EAA Witness and IMI Baby Eagle Compatibility

[Havok7416]

I have a Baby Eagle in .45 ACP that is giving me trouble returning to battery. I thought the problem might be the recoil spring and I have an unused EAA Witness slide assembly also in .45 ACP. The slides themselves are interchangeable on the Baby Eagle frame, but the spring for the Witness is longer than that on the Baby Eagle.

Wolff has the Witness springs but nothing is listed for the Baby Eagle. If I bought the Witness spring, could a gunsmith fit the spring to my Baby Eagle?

My other option is to install the Witness slide on the Baby Eagle frame, which would eliminate the safety. As this is a range-only gun, that is not an issue to me. Safe function with the other slide is obviously important though.

Any thoughts or advice are appreciated.

 

[Havok7416]

Hmmm... that didn't seem to get anywhere. I have contacted Wolff and they said they don't make the dual-spring that my Baby Eagle Requires. It's starting to look like a cheap wall hanger at this point.

 

[BBBBill]

Without having a Baby Eagle and a Witness 45 side by side to compare, I wouldn't hazard a guess. But springs are springs. Piece of wire of a given diameter wound to a specific number of coils, coil spacing, and overall spring diameter. Now yours is used and has taken a set at a shorter length/compressed coil spacing, but it wouldn't take a lot of work to figure out what a new one should be. Wolff used to advertise that they would wind a spring for you if you sent in the old spring for analysis. Don't give up just yet.

 

[greyling22]

use cz75 springs. http://www.gunsprings.com/Semi-Auto Pistols/CZ/75 Series/#834

"Includes the following models:

CZ 75, CZ 85, CZ 97 Early and "B" Series, including 88 series
ITM AT-84 and AT-88
Springfield P-9 Series
Baby Eagles (Jericho 941, Magnum Research and others)"

or call magnum research about it. they should have parts.

 

[Havok7416]

BBBBill, Wolff declined to make me a new set of springs, but it wasn't a bad idea.

Greyling, they are referring to full-size models. The .45 Baby Eagle was only made as a "Compact". I will probably be contacting Magnum Research, but my gun is an IMI and they made changes to the spring when ownership transferred (apparently). Some Baby Eagle owners report having different internals.

From Wolff's website also:
RECOIL SPRING - COMPACT MODELS
Compact Models, 9mm & .40 S&W
Note: Will not fit models with dual recoil spring systems

 

[greyling22]

oops. I never saw where you had specified it was a compact. magnum research has the semi compact baby eagle in 45 for sale on their site, so they should have parts for you. should be the same recoil spring, though you might need a need guide rod as well. The semi compact guns are compact slides on full size frames. It's kind of a neat design. My cousin has one in 40.

 

[BBBBill]

Well, worst case is to wind your own springs. Not real difficult to do. Brownells used to sell a spring winder and wire spring stock. They dropped it due to lack of demand. They should be able to tell you who they source that from. They've done that for me on other discontinued items.