EAA Witness?

I'm thinking about picking up a used Witness in .40. I tried it out and it's a great shooter, but I'm worried about long term longevity and parts availability. I have a few CZs now and love the form factor. The Witness is enticing because it's a CZ clone but a lot cheaper and it's in .40. Anyone have any experience with these?

Lots of experience. Great pistol. I have had several of them and run thousands upon thousands of rounds through them. They are an old company and there are tons of parts and aftermarket accessories and upgrades available. Mine have ranged from carry ready to race ready.

Very accurate, very reliable.

My buddy has an EAA windicator .38 revolver, and its decent, doesn't like lead cast rounds, but with jacketed its shoots pretty good. Never tried one of the autos, but I have heard good things about them.

Originally Posted by Warbird

Lots of experience. Great pistol. I have had several of them and run thousands upon thousands of rounds through them. They are an old company and there are tons of parts and aftermarket accessories and upgrades available. Mine have ranged from carry ready to race ready.

Very accurate, very reliable.

Good to hear. I know some pistols designed for 9mm and retrofitted for .40 have had problems in the past, and I wanted to be sure if something pops up with this pistol that I can fix it instead of having it turn into a passive paperweight.

Now after reading that review of the Elite Witness a few posts below, I might have to spend the extra and get a hand fitted pistol.

EAA whitness pistols are great. No worries.. Buy it!

EAA Witness = Tanfoglio = Jericho = Baby Eagle
Best CZ Clones. That Said P01 CZ is a good deal if your still shopping.

Well I've got a RAMI and SP-01 Phantom right now. The P01 is a fine piece but I don't need the accesory rail and I like the RAMI for concealed use. I just wanted an inexpensive .40 pistol because I generally see that caliber in stock at Wal-Mart. I was surpised at the gentle recoil of the Witness. It was comparable to the RAMI in 9mm which is also very gentle when shooting.

I just got an Elite Match and I'm stunned at the quality and accuracy of it. EAA is just the importer, the guns are made by Tanfoglio in Italy and for the money they are fantastic (actually quality-wise better than most... Much better than lower end guns like Taurus and such).
Getting a hold of parts isn't a problem really since they are probably one of, if not the most popular gun maker in Europe. Also, mags are cheap and easy to find, if it's a small frame ala CZ-75, you can use mags that work in those as well as ones for the Jericho's/Baby Eagle's. You can get factory parts from EAA's site and some top quality hop up stuff at: henningshootsguns.com (Henning deals mostly in stuff for the elite series, but he's got a few cool things that will work for you as well as great vids on detail stripping them, etc.).

You won't find much bad to say about them out there, but EAA's customer service is pretty dismal, don't worry though, the guns are solid enough where most just end up never needing them.

They're CZ-clones, but many consider the Tanfoglio's to be better, there are some improvments here and there in their design that is actually better (for example you won't find any dumb roll pins in the firing pin assembly like a CZ, you can rack the slides with the safety on unlike a CZ, and they have fewer parts as a whole...).

On a side note, if you wanted to, it's cheap and extremely easy to convert them to a crisp single-action just by changing the hammer and trigger (the Tanfoglio SA triggers come equipped w/ screws to eliminate pre-travel AND over-travel too!).

I had a witness compact .45 Great gun, but I had a spring problem and it was pulling teeth to get the right parts. I ended up selling the gun.

Originally Posted by Magiccarpetrides

I had a witness compact .45 Great gun, but I had a spring problem and it was pulling teeth to get the right parts. I ended up selling the gun.

That's strange... Seems with these guns if you want the right info you go to Henning with your needs, not EAA though...

Just a guess, but if it was a hammer spring issue, many gunsmiths don't know that older pre-'93 Witness' use a longer one same as CZ, newer ones have a shorter one... Wolff makes both types so they're available.