Opinions on EAA Witness Autos

[billcalley]

I no longer have faith in Tanfoglios.

I no longer have faith in Tanfoglios, since I came very close to almost losing my right eye.

I had just cleaned and oiled my large frame Tanfoglio 9mm Witness, just as I always do after our local USPSA shoots, and when I placed the slide back on the frame I heard this odd metallic "click" sound that I had never heard before when reassembling this pistol, but thought nothing of it.

Then, I looked down at my gun, and did a double take : Below is what I saw (I may have been only a single 9mm round away from having the rear of the slide embedded in my eye/skull. Ouch!)

Since that picture was taken the slide crack has propagated overnight through-and-through to the very edge of the slide, leaving only the metal directly under the ejection port to hold it all together.

I don't want to trust my life, or my eye sight, to such a gun ever again.

PS: I had, at most, put 2000 rounds through this gun of standard velocity factory ammo (I do not reload, nor do I ever use reloaded cartridges from ANY source, nor do I use +P or +P+ ammo).

 

[ATLDave]

bill, what's the vintage of that slide? Is it hollowed out on the sides?

 

[billcalley]

Hi Dave,

I bought the Witness brand new on 6/4/10 from Davidsons (a great company!). As far as the inside of the slide goes, here is a pic I shot of it before I took the pistol back to my local gun shop.

 

[jmr40]

Virtually everyone I know who bought one has had problems with them. You may get a good one, but the odd's are not good enough for me to put my money into one.

 

[intercooler]

Hi I spoke to you on the 10mm board. That's the lower end wonderfinish slide. Get an upper end 9mm like my match and no problems.

 

[ATLDave]

I read about the slide cracking issues when I was weighing a purchase of an EAA Witness a few months ago. As best I could tell, the cracking was limited to "Wonderfinish" slides. I went with a Witness Elite Match, which has a blued slide, and have had no problems at all, even though I run 10mm through mine (I did beef up the recoil spring, per some internet recommendations).

Although mine is my favorite pistol these days, I certainly agree that a slide cracking under the circumstances you describe is ridiculous. Hope you get it sorted out; I have read (though cannot verify) that EAA's customer service is better than it used to be (not saying much, apparently).