EAA Witness .40 cal

I noticed the EAA Witness pistols in .40 online. I have seen them before at gun shows and they look great. However, it seems that EAA has customer service problems as well as a reputation as being prone to jam. Any experiences with this pistol?

 

I had a ported model back in the late 90s. I don't remember having a malfunction of any kind. Accuracy was unimpressive so I sold it. This was probably about the 10th .40 S&W pistol I owned and I chalked the accuracy issues up to the cartridge itself and started depleting my inventory of .40 S&W pistols. That was until I traded for a CZ 75B in .40 S&W. It was by far the most accurate .40 I ever fired.

Since the Witness is a clone of the CZ 75, I would pass on the clone as well as the unsatisfactory record of EAA customer service and go with the original that is tried and true. CZ is known to have excellent customer service, but I've never had to find out for myself.

 

I have a EAA Witness .40 S&W full size steel model. It is a very accurate and dependable pistol. I can say the same thing about all 4 Witness pistols I own. They handle any type ammo with no jamming. The only time I ever had feed problems it was due to a bad magazine. I have never had to deal with customer service because none have given me any problems. I like the way full size steel pistols handle and these are a joy to shoot. They are crazy accurate. They are made by Tanfoglio in Italy who also supply the Israelis. I think that speaks to their dependability and quality.

 

My Witness (match.40) is one of my favorite pistols to shoot and I have never had any reliability issues however I did buy a bad mag (my fault it was for a smallframe and fell out every shot) I called to ask about it and they were...not the nicest.

The guns are great, just don't need help

 

I've got a Match 10mm, which is my favorite pistol; it is astonishingly accurate. In my experience, CS has improved somewhat; I've had two experiences in the last year, and both were at least decent. I've had better CS, but I've also had far worse.

All the Witnesses imported in recent years have been the "large frame" model. (The rest of this ¶ is hearsay, not personal knowledge.) Some people opine that the large frames run better with longer length ammo, such as .45 and 10mm, with shorter rounds, such as 9mm and .40, having reliability issues. Some people reported curing these issues by loading .40 to longer COAL. I have heard that this was due to the rounds being able to move too much fore-or-aft in the magazine. I have also read that redesigned mags now have resolved that issue.

The best fora for getting info on Witnesses are in the BrianEnos forum, which has two folders with dedicated discussions: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showforum=159 and http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showforum=202

 

I have a 10mm witness and a .45/.22 combo and both run like a champ. The only time the 10mm has jammed up is when I was using SWC bullets other than that it has been by far my favorite gun I have owned. Sadly I had to send it in as the wonder finish on the bottom of the frame is flaking off and with the safety on the gun can go into half cock. When I called them up they were very nice and told me to send it in.

 

I have a ported 40 and a match 38 super. My shooting buddy has 2 match 9's, a match 10, a 40 , a 45, a 10mm and I believe a 9mm.

Of all of those guns, the only problems we have had is sights falling out of the dovetails, lost grip screws and a few bum wire-cut 10 rnd 10mm mags from the clinton mag ban days.

EAA has some issues with some folks. I used their customer services for springs and spare parts with no issues. All of the broken mags and lost sights were replaced free of charge.

 

I shoot a Match model in .40 for IDPA and have no problems at all over the past two years. It is an amazingly accurate factory pistol, at any price, much less as inexpensive as they are.