Range Report: Bersa Thunder 40 perfect, SERIOUS PROBLEMS with my EAA Witness..HELP!!!

[saturno_v]

Hello Folks

The "test drive" for my Bersa Thunder 40 could not have been better.
She chewed through 150 rounds of 3 different varieties: American Ammunition brand 180 gr FMJ, Winchester FMJ 165 gr, Winchester USA JHP 180 gr, no one single jam, very consistent accuracy...I love the feeling and ergonomics, recoil very mitigated....this gun rocks and i'm VERY happy with it....tonight she starts officialy her home defense duty (Winchester USA JHP 180 gr.....is it a good defense round???) next to my trusty Mossberg 500

But I have big problems with my Tanfolgio Witness...she jams all the time (failure to feed, stovepipe...the works...).
The pistol is brand new and she behaved this way with only 2 boxes of ammo fired, Blazer 200 gr FMJ and Remington UMC 180 gr FMJ.
Furthermore, very often the slide fails to stay open after the last shot and I'm concerned about the violent empty slamming of the slide....when I open the slide manually with the mag empty it stays open perfectly (the mag follover notch "catches in" flawlessy).
What should I do?? Do you think is something minor that I can fix without the need to send the gun back to EAA in Florida???
If it is something a gunsmith can fix relatively easily and inexpensively I would prefer not incurring in the shipping charges to EAA...
Any suggestions??? Every piece of advice is STRONLY appreciated.

Thanks a lot in advance!!!


Regards

 

[gb6491]

Congrats on the 40!

Concerning the Witness;

Problem could be magazine related. How many did you have on hand and were the failures across the board or with a particular magazine?

How, with what, and how heavily are you lubricating the Witness?

Regards,
Greg

 

[saturno_v]

I have only one magazine for my Witness, it came with the gun.
As far as I know, it is the newer type, 15 rounds capacity with red follower (I heard that the ones with black follower had issues)
So I cannot compare with other magazines.
As far as cleaning and lubricating, I'm a "maniac" and I keep my firearms very clean and lubricated even if I fire only few shots.
My Witness, by the way, is brand new and I fired a total two boxes of ammo (only 2 sessions at the range since the purchase) so far with it and had problem since the first magazine load (I loaded 10 rounds at the time).
I really hope that I can avoid the shipping back to EAA.
Thanks!!!

 

[gb6491]

Grease or oil on the slide rails? I prefer grease but YMMV.

This might be of some help (from here):
" Correcting reliability problems on Witness pistols usually needs to involve conventional feed ramp reshaping, polishing and chamber polishing, and polishing the fairly rough factory breechface. The source of feeding problems seems to most commonly involve too much friction on the back of the case as it slips up into battery on the breechface. The problem being that the rough machine marks from the steel breechface will dig into the soft brass of the case and with enough traction to cause the stoppage. This seems to play a more critical factor in the longer cartridges and is also a determining factor in the reliability of problematic .38 super and 9X23 pistols. Polish the breechface using lapping compound on a pointed polishing bit (made of a dense cloth like material) until it is very smooth. Very rough breech faces may need some careful application of fine sandpaper."

Regards,
Greg

 

[saturno_v]

Thank you very much, I will look into that....
I cannot wait to fix this problem in my Witness...

 

[bannockburn]

saturno v

First you may want to determine that a rough chamber/feed ramp is indeed the problem. Inspect the area mentioned to see if it rough or has any milling/machine marks on it. The problem with any kind of reshaping is that sometimes too much metal is removed making the problem all the more exacerbating. This might be something for a qualified gunsmith to look at first before any work is done. If the gunsmith thinks that it could be the problem, then it would be up to you if you want the smith to do it, or send it back to EAA under warranty.

 

[NGIB]

Both of my Witness .40s are very magazine sensitive. Both are full-sized older models, one steel and one poly and while the magazines will interchange - I have problems when I do. Slide not locking back and feed errors are common when I mix the mags for these...

 

[wally]

Is the Witness in .40S&W too? Polymer frame or steel? Is the magazine significantly longer than then the .40S&W ammo? if so, does it have a spacer in the front to keep the rounds from moving forward?

I've had magazine issues with all the large frame Witness pistols (9mm, .40S&W and 10mm) except for the .45ACP. Use the search, I've posted details of how I fixed my 10mm mags. The 9mm and .40S&W were basically done the same. If you have the same problems I had, the gun will be fine once the mags are fixed. If its not the mags, send it back. You can get new mags from EAA for $50/pair or a single from Reed's for $20, but Reed's are the older ones that lack the spacer.

--wally.

 

[The_woodsman]

What should I do??

Why send it to me, of course. You didn't ever want that gun anyway.