Tanfoglio 10mm Very Good, Good, or Bad

Mine, is very good... Witness Hunter in 10mm.

No complaints

it’s 10mm… even if it was bad, it’s good!

Had the Polymer 10 and sold it. Wasn’t as accurate as I wanted but did go bang every time.

I have five Tanfoglio CZ clones. None have given me problems. They are excellent pistols.

This thing was a plain-jane military shooting club pistol. It was shot a bazillion times before I ever got it, and I still shoot it often. Its action is still tight and it's still one of my favorite handguns. I shoot it more accurately than most service pistols.

The Tanfoglio 10mm and .45 have some history of cracking slides and frames.
Some owners suspect that's caused by recoil springs just a little too light, combined with the cast slides and frames.

If you do some reading online you can find some posts about the cracking issue, and poor customer service from European American Armory.
Apparently, EAA is no longer the Tanfoglio Witness importer.

dfariswheel said:

The Tanfoglio 10mm and .45 have some history of cracking slides and frames.
Some owners suspect that's caused by recoil springs just a little too light, combined with the cast slides and frames.

If you do some reading online you can find some posts about the cracking issue, and poor customer service from European American Armory.
Apparently, EAA is no longer the Tanfoglio Witness importer.

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I think they fixed it because my spring is stuff!

I have had one of these almost 20 years. I have not shot more than a couple hundred 10mm as I was not into that caliber until the last couple years cause of my son and his search for a "bear gun" . I solved the "Bear defense pistol" problem years ago with a 4" .44 Magnum and 300 grain bullets.
I have this gun in a great custom made Lou Alessi shoulder holster last 18 years and bought a Tangfolio .40S&W Witness Compact barrel for it 15 years back and have shot maybe 1000 .40S&W thru it and it being all steel is a sweet shooter. The 10mm does recoil more but not bad . This is my only 10mm I own, my son has the Glock 20 . I have had zero problems with mine, if I was buying new Id get a long barreled 10mm , up to 6" but 5" would be ok. Here is a review:

dfariswheel said:

The Tanfoglio 10mm and .45 have some history of cracking slides and frames.
Some owners suspect that's caused by recoil springs just a little too light, combined with the cast slides and frames.

If you do some reading online you can find some posts about the cracking issue, and poor customer service from European American Armory.
Apparently, EAA is no longer the Tanfoglio Witness importer.

Click to expand...

For the price, I didn’t really expect any customer service. When I buy an Italian gun, I expect a mean dude on the other line taking offense to every thing I say.

I've had my Compact 10mm and Limited 10mm for about 16 or 17 years, they've been great.

The compact does have a mark atop the dovetail these days where the hammer smacked it repeatedly running handloads that pushed 180 gr. bullets out of the 3.5" barrel at 1,340 FPS.

I bought an FS barrel for it, threaded it and suppressed it a couple years ago. 10mm doesn't suppress well, but better than no can!



And no, they never came with a checkered recurred trigger guard. That was something 25 year old me added long before I had the welding skills I possess today!

dfariswheel said:

The Tanfoglio 10mm and .45 have some history of cracking slides and frames.
Some owners suspect that's caused by recoil springs just a little too light, combined with the cast slides and frames.

If you do some reading online you can find some posts about the cracking issue, and poor customer service from European American Armory.
Apparently, EAA is no longer the Tanfoglio Witness importer.

Click to expand...

That was with the short lived rounded slide models, quickly remedied.

The frame crack that sometimes develops in the thin area behind the mag release is a non-issue.

Slides are not cast.

One last thing to add, if you’re considering a 10MM for woods carry, consider weight when selecting a pistol.

I started with a S&W 1006 for my first field carry 10MM but man was that heavy on the hip humping up and down hills in AZ elk country. After lugging a 30-06, backpack with gear, water and a few extra rounds, the few extra lbs of an all steel handgun on the hip was noticeable. I later went to a G20 and it helped lighten the load.

If you’re gonna wear for maybe a 1 mile hike for fun then it won’t really matter much.

Just food for thought.

A few years ago I had the compact polymer 10mm. I was only able to get 7, maybe 8 rounds in the magazines. I called their customer service and was informed that this was not possible and they refused to do anything. I can live with a gun having an issue but the response from their customer service was unacceptable. I sold the gun with full disclosure of the issue.

CaptHank said:

Mine, is very good... Witness Hunter in 10mm.

View attachment 1086519

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The only thing that I would trade my RIA 6-in Match for would be a hunter..... I've wanted one of those things since high school.

Ive only owned by tanfoglios in 9s and 40s so far but even the old beat up ones have shot well, and been reliable.

There was a brief period when Tangfolio/EAA had a problem with slides cracking.

The problem seemed to affect guns with "rounded" profile slides (and maybe a specific finish too, but I don't recall at the moment)



If you look at the black portion of the slide you can see (not my gun or photo) what I mean by "rounded"

This slide profile was only briefly used IIRC and all the pistols I've seen pictured in this thread have the proper, squared profile.

As a huge CZ fan I'd snap up a large frame 10mm Tangfolio in a heartbeat if/when I ever see one; just not that common around here unless you order.

Oh, yeah those S&W 1006's are pigs but sure do shoot!

Edit: didn't see post on rounded slides when I posted.

The older ones will rust if you look at them too long. And their customer service was several months last I dealt with them, but they did resolve the issues. Granted that was around 2000. I'd get the wonder finish if they still offer it. Functionally every one I have dealt with worked.

I have 4 Tanfo 9mm's, none has any trace of rust. Two are "Wonder Finished" and the other two, are at least part blue/black (See pic at left). All I do is wipe them down with CLP once a year, and immediately if an acid handed friend touches any of my guns.

I have the compact and full sized wonder finish ones from the early 2000s. They both now wear .40 barrels since the standard single spring recoil spring and guide rod setup just aren't good enough. I've also had magazine problems with both of these so they haven't been 100% reliable. I love how both of them shoot and they are both amazingly accurate with little effort from me. Perhaps I should look at getting an updated all metal version with long barrel. Too bad savvy survivor's store doesn't seem to be active anymore. Good place for these parts.

I finally got to shoot my Tang 10mm and it’s AMAZING! ate everything from Crappy Coated to Hollows!

GET ONE!