EAA Witness 45?

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Dr_2_B

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I see Cheaper Than Dirt has EAA Witness 45 full-size for under $370. Anyone have experience with these? How reliable are they?

Thanks
 
I had an EEA Witness .45acp several years ago and lost it in a burglary. It was a very good shooter and very reliable. I owned it about 2 years and miss it dearly...
 
I have a Steel full size .45 with a 10mm extra slide and barrel. I have had no problems with the one I have and would buy it again.
 
I had the steel and the polymer Compact Witness.

The steel gun was very accurate and reliable.

The plastic gun was dangerous.

EAA had/has? terrible customer service. The person I dealt with several times, about the plastic gun, was one of the most ignorant people I've ever had the misfortune to talk to.

Because of this I wanted no more to do with EAA and I got rid of the guns and will never have another EAA gun.

I gave the steel gun to a friend, who likes it.
 
Had a very nice Witness Sport Long Slide in .45 and later got a 10mm slide to go with the frame. After a lot of work, it ended up with a superb trigger.

Had the original barrel -- I bought the gun used with some miles on it -- fail. My response was "stuff happens." Bought a replacement barrel and kept on shooting. Never had problems with the 10mm upper.

Dscn0740.gif

Later, had the adjustable Super Sight fail. Replacing that was expensive, but I liked the sight.

I've had a number of Witness guns in several calibers, and this was the ONLY ONE I ever had problems with. It wouldn't keep me from buying another.


.
 
I've got one. It locks the slide back a few time per magazine with rounds still in the mag. After much work and parts replacement, it still does it.

And here's the fun part: EAA claims - without seeing the gun or asking me a single question - it's my fault because I shot hot handloads in it or I'm limp-wristing it or whatever, it's my fault and the warranty is void.

Not only won't they fix it, they won't discuss fixing it.

I wish you luck.

BTW, I'll sell you my .45 Witness plus extra mags, custom grips and a holster for $300. You pay FFL fees and shipping.

Witness.jpg
 
I have a full size witness .45 myself...pre-rail version and Its been a joy to own & shoot..the trigger and barrel lockup are excellent making it super accurate, I plan to get the 9mm conversion soon so I can plink more often with less cost of operation.....check out my first day of shooting with it below..@ 12 yds
 

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I have the full-size polymer version. Several misfeeds out of the box, but I upgraded all the springs with Wolff and it is now very reliable. Fits my hand better than any handgun I've ever tried.
 
I have a rare, true stainless steel model I bought back in the 1980's.
The slide and frame are stainless steel, all other parts are carbon steel.
These were only imported for a short time.

It's accurate, 100% reliable, and I've had no problems at all with it.
It's more compact and fits my hand better then the huge CZ-97B.
Due to the cost/quality, the EAA-Tanfoglio is considered to be a "best buy".

EAALeft.jpg
 
Had one in hopes of finding a 45 version of my CZ 9mm that was the same size.

I really tried to like it, but just couldn't get used to it. Sharp leading edges, extremely heavy despite it's size, hooked trigger and super tall rear sight.

Ironically I bought a CZ 97b and like it a lot more...go figure.
 
I have two Elite Match pistols, one a .45 ACP the other 38 Super, I have had these guns for five years and they have been awesome shooters--many thousands of rounds thru both of them, great triggers, accurate as any gun in this price range, just a great buy in my opinion.
I also have CZ pistols, very nice also.
 
I had a Compact P .45, that worked flawlessly and was a joy to carry and shoot but wanted a full size gun to comply with state hunting regulations, so I traded it for a 5" FEG GKK, but that's another story. The Witness was a great gun that I wish I had back, but would actually want a full size. They are actually Italian made CZ's. The polymer guns are completely interchangable in all calibers with the barrel/slide combos, while the metal frame guns are limited accorrding to frame size.
 
The polymer guns are completely interchangable in all calibers with the barrel/slide combos, while the metal frame guns are limited accorrding to frame size.
Click to expand...

That USED to be the case.

I don't think Witness imports or sells polymer-framed Tanfoglio guns any longer, and they only sell the larger framed steel models, now. You can change calibers by changing slide/barrel units and magazines.

The Tanfoglio-based guns were built around the CZ pattern, but are now very different in all details. About the only parts that are interchangeable with CZs are recoil springs and magazines.
 
Posted by SBT:
No offence Japle, but that barrel looks REAL hinky. Is it seated right in the slide?
Click to expand...

The original barrel and slide were "compact" length and were ported. It was part of a special run made for Lew Horton. I didn't like the way the ports shaved off sharp bits of bullet jacket and stuck them in my face. It's distracting.

I replaced the barrel with a standard length barrel which worked fine until the gun started locking the slide back with rounds still in the chamber. It makes no difference which barrel is in the gun. It still malfunctions the same way with the same frequency.

This used to be my favorite .45. I was a vocal fan of Witness pistols. I carried this .45 daily and used it in competition. Then I had to deal with EAA's customer non-service. Now I don't want to look at the thing. It sits in the back of my safe.

Don't get me wrong. The guns are a great buy for the money. If you have one that works the way it's supposed to, you're golden. As long as you don't have to communicate with EAA's "gunsmith" you'll be happy.
 
I bought a SS witness sport model with the bomar sights in 1992, what sold me was that the information provided to me said that the firearm had a life time guaranty to the original owner within the first couple of years the fire arm had to be sent back because the bomar sights kept coming apart, at the time the Gun smith per forming the work whose name is Paul would write on the returned ticket that the gun had been work on, I called and spoke to him concerning the ticket statements and He was rude and very unprofessional and acted as he was being inconvenienced. The gun ran fine as far as reliability and accuracy, I decided to buy a 9mm conversion in 2010 with two extra high cap magazine, when I received the package there was only one mag, I called them and told them of the missing mag and the girl on the other side of the line said I had to take it up with their manager, when he got on guess who he was but there previous gun smith Paul he called me a lier and that I was trying to rip them of, it suddenly came to me that the packages are weighed and I insisted that he find the bill of laden and check the weight to confirm that the extra mag was not sent, now mind you all this with a grumbling attitude he said he would get back with me when he could find the time and three days latter I received a UPS package with the missing mag. about 4 month later I found that the slide on my witness was cracked so I sent it in for repair, now mind you this is an all stainless steel fire arm with dove tail front sights and front serrations also rear bomar sights, what was returned to me was a common black slide with fixed sights and no front serrations, I called and asked to speak with Paul and he told me that the stainless steel guns were no longer available and that that was the best he could do, i brought to his attention that they do carry a similar slid in there Elite model with a stainless like finish called wonder finish that comes with the front dove tail front sights and front serration, at which point he said that those where more expensive and that I should consider myself lucky I got my gun fixed cause the gun was warn and worked on and that I had forfeited the warranty which was not true. i agree totally with Carbine no company organization one man rules as he See's fit, I sold the gun and will never buy another don't get me wrong the product was good but the service was terrible.

Witnessslidechange-1.jpg
Cuba
 
Yea their service does suck! If they ever corrected that it would be hard to even come close for the money by any other MFG.
 
I have a friend who change an average of one handgun a month. The only pistol he regrets to have sold is a Tanfoglio Limited .45ACP.
 
Dr2b, 1/15/12

My full size .45 Witness in the Wonder finish was a great shooter, at least through 3200 rounds when I noticed the cracked rear frame rails and slide (using standard pressure ammo). At least it lasted longer than my compact .45 Witness which suffered similar cracking at 2800 rounds. I had both pistols refinished in hard-chrome because of corrosion issues and EAA refused to honor their "lifetime" warranty and would not fix or replace either one. Needless to say I will not ever again buy an EAA product.

best wishes- oldandslow
 
A few years ago, I spoke to Mr. Tanfoglio at the SHOT Show in Orlando. As soon as he understood that I was complaining about EAA's service, he turned his back on me.

I got in his face and used some language I'd learned fron SEALs. Then I moved on before someone called security.

Tanfoglio knows all about EAA. They don't care.
 
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