EAA Witness failures

[stans]

This seems to be a somewhat hot topic and threads end up being locked. Please do not start a flame war here. I would like to hear about the failures of EAA Witness pistols. Please, no second or third hand reports, I want to hear about failures actually seen, not urban legends. Please list the frame size, caliber, nature of the failure and the approximate round count at which the failure occured. Let's see just how many really fail. This question will also be asked over on the CZ forum and Pistolsmith.com. Thank you in advance for your responses.

 

[PCRCCW]

My only account was a 10mm Compact Vunderfinish I orderd. Upon getting it we cleaned it and noticed the bore wasnt right. It was pitted very badly from the factory about half way down the bore. The gun was sent back and Ive gotten CZ's ever since.

Ive shot around 20 other clones since then and have had NO PROBLEMS since that initial gun.

Shoot well.

 

[BeLikeTrey]

ftf

failure to feed problems in a couple I have seen. 9mm EAA witnesses. Seems the feed ramp on the barrels are a bit off. I have dremel tooled both, tested and re-tooled again. FTF's seem to be resolved after ramp is tooled. This is mainly with hollow point ammunition.

 

[loudernhel]

My .45 witness in wonder finish cracked at the right rear frame rail after 3K rounds. No hot loads. I was very happy with it until that moment.

EAA promptly replaced it with a brand new gun. I promptly sold it on Auction Arms and won't buy another one.

Your mileage may vary.

 

[Sean Smith]

I had a 10mm Witness for a short time, I didn't shoot it that much before I sold it. It was totally unreliable (failures to feed) with the original magazines. EAA sent replacement magazines and it fed fine from those. The new-style 10mm magazines had red followers, the old-style had black.

The standard recoil spring was also obviously way too weak for 10mm Auto.

I replaced it with a Glock 20C because of the Witness' mediocre accuracy and trigger pull. It did have very nice ergonomics and soaked up recoil like a champ, however.

 

[Snowdog]

My .40 S&W EAA Witness compact with Wonderfinish was a pleasant gun to behold. It was accurate and possessed superb ergonomics.

What’s the catch? It did not work. It was sent back to the factory three times (yes, you read that right, three friggin times) with guess who paying the shipping?

All three times I got a "test fired, ok" as a response. They apparently did make some attempts to fix the problems as they polished the feed ramp, replaced the magazine catch and added a second recoil spring. The pistol would manually cycle the ammunition fine, but once you got to firing, it would fail to feed every two or three rounds with the three magazines I had. The failures were identical with all the ammunition varieties I tried.
All three times I sent the pistol back for warrantee repair, I pointed this out in a detailed letter. I still received that bogus "test fired, ok" BS.

I'm quite sure I got a lemon as I've read far more glowing reports than those mirroring my experiences (though I've read several barbs against their polymer models). Once I find the courage, I'll try their full-size 10mm Witness.

 

[KP95DAO]

I have had two slides (45 ACP Standard) crack at the rear of the ejection port on the thin part. I have had one frame crack from the safety pin hole back along the slide rail cut to the rear of the frame.

The gun I have now started life as a 38 Super Frame and it has a Target model slide on top. This is what they did for me after I had all my problems. I had to bitch alot to get there. It is a tack driver and is babied as far as loads go. The loads are just enough to make a 165 power factor. It has no feed problems when fed what it likes, all cast bullets SWC and RN.

 

[dfariswheel]

I have an early stainless .45, no longer made.

The barrel needed to be replaced due to deep reamer marks, and I had to re-work the ambi safety.

The safety had the notorious "mushy" on/off, and the right side would move out under recoil.
I re-worked the plunger inside the safety to correct the "mush" and re-fitted the sear spring which retains the safety's.

My gun also has a deep casting pit on the end of the frame "beaver-tail" tang. This appeared to be a small mar on the metal, but upon investigation, proved to be a tiny pit running almost into the hammer slot in the frame.

This has had no effect on shooting, has caused no problems, is the only such defect on this gun, and the only time I've ever seen something like it on a EAA gun.

I suspect there MAY have been a problem with the stainless guns, since they were discontinued after a short production period.

Other than this, my Witness runs fine, shoots anything, and is both reliable and accurate.

 

[boogalou]

I bought a used full-size .45 Witness made in 1997 with one factory mag. The first time out with it, I had numerous FTF, so I polished the feedramp and the feed lips of the mag. I also picked up a couple of brand new Mec-Gar mags. The pistol worked fine after that, and was quite accurate. The only screwy thing it would do is the safety would engage sometimes while I was shooting, possibly because I was hitting the safety with my weak hand thumb. I traded it later for a CZ40 so never tried shooting it with a high thumb hold.

Not a bad pistol, just traded it because I feel the CZ40 is a better CCW gun.

 

[cheygriz]

I have a EAA Witness in 10MM. It's been fired about 2,000 rounds with full power 10MM ammo.

I've had no malfunctions of any kind. The gun is 100 percent raliable, and just as accurate as my Glock 20.

 

[tc300mag1]

Saw a slide crack at the range 2 weeks ago was a 10mm not sure sized frame looked normal size guy said 3k rounds though it.. Probley was his fault as the primers looked extreemly flattened and few blown ones

 

[loudernhel]

I have had two slides (45 ACP Standard) crack at the rear of the ejection port on the thin part. I have had one frame crack from the safety pin hole back along the slide rail cut to the rear of the frame.

That is EXACTLY where my frame cracked.

 

[JohnKSa]

My .45 Witness was a wonderfinish model.

The firing pin left wipe marks on the primers as if the gun were unlocking with the firing pin still extended. Heavier recoil and firing pin springs did not help. There were no apparent burrs in the firing pin channel or on the firing pin.

The bore was very rough--always a real chore to clean.

I found that if the safety mechanism was lubricated with any really slick lubricant, a hard pull on the DA trigger would disengage the safety.

 

[fmjcafe]

I have a full size .40 S&W Witness. When I first got it, it would not feed. I had a gunsmith friend of mine polish the feed ramp and it has been 100% reliable. It also leaves wipe marks on the primer like JohnKSa talked about. Accuracy is mediocre but I haven`t put much effort into trying different loads through it so the jury is still out on that.