Tangfolio Witness. What to know?

[Random 8]

Just picked up a Witness-P LNIB. Bit of an impulse buy. I had a bunch of overtime money in the account, and it was there and priced to move. Story behind it was that it was a banquet or raffle doorprize that the owner traded to the gunshop towards an AR-15. Supposedly never fired, and it looks the part. $400 with all factory box and accessories I think was a good price. Ser number search says it was imported 2016.

What does one need to know about these? Anything to look out for? Problems that may crop up? Preliminary accuracy testing in the backyard was very promising. Put 16 rounds inside of 2" with cheap Fed American Eagle 115gr at 15 yards. Very easy to control this gun. Positive and reliable function so far. Group was centered somewhat low with good windage. I think 124 gr ammo will cure this.

 

[rust collector]

Not sure of the nomenclature, but if the P stands for polymer, I've got a couple and I like the guns. They fit well and I shoot them well. They have been thoroughly wrung out over the years, and have always been reliable. I think you will enjoy your purchase for a long time.

 

[scotty]

I have a Witness in 9mm I bought new 20+ years ago. It has been extremely accurate and very reliable. It was the gun i first used in USPSA matches. It is a ported model which put me in Open class, but I didn't care. It was a gun I had magazines for. I figured that after trying a few matches, I would have a better idea what I really wanted or needed.

115gr or 124gr ammo seems to be pretty interchangeable. 147's do shoot differently. I found out the hard way that my gun doesn't like lead bullets. They shoot just fine but it leads badly. Other than that, it has been extremely reliable even after the 45K rounds that have been down the pipe, nearly all handloads. I have changed springs, but that has been more from guilt than necessity. It still looks very new and my son loves it. It will be his when the time comes.

 

[Frankl03]

I have had a couple of Tanfoglios. Great Guns! I had a witness elite match, Witness stock II and the one I currently own is the witness elite limited in 9mm.

Witnesses are customizable. The limited that I have now has a 1 1/2 lbs SA trigger. Very accurate and a sweet shooter. Can't go with Tanfoglios!

 

[OcelotZ3]

I have a Witness Elite Match I picked up quite a few years ago. Very nice, nice looking, accurate 9mm.

 

[Tallball]

I have five of them. They are all good pistols.

 

[gnappi]

I never owned one of their plastic pistols, but their steel guns are excellent.

 

[SimonRL]

I’ve got an all metal clone, a BUL Storm. It’s a great shooter, very comfortable, very easy to field strip, a great HD gun.

 

[hemiram]

I'm pretty much a steel Witness guy, but I've got friends with Witness-P's and I don't think any of them has had any issues. I do have a sort of a clone from SAR that is a very nice gun, a CM9-Gen2. Sort of a cross between a Witness-P and a CZ P-07.

 

[Buckeye63]

In 1998-99 I purchased a EAA Witness 10mm , full size all steel wonder finish 17rd? 10mm .. it was my first 10mm .. great pistol CZ-75 knock off .. great fit and finish.. I think I picked it up for $350 NIB .. It was a great pistol.. I traded it for something or another, maybe a Levergun of some sort ,
Looked exactly like this one

 

[MAKster]

There are two versions of the polymer Witness. The small frame was for 9mm and 40 S&W (P-S on grip). Slightly larger frame for 45 acp and 10mm. Not to be confused with the full size and compact versions which have different grip lengths. A while back Tanfoglio started making them all with the larger frame so you could do caliber conversions. The EAA website only lists the larger frame but the small frame version which is significantly less expensive is still sold.

 

[Tallball]

I got a couple of the polymer versions for something like $200 apiece used, back before covid. I've had zero problems with them, just like the zero problems I've had with my steel ones.

TanfoglioWitness40

• Tallball
• Jun 17, 2018

 

[Otto]

I bought a couple of these when SG had them on sale. Around $250 if I recall.
I increased the capacity from 16 to 18 by using CZ magazines, they function flawlessly.

 

[greyling22]

up until about 12 years ago they had issues with their 9mm magazines. But they made new mags and sorted that out. The issue was the modularity. They are all large frame guns, and getting 9mm to run in a magazine the same size hole as a double stack 45acp mag apparently was problematic.

 

[docbrown]

I have the "Force-99" and I love it. Grip angle, magazine capacity, all good. The original sights were pathetically off - like 6 inches low and left at 15 yards on a rest out of the box. Contacted EAA and with a little emphatic discussion got them to send a set of adjustable sights. Now it is dead on at 15 yards from a rest. So, sight it in and make sure it is POA/POI. Another little tidbit is that CZ-75b magazines work with it and you can also use Beretta 92/M9 magazines with it if you cut a notch in the magazine. Unless you change the follower, it will not lock the slide back, but it does work. That makes it a 20 shot 9mm (with one in the pipe), which is pretty nice. The 22LR conversion I got for it works great. Took some break in time, but just swap the slide assembly and magazine and you are off and running. Pretty accurate for a conversion too.

I want to find a 40 S&W compact slide/barrel assembly and a spare 9mm compact barrel, because I would really like to have it in 40 and ream the 9mm barrel to 357 Sig. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find either of those options at what I would consider a reasonable price just yet.

 

[crestoncowboy]

For a while back around mid 90s- mid 2000s they had issues with rust on the blued models. Probably the fastest rusting guns I've ever saw. The wonder finish (they called it) was better.

Decent guns though