absolutely love the wonder finish. Looks great and is very durable. Fits perfectly in my large hands.

[SPEAR-99]

1.) Accuracy
Dead on out of the box.
2.) Feeding Reliability with hollowpoints or semi-wadcutters
HP and SWC feed like a champ, like a little pig, she'll eat anything.
3.) Target Matches you placed well in or game you have killed
NA
4.) Use as home defensive arm or CCW
Primary HD, works CC, my carry is high and the grip rests just above my kidney.
5.) Any other comments you may have
More mags, ammo and another holster-thats about it.

[FireAway]

EAA Witness P Carry

Accuracy:
Very accurate out of the box.

Feeding:
Chambering a round was actually kinda difficult at first.  I could see the round at the top of the clip ready to be seated into the barrel, but I had to rack the slide several times to get it to actually go in properly.  Since it has gotten slightly easier, but there is still a bit of delay.  Maybe I just have to "break it in" first?  That said, once the ammo seats properly, it has no feeding problems whatsoever.

Matches:
None.  Just personal target practice.  I could easily see someone ranking with this gun, however.

Defense:
A tad heavy, so a smaller person might have a hard time with CC, but average Joe would be okay.  Perfect for home defense.

Other comments:
Other than the annoying (hopefully temporary) loading issue, I actually prefer this gun to my father's Sig.  The weight on this thing is perfect.

[jimmythegeek]

Darn, this thread has complicated things.  I was pretty much set on a CZ-75b, then read about the versatile and much less expensive Witness.  I really liked the feel of the CZ-75b, and found it really easy to be accurate.  Complete newb, and I could put a whole magazine in the paper at 7m.  That's not quite like getting a 1" group at 25 yards, but compared to the other half a dozen pistols on the shelf ($10 all guns same  caliber at a local range- great deal with their big selection!) that one was for me.

If  the Witness feels as good and is cheaper (adding a .22lr conversion combo would be less than just the CZ-75b), I may have a dilemma. 

[glockdude57]

I just bought a Tanfoglio tz 75 wow what a nice piece shot 100 rnds and it a tack driver i am truely amazed

[BIGSHCLUNK]

Tanfoglio TA90 - first off I have an addmission to make. When I bought this gun (barely used) about 20 years ago I had no idea this was a CZ clone or who CZ was for that matter.    Who knew? That being said..

Good accuracy IMO 3-4in groupungs @ 25  I'm not a great shooter by any means, minimal time to get to the range. Think its me not the TA

Have had occasional eject after fire issues. But over the years never paid very close mind to one type of ammo vs another.

N/A

Have carried it, a little big for CCW IMO
A bit on the heavy side too.

Comfortable in my hand, the "feel" really influences my purchases. My wife likes it also, and has done better than myself at the range at times. The finish has held up very well . 

[body mass]

I traded for a used Witness 9mm Match about 3 weeks ago at a local gun show.  It was dirty as a pig. I swear the guy that previously owned it never cleaned it.  It took me two days of soaking in Kroil and scrubbing to get the copper deposits out of the barrel.  I finally got it cleaned and the barrel spotless. 

I took it to the range for a trial and could not be happier.  It is so accurate that I literally shot the bulls-eye out of the target with a group of 1.5 inches for 18 rounds.  I am a 1911 lover, but I'm having an affair with this Witness.

Great shooter.... :>)

[jwc007]

I took it to the range for a trial and could not be happier.  It is so accurate that I literally shot the bulls-eye out of the target with a group of 1.5 inches for 18 rounds.  I am a 1911 lover, but I'm having an affair with this Witness.

Excellent!    Welcome to the Forum!

[georgem]

Jimmy, do what I did, buy both.  George M.

[Gunsandbibles]

Vito is my fullsize witness 9mm

yesterday I went through 100 rounds and had 1 left over so I loaded it and put it through the center of the bullseye at 15 yards. I can't do it every time but I usually don't have much of a target left in the center after a full mag.

The gun is spectacular out to fifty yards and after that it's hard to judge between me and the gun. But I can get about half on paper at 100 yards bench rest.

I find that my witness makes me a perfectionist because I expect more out of it than any other gun. It s like a two inch group at 15 yards isn't good enough because I know the gun can do better if I would get out of its way

It goes with me everywhere except work or if deep concealment is needed my 82 goes

[adrian]

     Hiya, purchased my EAA witness p series after my CCW class where I learned that if one ever does use their weapon they prolly wont be seeing it again anytime real soon. So if I have my home invaded, and I survive, I'll be out the 300 dollar witness, and not my more beloved CZ's.
     
     The witness is a very straight shooter, the single action reset is better than my Shadow, great attention to detail and this company dosent mind giving you a SS guide rod from the get go. Brand new 299 real value.