My wife got lucky today (not that way..!) Sheesh!

[justsomeguy]

My wife went to our local gunshop today and seeing as I have been talking to her... and talking to her... and talking to her about Witness pistols and their value etc., she came home with this one and said "You mean one of these?  It just sort of fit my hand!"

She also said she was ordering a Match in 40 cal with 4 mags for me on Monday since they have to call EAA to do it and there was no one there on the weekend.  She was also ordering 3 more mags for this one too.

What a girl!

[justsomeguy]

Oh, I forgot...

This thing has a red dot in the front sight and two white dots on the rear sight.  I also has "lines" inletted into the front and backstraps of the receiver.  Is that standard?  Has anyone else seen this variation?

At first I was worried that the large frame would be too big for me to grasp effectively (her fingers are longer than mine but our hand width is about the same), but really it seems no bigger around than a 1911 type with Pachmayr grips which I can hold comfortably.

The single action trigger pull seems in the 5lb range but the double action is probably over 10 but smooth.  Single action breaks cleanly with a bit of overtravel which is not so much as to be objectionable.  After I break it in with a couple hundred rounds, I might consider doing a little trigger work to get it just under 4lbs on single action but before I do anything I want to test the reliability and see if anything else might have to be done.  

One thing I did notice was that the slide stop spring seems to almost overpower the magazine spring at the top of its travel so that the slide stop does not want to pop all the way up when locking the slide, and indeed after loading the mag a couple of times and leaving it, then running the rounds through it again, I experienced one failure to lock the slide back after the last round was ejected.  Of course this was with "hand cycling" with the safety on and no recoil forces to affect the thing.

Will the slide stop retaining spring "weaken" slightly with use or be aided by recoil so that it does not resist the magazine follower as it drives the slide stop up and rotates it slightly on an empty magazine, or should I take steps?  If so, what exactly should I be doing?  I could just bend the spring up slightly a few times from where it impinges on the end of the slide stop or should I be looking to replace it with one of smaller diameter or something?  What is the standard fix for this with a Witness 9mm pistol?

[cz75fan]

Nice looking pistol. You better hang on to that Woman!!!!! Where do you find Ladies like this  

Rick
SGF, Mo.

[ReloaderFred]

Nice purchase.  Don't do anything to the slidestop spring.  Instead, consider replacing the magazine springs with Wolff +5% magazine springs.  The factory magazines come with a weak spring and usually need to be replaced eventually anyway, so just get ahead of the game and do it now.  While you're on the phone with Wolff, you also might want to think about ordering a replacement recoil spring, too.  For some reason, the factory springs are on the light side.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[jwc007]

I'll second what ReloaderFred said about the SlideStop Springs and Magazine Springs.  For the 9mm though, I believe that the standard Tanfoglio Recoil Spring will be just fine.

[JesseJames10mm]

Yes you have the standard witness model like mine (10mm for me)  with the red dot on the front and white in the back.  i just wish the front sight was removable like there Matches i beleave. Anyways i just wanna add that your trigger will lighten up over time. Right now after about 500 rounds of 10mm in mine. i figure my trigger pull is around 2.5 to 3lbs on single action and about 8 on double. BTW dose anyone know if the super sight slides have a removable front sight, as i would like to put night sights on my witness sence i use it as a cary peace.

Jesse

[justsomeguy]

Thanks guys for the info on the magazine springs.  If only I could get up early enough to contact Wolff...

Well, tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and warm here so I will take the gun to the range and meet the wife there for a little break-in session.  

I will write a range report and post some pics when I get back.  

I still think the slide stop retaining spring is too strong though, but will leave it alone.  Also, I cannot get the specified 18 rounds into the mag anyway, just 17.  Maybe the Wolff springs will solve that too.

[JesseJames10mm]

i doubt that the springs will solve the 17 rounds problem. when i took my mag apart for the 10mm      15 rounds listed for the max.  i put 15 rounds in from the bottem of the magazine and then put the falower on the bottem. The feet on the bottem of the falower are even with the end of the magazine body. If your going to get more then 17 rounds into the mag you probly have to cut down the feet of the falower, but i would not recomend this.

Jesse

[justsomeguy]

Your little experiment is enlightening!  I am gettng older but did not think I no longer had the strength to load a magazine fully.

Insertion of the "18th" round does not seem possible as it felt like the mag spring coils were binding or the follower was hitting the base.  It came down solid!  I don't think I would cut the follower legs either as the spring must have some coil free play so as to avoid binding.

Still... given the need for the mag to operate the slide stop against the force of the slide stop retaining spring, heavier mag springs (either +5 or even +10) seem to be called for as the stock configuration is nearly neutral with equal forces in both directions.  I hope Wolff will have a deal on a bunch of them and will actually be available on the phone as opposed to my unrequited inquiries through their web site.

[justsomeguy]

Ok... I went to the Wolff site and ordered a 10 pak of  +5 mag springs (wifey is supposed to order more mags tomorrow... well, actually today now!) and some reduced power hammer springs too in case I want to change the trigger pull a little later.  

I ordered them straight from the listing for EAA pistols, large frame.  The mag springs are supposed to fit all the magazines for whatever caliber you have... I hope I ordered the right ones.

We shall see.

[justsomeguy]

Please see my range report added today...

The slide locking thing seemed to improve more and more as I shot the gun and it never did fail to lock open on the empty mag.  The slide stop lever seemed to go farther into engagement as time went on.  Perhaps the mag follower "wore in" a little and got slicker as well as sitting slightly higher during the break in with about 450 rounds.

Oh well... I still have 10 new magazine springs of the +5 variety on the way from Wolff.  I suppose I will need them sometime.

[Grayrider]

The mags will break in nicely after a bit.  You should be able to get the 18th round in after some time.  I left mine loaded for a while to help with that.

John