Tanfoglio - EAA handguns ... good / bad / ugly?

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Re: Tanfoglio - EAA handguns ... good / bad / ugly?

Postby Seismic Sam on Sat Oct 10, 2009 1:44 pm

The most bang for the buck you can get in a 10mm. When I first saw one at the Gunstop and saw the price tag (I was expecting Kimber prices) and saw it was $349 NIB, I immediately wondered what was wrong with it. Checked it out, and it turns out to be a real deal. Strong as hell, and the Wonderfinish is hard as nails. The guns are undersprung for full power 10mm ammo, so I immediately replaced the recoil and hammer spring with 22# Wolff springs. Had feeding problems with mine (some do, some run flawlessly out of the box, and fixed it with polishing the snot out of the breechface and dehorning all the sharp corners, and then polishing the snot out of the inside of the mag bodies and going with Wolff +10% mag springs. Due to the 4.4" barrel, Norma factory spec ammo that goes 1200 FPS with a 200 grain XTP bullet in a 5" bbl Delta Elite goes about 1150 in an EAA.

Then I got wild and crazy, and bought a 45 ACP EAA and worked it up to 45 Super. 22# recoil and hammer springs, and a Sprinco 10mm buffer, and magnaporting. This gun puts a 185 grain 45 caliber XTP bullet out the barrel at 1260 FPS. :shock: That essentially makes it from a ballistic standpoint an 11 shot 41 magnum automatic using 45 caliber bullets. The recoil is not for the faint of heart, and this is one wicked bitch of a gun, but it runs like a champ.

Since then I have gotten an EEA Stock in 10mm that is street legal for IDPA, and it ran flawlessly right out of the box. Also have an EAA Match in 38 Super, and am running 9x23 Winchester ammo in it. The 9x23 case is a cut down, reamed .223 case using rifle primers and running at 52,000 PSI. I can blow a Speer 125 grain Gold Dot out the barrel at 1450 FPS, which makes it fully equivalent to the 357 SIG and 357 Magnum. Instead of 6 or 12 rounds, however, the EAA holds 18. That makes it one hell of a personal defense gun.

The ejection pin on the 10mm EAA is way too long for full power loads, and you can cut nearly half of it off to reduce the 20+ foot shell ejection distance.

FWIW, here is the ejector on my 45 Super EAA, which has a recoil that makes full power 10mm loads look tame. Probably 2/3rds or more has been cut off with an upward slant on the ejector. This moves the point of impact on the case head to make the shell go UP more and sideways less. With full power 45 Super loads, the cases go up in the air and fall back down about 4 - 6 feet to my right side.

Image
Last edited by Seismic Sam on Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Tanfoglio - EAA handguns ... good / bad / ugly?

Postby justaguy on Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:21 pm

mmcnx2 wrote:Just a dope, the more you post the more you confirm your lack of any real thought process.

Not everyone wants, likes or can shoot a glock. And for those of us that have one, can shoot it and think it is a fine pistol, it still is not the only game in town. In fact that is one of the great things about this sport, the variety. That is one of the flaws of glocks, lack of variety, if you've shot one they all are basically the same. So if one model is not your thing, chances are another one most likely won't be either.

That said and 'Just a dope' ignored as normal, the EAA's are nice guns. The witness line is gaining popularity and as more aftermarket parts become available they are making their way in the action sports.

They look a little clunky(not as bad as a glock), but it is more of a personal taste thing. I've shot one in 9, 40, 45 and 38super, all ran very well. I'm not a 10mm fan so I can't really speak to those models.

If it fit you, you can shoot it well, you like the price I'd say go for it.

Try to keep up.
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Re: Tanfoglio - EAA handguns ... good / bad / ugly?

Postby justaguy on Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:22 pm

Flip wrote:Justaguy,

I'm not a Glock fan just because they don't fit my hand well or point well for me. Also, I have a great time giving you Glock guys a hard time ... so that precludes me from ever getting one.

I've got no plans to buy anything but was just curious about Tanfoglio / EAA as I've seen some limited info about them but nothing about reliability or if folks who use them like them.

Flip

At least its not a 1911.
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Re: Tanfoglio - EAA handguns ... good / bad / ugly?

Postby Ironbear on Sat Oct 10, 2009 5:17 pm

Seismic Sam wrote:Due to the 4.4" barrel, Norma factory spec ammo that goes 1200 FPS with a 200 grain XTP bullet in a 5" bbl Delta Elite goes about 1150 in an EAA.

EAA's web site lists a "hunter" version of the Witness, with a full 6" barrel, it you feel you're coming up short. ;)
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Re: Tanfoglio - EAA handguns ... good / bad / ugly?

Postby mnglocker on Sat Oct 10, 2009 10:29 pm

I've got a .45 Witness next to my key board that I'm going to lose in the lake tomorrow. ;)
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Re: Tanfoglio - EAA handguns ... good / bad / ugly?

Postby mmcnx2 on Sun Oct 11, 2009 9:51 am

justaguy - "Try to keep up."

Wow, more thoughtful insight form the village dope.
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Re: Tanfoglio - EAA handguns ... good / bad / ugly?

Postby justaguy on Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:48 am

mmcnx2 wrote:justaguy - "Try to keep up."

Wow, more thoughtful insight form the village dope.

+1.
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Re: Tanfoglio - EAA handguns ... good / bad / ugly?

Postby Seismic Sam on Sun Oct 11, 2009 12:22 pm

The 6" Hunter is a speciality gun for hunting ONLY with its 6" barrel, and you really can't carry something that long in a waistband easily. In addition, a 45 Super from a 4.4" barrel easily beats a 10mm out of a 6" barrel. The Hunters are also pricey, and the early ones were made here in America with Realtree camo pattern, but apart from that they are complete TRASH. They were assembled by some idiots with a pot metal shroud to take the place of a bull tapered barrel, and they have lots of other faults and vagaries too. If you pull back the slide on a 6" EAA hunter and see some black or dull colored cheap looking metal, run away quickly.
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Re: Tanfoglio - EAA handguns ... good / bad / ugly?

Postby Ironbear on Sun Oct 11, 2009 12:50 pm

Seismic Sam wrote:The 6" Hunter is a speciality gun... run away quickly.

Hmmm. Nice to know.


BTW, if the original poster has access the January 2009 issue of American Rifleman has a "Witness" article.
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Re: Tanfoglio - EAA handguns ... good / bad / ugly?

Postby tacticalninja32 on Sun Oct 11, 2009 6:12 pm

mnglocker wrote:I've got a .45 Witness next to my key board that I'm going to lose in the lake tomorrow. ;)

What lake may this be?
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Re: Tanfoglio - EAA handguns ... good / bad / ugly?

Postby Bessy on Sun Oct 11, 2009 8:27 pm

A know more than one member of the uspsa crowd that has switch to the tanfoglio for competition. They seem to be reliable, and accurate. I liked the one in 40cal I shot. Not sure about the other EAA guns.
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Re: Tanfoglio - EAA handguns ... good / bad / ugly?

Postby David on Mon Oct 12, 2009 10:18 pm

Tanfoglio/EAA makes different levels of quality, too. You can get a $400 Witness or you can get an $800 Witness Stock, and a few levels in between. You can also go with more of a match gun and spend $1,200 to $2,000. A couple of guys around here compete with them and like them.

Mine is very accurate, has an outstanding trigger every bit as nice as any of my DA/SA SIGs, and has a really nice fit and finish actually superior to most of my SIGs (that's the stainless model though. I can't compare their blued versions). I didn't like that it came with only one magazine, but then again a lot of pistols are coming that way these days, SIG included. It's a heavy, solid, completely metal pistol that is still very thin due to the slide riding inside the frame. I don't shoot it a whole lot because 10MM is more of a lark for me than a regular thing, but I have about 600 rounds through mine and I don't think I've had any kind of malfunction. I also like that you can get slide/barrel kits of them and have several calibers for one frame. They don't make those kits for the Stock models, but if you get the standard models they are plentiful and pretty cheap.
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Re: Tanfoglio - EAA handguns ... good / bad / ugly?

Postby ijosef on Wed Oct 14, 2009 10:21 am

Speaking of EAA handguns, does anyone have any experience with their revolvers, like the Windicator .357 magnum? From the looks of them and the pricepoint, they seem to be targeting the Rossi and Armscor level of revolvers, although I could be mistaken. I think these are made in Germany.
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