Other than the obvious resemblance to CZ's, I didn't know much about this gun - my wife inherited it from her father's estate.
General description: The pistol is finished in some kind of matte grey-colored stuff. Whatever the finish is, it seems to be fairly durable: it isn't wearing off, even where there is metal-to-metal contact. The roll marks are the kind made of hundreds of tiny dots, which always looks a bit cheap to me (like an early 1980's dot-matrix printer). The lawyer talk imprinted on the slide was another turn-off.
The proportions are a bit strange because the grip is that of a full-size duty pistol with a 15 round double stack magazine. Putting a slender CZ-style slide on top, and shortening it to a 3" barrel, makes it look a bit bottom-heavy. The barrel is ported and the slide is slotted to allow these gasses to escape. The grips are rubberized, similar to Hogues, and give the gun a bit nicer grip feel to me than the smooth plastic grips on a CZ.
The magazines appear identical to CZ 75 15-round mags, and CZ mags fit the pistol. I didn't try function-testing the gun with CZ mags in it.
The front sight is integral to the slide and has a red dot. The rear sight is dovetailed into the slide and has two white dots. The sights seem to be a bit better quality and more visible than a CZ 75b.
The trigger is long and heavy but smooth in double action. Shorter, lighter, and crisper in single action. Like a CZ 75, the gun can apparently be carried SA cocked and locked, or DA with the hammer down (though there is no decocker). The safety is mounted on the frame.
I shot the gun offhand using 125 gr FMJ reloads at 15 yards. I was easily able to keep all my shots inside a 3" circle. In slow fire, I could get groups where most of the holes were touching. I didn't try to shoot the gun from a rest at a longer distance, so I can't assess the accuracy potential of the pistol (I'm not that good at shooting from a rest anyway). It certainly seems accurate enough for defense use.
With the relatively heavy construction and the ported/compensated barrel, recoil is almost nonexistent. Others who tried the pistol compared it to shooting a .22
Everyone noted getting slight powder blast in the face, probably due to the porting.
Between the three of us, we shot about 2-300 rounds and didn't have any malfunctions.
Overall Impressions:
If it isn't already obvious, I am a fan of CZ's and I was mentally prejudiced against Witness as a less expensive CZ knock-off. I was pleasantly surprised. Other than the dot-matrix markings, the pistol seems to be very comparable to CZ in quality and the sights are actually a bit better.
I'm not sure what this gun is for. To me, the big 15-rounder grip would make it just as hard to conceal as a full size duty pistol. The porting makes it a nice sweet-shooting range gun, but for that, I'd just as soon have the full length barrel.
Unfortunately my wife wasn't able to come and shoot it yesterday, so that will have to wait for a future range time. Ultimately I guess it's her decision what this gun will be for. She is mostly a revolver shooter. She likes low-recoil handguns, so she might like this one. It could even become her gun in the bedside pistol safe at some point, if she decides she likes it better than her SW.
General description: The pistol is finished in some kind of matte grey-colored stuff. Whatever the finish is, it seems to be fairly durable: it isn't wearing off, even where there is metal-to-metal contact. The roll marks are the kind made of hundreds of tiny dots, which always looks a bit cheap to me (like an early 1980's dot-matrix printer). The lawyer talk imprinted on the slide was another turn-off.
The proportions are a bit strange because the grip is that of a full-size duty pistol with a 15 round double stack magazine. Putting a slender CZ-style slide on top, and shortening it to a 3" barrel, makes it look a bit bottom-heavy. The barrel is ported and the slide is slotted to allow these gasses to escape. The grips are rubberized, similar to Hogues, and give the gun a bit nicer grip feel to me than the smooth plastic grips on a CZ.
The magazines appear identical to CZ 75 15-round mags, and CZ mags fit the pistol. I didn't try function-testing the gun with CZ mags in it.
The front sight is integral to the slide and has a red dot. The rear sight is dovetailed into the slide and has two white dots. The sights seem to be a bit better quality and more visible than a CZ 75b.
The trigger is long and heavy but smooth in double action. Shorter, lighter, and crisper in single action. Like a CZ 75, the gun can apparently be carried SA cocked and locked, or DA with the hammer down (though there is no decocker). The safety is mounted on the frame.
I shot the gun offhand using 125 gr FMJ reloads at 15 yards. I was easily able to keep all my shots inside a 3" circle. In slow fire, I could get groups where most of the holes were touching. I didn't try to shoot the gun from a rest at a longer distance, so I can't assess the accuracy potential of the pistol (I'm not that good at shooting from a rest anyway). It certainly seems accurate enough for defense use.
With the relatively heavy construction and the ported/compensated barrel, recoil is almost nonexistent. Others who tried the pistol compared it to shooting a .22
Everyone noted getting slight powder blast in the face, probably due to the porting.
Between the three of us, we shot about 2-300 rounds and didn't have any malfunctions.
Overall Impressions:
If it isn't already obvious, I am a fan of CZ's and I was mentally prejudiced against Witness as a less expensive CZ knock-off. I was pleasantly surprised. Other than the dot-matrix markings, the pistol seems to be very comparable to CZ in quality and the sights are actually a bit better.
I'm not sure what this gun is for. To me, the big 15-rounder grip would make it just as hard to conceal as a full size duty pistol. The porting makes it a nice sweet-shooting range gun, but for that, I'd just as soon have the full length barrel.
Unfortunately my wife wasn't able to come and shoot it yesterday, so that will have to wait for a future range time. Ultimately I guess it's her decision what this gun will be for. She is mostly a revolver shooter. She likes low-recoil handguns, so she might like this one. It could even become her gun in the bedside pistol safe at some point, if she decides she likes it better than her SW.
