Witness .45 Poly Comp jamming, clip?

J

jay2487

Inactive
I hope I'm not posting to the wrong forum, I'm new here and joined because a google search showed this forum to be the only one with any knowledge on the subject. I would have replied to that post but it said it was 3000 days old so..

anyways, I have always owned 1911s, but recently got my CCW and in Fl must conceal and can be fined if the weapon is showing, so I bought my first compact. I got an EAA Witness .45 poly comp. At first I thought I might be holding it wrong. With such a short grip my pinky would rest on the clip, when the slide comes back after firing it seems the clip is really moving quite a bit and the gun jams. It's barely jamming as you can take your thumb and barely touch the slide and it will finish loading. If I shoot one handed it doesn't jam at all. I have three clips coming from the manufacturer, hopefully mine is just defective but judging from the old thread I read it's an ongoing issue. Any suggestions as to how to make this gun reliable?
 
Shooting it one handed and it works fine? It might indeed, be a Magazine issue, if I'm reading your post correctly. If its wiggling or rubbing the slide during cycling. When I bought mags for my Witness Match, I bought some Mec Gars. May or may not make a difference, but worth considering.

Have you tried other ammo types/brands? It might not matter, but it's an easy check. If your shooting UMC or Wally world Federal, they are typically OK, but your gun may need something a bit stouter to aid in function.

How many total rounds are through it? If it's still got that new feeling, you might want to think about some more break in before getting too worried.

Recoil spring. IMHO, the witness pistols are a bit undersprung. Stepping up one notch on the scale might help.

I make no claim as an expert, just putting out some ideas.
 
thanks for the reply. I have ordered 3 clips from the manufacturer to see if that helps. I have ran 150 rounds through it so far and no improvement. It seems to be right on the verge of working properly, when it does jam I can reach up with my thumb and barely push forward on the slide and it feeds perfectly fine, or I can bump the clip and it finishes feeding. No damage on the spent shells whatsoever. Probably not related but another problem I have with it is it ejects every shell perfect, except the very last when it locks the slide back, that one comes straight back and hits me square between the eyes every time.

As far as Ammo I've used Lellier & Bellot, Independence, and the Remington white and green box. Same results with all.
 
Last edited:
Jay, your recoil spring may be weak. Wolfe makes replacement springs and you might want to look into buying a few stronger springs and experimenting.
 
First off, I have never had an EAA (Tanfoglio) polymer anything.
But I do own an EAA Full Size Witness in 10mm Auto.
I have suffered with FTFeed issues from day one. Everything points to poor magazine design with my gun. As a matter of fact, a poster on the Bren-Ten forums, http://forum.bren-ten.com , found a solution to his FTFeed issues by fitting a Glock 10mm Auto magazine follower to the EAA Magazine body. I have yet to get around to doing this myself. However, it is on my project list.
I'm throwing that out just as food for thought.
Also, your EAA has a warranty on it. Send to EAA with the magazines and ask them to look at it. Should only cost you the shipping charges. Yes, I have dealt with their poor customer service myself. But in the end, they will repair it if something is broken.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top