Opinions needed on EAA guns please

I like mine a lot. I shoot more accurately with it than any of my other nines. I think it's a very good pistol for the money. I especially like that SA trigger. Very nice indeed. Here's mine with FO font sight:


PS. I got mine used so I don't worry about EAA's cust service. I'll send it to someone else if I need work.

I have an Elite Match in 10mm and it is a fine weapon. I absolutely love it and have had 0 issues. Round count is now around 3,000.

EAA does have some customers it has not treated well. Saturno-V is a member here who has nothing good to say about them.

I also have a standard witness, and it has treated me well. The Elite series guns are definitely in a different league. Much better fit, finish, etc.

With EAA guns I think it all boils down to if you get good mags or not. I've has issues with all the EAA mags except in .45ACP.

--wally.

Excellent guns, poor CS.

+1 on the mags, every one of mine malfunctioned

Tanfoglio is a serious gun manufacturer. Fortunately the pistols are popular enough that it is possible to go around the importer for parts and accessories. This appears to be a comprehensive source :
http://www.tanfoglioparts.com/

Love my EAA's... Have a .45 and a 10mm

ak-kev said:

What about the slide crack issue? Are the ones being sold now have an updated design? Or is there still a risk of failure in the 10mm?? Kevin.

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Perhaps you've not figured it out by now, but what you see on the interwebs is spawned by > 1% of actual occurences, and subsequently spun to shame a Texas tornado by the "we-hate-[whatever-item-failed]-crowd"

If you actually look into these reports, you'll find that the majority of the reporters are just "passing on the news", and it hasn't happened to them.

IOW, all these "my [brand-name-gun] ASPLOEDEDED. IT IS TOTAL CRAP! DON'T BUY ONE!" represent a very very small percentage of actual guns.

Just looks at the probability tables, yourself.

If you actually look into these reports, you'll find that the majority of the reporters are just "passing on the news", and it hasn't happened to them.

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Use the search. I posted a long thread with all the gory details of my cracked slide EAA 10mm Compact.

Short story, EAA fixed it (turned around door to door in five days which is excellent), but I had to pay to ship it back, whole gun not just the upper (which miffed me, as the EAA standard model has interchangeable uppers).

Magazine issues have kept it from having the reliability I'd accept for carry, I'd hoped it would end up in my center console replacing my .40S&W Sigma -- the price on the EAA guns is nice, but this one didn't really work out.

No issues at all with my .45 Witness pistols I have Standard, Compact, Polymer, Elite Match and Limited. All have been great with both EAA and Mec-Gar mags.

I've also the Elite Match in 9mm and .40S&W, these have had mag issues which I appear to have fixed with new springs and tweaking of the feed lips.

--wally.

wally said:

nalioth said:

If you actually look into these reports, you'll find that the majority of the reporters are just "passing on the news", and it hasn't happened to them.

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Use the search. I posted a long thread with all the gory details of my cracked slide EAA 10mm Compact.

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This wasn't about you, wally. It is a general description of "bad news lasts forever - and good news is rarely heard" - internet style.

You are one guy out of how many tens of thousands who have EAA large frame pistols? If the slides were bad across the board, I'd think we'd have heard from more folks by now. Flukes in the manufacturing process happen, and one fluke doesn't define the entire company's output. .

You are one guy out of how many tens of thousands who have EAA large frame pistols? If the slides were bad across the board, I'd think we'd have heard from more folks by now. Flukes in the manufacturing process happen, and one fluke doesn't define the entire company's output.

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The only thing I can add is just before I got mine, they changed the profile of the slide. They repaired it with the "old" profile slide. So I think Tanfoglio may have let a bad batch get through. Most of the cracked slide reports I've seen involved the "new" thinner profile, and only in 10mm. The 10mm cracked a fair number of Colt 1911 frames initially too. Mine was the Compact model with cut down slide and frame (12 vs 15 rounds) so recoil is brisker than the full sized gun.

Like I always say, if you've never broken a gun, you just ain't been shooting enough.

My only real complaint in the end was having to pay return shipping for an obvious factory defect, that and the fact that I've not been able to get the mags to fully control the rounds under recoil -- occasionally it'll eject a loaded round, but more often the round jumps up too high and hangs on the top of the barrel hood or ends up trapped nose up between the slide and barrel .

If you get good mags I'm sure you will be very happy with it.

--wally.

AFAIK, EAA doesn't actually make anything; they are primarily importers, but have also had some guns made or assembled in the U.S. They have sold some very good guns but also some that were, well, not very good guns. Depends on the people who really made the guns and sometimes that is not too easy to determine.

Jim

The EAA/Tanfoglio Witness Elite Match is probably one of the most accurate guns made at any price, you cannot get a better trigger or more accurate gun for $500, period!

And contrary to popular belief, they're not just a CZ clone anymore, they're better! Years ago, Tanfoglio figured out how to simplify their CZ-clone design so they could manufacture them cheaper... in the process, if you agree with the sometimes "less is more" theory, they made some improvements: slide can be operated with the safety on, fewer parts, far easier/faster detail strip, better trigger bow ala 1911-style rather than CZ-75-style, better/less obtrusive firing pin block design, etc., AND at least in the SAO guns: NO TRIGGER CAMMING!

I'd put an Elite Match up against any Nighthawk, Kimber, Baer, whatever... mine positively embarrasses my Wilson Combat and Ed Brown guns, and I believe none of them will justify their price differences in competent hands at the range against the Match's based purely on how they shoot.

That said, remember that in order to get a Tanfoglio you've got to go through EAA... and that right there is the gun's weak point, as EAA's poor customer service is legendary and stupefying.

It's been mentioned that the magazines can be problematic: since that's the single piece that EAA is responsible for, I'd have to agree.
But it isn't as bad as some make it out to be...

You see, EAA imports only the "Large Frame" guns from Tanfoglio and supplies mags for them, which means as long as you go with a caliber intended to be born a "large Frame" (.45acp, .38 super, 10mm) 99.9% of the time the mags and function of the guns will be just perfect...
Now, if you go for the shorter cartridge models, 9mm or .40s&w, be prepared to put up with some feeding problems, and crummy mags, since these calibers were meant to be fired through the "Small Frame" version of the same gun, that the rest of the world outside of the USA gets to have... Since it's cheaper to only have to import, and more importantly, SUPPORT one frame size, EAA came up with using poorly designed magazines that employ "spacers" in them so the guns could be sold in 9mm and .40s&w...

Almost all of the reliability issues you will hear about will be linked to the shorter cartridge/Large Framed guns. However, most including myself have had success running the 9mm's and .40's as long as you forget about ever loading more than 10 rounds into their magazines regardless of what is their advertised capacity (loading more means NOSE-DIVE-CITY), if you reload, you can load to a longer OAL and then get away with more and will have less trouble.
In IDPA ESP division, the Elite Match in 9mm by just barely making weight is probably the heaviest gun with the best trigger out there that is still legal... unless you'd rather spend A LOT MORE on a tricked out STI/SVI that may not shoot any better.

Hope this helps.

I own a 40s&w match and also a 9mm conversion kit with 8 mags total and with any of you are old 1911 shooter then you should not have any mag problems at all. I do the same as i did with the 1911's ,take apart ,debure, clean, oil very lightly. Then check all opening between the mags and match them . Then check with one round and fully loaded. Hand cycle s l o w l y to see if any thing gives a problem then shoot the stuf'ns out of it.
Mine have been trouble free for several thousand rounds. Also as good as they work new ,shooting them just make ever thing work just that much better and smoother.
I also have had several shooters of some really expensive pistols shoot mine as well as there high dollar guns and open some eyes to them.
ckone I load mags to the max at all times and have never had a feed problem. Just blue print your mags first,ain't no big deal and only takes a few minutes And as you said ,if you reload the 40 pull the spacer that is in the mag and load the 40 long and hot still with no problems.

Just blue print your mags first

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huh? what's that?

I have a Witness .38 Super that runs fine.


Also a .45 that runs crappy.

According to Henning Wallgren, who's a major Tanfoglio shooter and does a lot of work on them, the Witnesses have a problem that crops up every now and then. They start locking the slide back with rounds still in the mag. No one seems to have a solution to this, including EAA. The only way to get the gun to run is to grind the slide stop back so far that the slide won't lock open on an empty mag. That's what I had to do to my .45. It shoots fine now, but it's useless for competition or defense.

EAA, as they often do, says the gun is fine/I'm not holding it right/it's an ammo problem. Funny how the gun worked perfectly for 3500 rounds with all kinds of ammo.

This isn't a real common problem. But if it happens to you, good luck.

Great, Tanfoglio can grab up some of the market being abandoned by DW