EAA has a well deserved reputation for poor customer service.
The Elite range does however have a very loyal following as it appears the QC on these pistols is much better than the standard range.
There have been a number of occasions where 10 mm frames have cracked and it would appear, in general, to avoid that caliber.
The other calibers do not have this problem reported.
You can shoot +P in the pistols (avoiding the 10mm) but as with any pistol a steady diet of +P's is generally not a good idea. The "Cannot shoot +P's" comes from the usual legalese in the manual you get with most manufacturers nowadays.
You do get a lot of bang for your buck with the pistol and caliber changes for about $250 is hard to beat.
I heard the Elite range is accurate.
However, many other manufacturers, even not premium ones, specify that their products are +P rated or at least just do not say anything about it.
One example is Bersa (definitely not expensive guns)...they even attach a red plastic strip to the trigger guard when you buy them new that says in block letters "tested with overpressure round", they clearly state that their pistols are +P rated in their manuals and if you call Customer Service they confirm that.
When you call Kel-Tech they says +P round are ok occasionally but not a steady diet otherwise the life span of you pistol is significantly shortened.
Glock (manual and CS) says +P is no problem at all
Heck, even Hi-Point has a +P rating for their pistols in their web site.
EAA seems the only company (in my experience) VERY anal about this...no +P at all, otherwise no warranty.....and in their manual they have a rather idiotic blanket statement that doesn't make much sense: "DO NOT USE +P ammo or High Velocity, High Pressure Ammunition"....please define High Velocity or High Pressure...a regular 9 mm or .40 S&W round is already high pressure high velocity (for a handgun) by definition....a 10 mm Auto is high velocity high pressure too....
Their gunsmith specifically warn you against using Buffalo Bore, Corbon, Double Tap and other niche manufacturers ammo in their pistols regardless if they are loaded within SAAMI specs...EAA is the only company I dealt with that single out specific ammo companies.
Their 10 mm offering is a joke...you cannot shoot real 10 mm Auto full specs ammo otherwise you risk cracking the slide....why don't they just retire their 10 and just offer the .40???
Same for their 38 Super...the gunsmith told me "only subsonic ammo for that round"
It's easy to offer several caliber conversion in one platform as EAA does when all you can shoot safely are target loads....
To sum it up, you need to pay for your gun to be shipped back to you even for warranty repair....the only company doing that as far as I know..
All of this at the moment keeps EAA/Tanfoglio products outside of my consideration....maybe in the future if they get their act together....
