EAA Witness 10mm Compact Slide Cracked!

[wally]

Just after it looked like I'd solved the magazine issues that was making my Witness 10mm pistols unreliable, this happened

First two mags functioned 100% and locked back on the last shot, about half way thru the third I had a faillure to go fulling into battery, but a rap on the back of the slide chambered the round, next shot, locked it up good like shown in the photo.

This compact is only a few months old and I've not shot it much, certainly under 300 rounds. One box of Remington "green box" 10mm 180gr FMG and three or four boxes of CCI Blazer 200gr FMJ (the cheapest 10mm ammo available to me). Lost track of the round count because I was having jams that appeared to be mag related. Concentrated on finding the solution with my Witness 10mm full sized.

I'll see what EAA warranty has to offer and follow-up with the results, good or bad.
The full size ran thru five mags worth without issue.

--wally.

 

[1 old 0311]

Strange place to crack. Really not a stress area.

 

[wally]

Actually its just about at the impact area where the slide hits the frame when fully back. Don't see any evidence of peening or battering on either the slide or the frame. The recoil springs in the Compact 10mm don't seem any stronger than what came with my .45 Compact upper.

Stuff breaks, question is will EAA stand behind it or not. At such a low round count seems pretty classic "infant mortality" failure. I'll call them tomorrow. Hopefully I can just send in the slide/barrel assemble since I still have the .45ACP upper which worked fine.

--wally.

 

[jerkface11]

The 10mm witness uses the same recoil spring as the .40 cal one. When you get yours fixed get the stiffer spring from Wolf. It'll stop throwing the brass so far too.

 

[KelTecian]

10mm breaking? no way! this is a myth...

lol

 

[Mortech]

And I thought it was the poly frame ones that have cracking issues , I was hoping to get a full size one for my next 10 . Now I'll just wait and see if this going to become a widespread issue with Witnesses .

 

[wally]

I'd worry more about if EAA stands behind the product or not. Every maker has defective product from time to time. How they handle it or not, is probably more important overall than how often it happens -- unless you like to gamble.

I'll be calling them in an hour or so. Going in I'd heard nothing good about EAA but decided to take a chance anyways....

--wally.

 

[Onmilo]

Awww, don't feel bad!
I blew my 10mm Witness up!
EAA fixed it for a nominal charge and I promptly sold it.

Next one is going to be a Glock!

 

[jerkface11]

Tanfoglio really needs to find a better importer. EAA will probably not even want to talk to you.

 

[wally]

Actually had no trouble talking to them, but might have well been talking to the wall. They demand I send the entire gun back to them at my expense. When I pointed out that the slide is obviously cracked and that I have the .45ACP upper kit for it which still works fine, they still demand I send the entire gun back.

When I pointed out that S&W paid the shipping to return my gun to them for repair all he could say is "We're not S&W". I guess not! Buyer beware.

I'll see what FedEx will charge, but last time I paid to ship a gun they wanted something like $56. At this point it may be throwing good money after bad, so unless FedEx shipping is more reasonable to Florida than it was to Nevada, I'll wait untill I see my delear at the next gun show (3 weeks) and see if he'll send it back.

Awww, don't feel bad!
I blew my 10mm Witness up!
EAA fixed it for a nominal charge and I promptly sold it.

Please, tell me more, what was a "nominal charge"?
How did you blow it up? What were you shooting?

--wally.

 

[40SW]

Can someone shed some light on this. I just thought of something, The CZ75 platform was originally designed to handle the 9mm cartridge. ( The Witness is obviously a CZ75 clone). My question is this, is the CZ75(or clones thereof) platform designed to really handle the stresses of the .40SW and/or the 10mm, Is it really designed metallurgically to handle the pressure. Is that why CZ does not have anything chambered in 10mm?(excluding the Dan Wesson 1911s) I wonder? Any theories?. ( I know there is a CZ75 in .40SW, but not in 10mm as far as I know).

 

[wally]

I'm not sure pressure is such an issue, as according to my Speer #12 reloading manual Max for .40S&W is 35,000 psi, 10mm is 37,500 psi, and 9mm is 35,000 psi.

The recoil impluses do increase with 9mm < .40S&W < 10mm and this really sets the stress level when the frame stops the slide's reward movement. Some of this recoil energy is stored in the recoil spring for the next cycle which subracts from the impact, but stronger springs increase the impact when the slide stops its forward movement, although I suspect much of this enegy is expended by chambering a round.

The force needed to cycle the slide of the Witness guns generally seem less than other guns of the caliber.

I'm not sure what I will do at this point. I may just cut my losses, put the .45 Compact upper on the 10mm frame and forget about it. I could then try the 10mm barrel in my .40S&W Witness-P which is the only gun so far to defeat my gun mechanic skills -- I suspect the short .40 rounds in the 10mm sized magazines is a large part of the problem.

--wally.

 

[Onmilo]

Less than a hundred bucks and they replaced the rubber grips that were blown off with walnut grips.

Contrary to popular opinion, Accurate Arms #5 is NOT a safe powder for use in the 10mm!

 

[jeepmor]

Take a pic of the internal corner where the crack originates. I can offer some engineering type comments on it. ie, the smaller the radius of the curve, the greater the stress. Big radius equal less stress.

And yes, EAA shoud be replaced by ANYONE that actually cares about customer service. They are simply on the take in my opinion. Not that you can blame the person on the phone for this, but you get the gist.