EAA Witness barrels

[DWFan]

Are all Witness barrels physically the same? Ignoring the caliber mis-match, will a 10mm or .45 ACP barrel fit into a 9mm pistol or vice-versa? The reason I'm asking is that I'm curious if a 9mm barrel could be rechambered to .38-45 Clerke and dropped into a .45 ACP pistol.

 

[Ranger30-06]

Not quite. I contacted EAA once because I wanted to put a 9mm barrel in a .45 Witness slide I had and they told me that the 10mm and .45 ACP have a slightly larger frame/slide than the 9mm/.40 S&W ones so that they can handle the recoil. Pretty much what they said was the slides are specific to caliber, but you can interchange 9mm/.40 slides and .45/10mm slides. Good luck!

 

[Walt Sherrill]

I think the prior answer was correct for older Witness guns, when there were two frame sizes, but doesn't apply to current production guns. With the newest Witnesses, all calibers use the same frame -- or, at least that is my understanding.

I've had both types of the older guns, and the 9 and .40 shared the smaller frame, while the .45 and 10mm used the larger frame.

So, now, you can get different top ends and mags for a single frame: .22, 38 super, 9mm, .40, 10mm, and .45.

I had a .45 and 10mm (two slides, a single frame), but never compared the barrels. (One was a Long Slide, and the other wasn't, so there was no swapping.) The 9mm and .40, and the barrels on the smaller framed guns were the same diameter on the 9mm/.40 guns; you could swap the top ends or just barrels. Even the mags would work interchangeably, but neither would work as smoothly when using ammo from the other caliber.

 

[MachIVshooter]

The slides are all interchangeable on the current large frame guns, from .22 LR to .45 ACP.

The barrels, however, are matched to the slides. Not just diameter; They're fitted.