[Limited custom and custom xtreme capacity in 40S&W?]

I'm in New Zealand which is how I have access to this pistol. As stated above, the 140mm base pads will not fit the IPSC standard box. I've tried without any luck to get a hold of the Grams stuff but I don't think they ship to NZ going by the silence when I emailed them.

Hi Chris

I'm in NZ as well and have sent you a PM about info on the above. Cheers

[Older limited small frame safety]

If it isn't the roll pin style it could be the style some of the older models came out with which is similar to the 1911 ambi safety. In these the main left side safety part (if looking at it from the back of the pistol) is cut with a split in it which sits inside the sear cage etc as normal. The right side of the safety is a flat "tab" which sits inside the slot in the left side part and then both sides are retained by the sear spring leg which sits in a notch which lines up when the two sides are together, apologies if this sounds confusing. The good news is if it is this style of ambi safety any of the new roll pin style ambi safeties will just slot straight in.

Also for what it's worth, I have a small frame Limited which came with the safety I mention and it worked fine but the right side portion was a little sloppy with some up/down movement/freeplay. I didn't like it so changed to the roll pin safety and all has been fine since.

[Does anyone know the thread of a Witness Compensator?]

WOW! so the .45 has a factory comp and threaded barrel? Is your .38 super threaded M15X0.75? is that one a factory barrel/thread?

Yes, factory comp and threaded barrel!! One of the reasons I bought it many moons ago because it was something a bit unusual. The 38 Super isn't M15 as the .45ACP comp slides on and off it, the comp diameter is too big for the barrel, while my 9mm small frame comp seems to be about the correct diameter but when I try it on the 38 Super it won't screw on! I haven't checked the pitch of the threads on the Super barrel so will have a look tonight and post it. I suspect the factory have some sort of system where the barrel diameter and thread is different for various models and calibres. Either that or I just happen to have some weird sized barrels/comps!!!

[Does anyone know the thread of a Witness Compensator?]

Success! It is confirmed, the thread pitch for Tanfoglio small frame is M14X0.75, unconfirmed, but highly suspected is that the thread pitch for Tanfoglio large frame is M15X0.75.

If it helps I can confirm the thread on my large frame .45ACP is M15x1.0 but the thread on my large frame 38 Super isn't and it isn't M14x0.75 either!!!. I suspect the factory may use different threads for large and small frames but also on different calibres in the same frame size. Confusing???? YES!!

[Increasing Magazine Capacity?]

Interesting read. Seems like modding the mags to increase capacity is a very touch and go project. I hope I even possess the finesse for such a job. How is the reliability? And as I'm reading it, that's 16 rounds in a small frame mag with an extended base pad? What has the max been with the stock basepad?

I don't know if i'm not looking hard enough, but I haven't actually seen pictures of a Match or a Stock with anything but the stock base pad. Anyone have any pics?

Believe it or not working on the 9mm small frame mags is trickier than the 40S&W due to the 9mm tapered case. However with a little time and effort most things can be achieved. Cannot recall what the round count for .40 in a small frame was with the stock basepad, I cannot even recall if we tried that as my friend was using his pistol as a raceguin with a comp etc so was only concerned with more rounds!!! My guess would be +1 or +2 on top of the normal mag capacity. The best option would be to get one of Hennings small frame Grams spring & follower and give it a go to see what the capapcity is.

I terms of reliability, there were no issues that I can recall. As I said previosu, the straight wall .40 helped alot in that regard.

[Increasing Magazine Capacity?]

So what's the highest capacity you can reliably modify a .40 magazine for a small frame? Hennings magazine pads look like they are just what the doctor ordered, but does anyone have pics of how far they stick out from the mag well? I'd like to retain as stock a look as possible but have more than the 12+1 capacity from the factory mags.

The best I have been able to get in a small frame 40S&W mag is 16rnds.

Have a look at my earlier post http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=68426&st=25 hopefully that may help.

[Does anyone know the thread of a Witness Compensator?]

Alright, I've been working on a compensated 9mm upper for a while and I have come across some interesting facts: small frame Witness barrels and large diameter CZ barrels(Tactical Sport, SP01, Champion) are approximately the same OD: .551" or 14mm, as well as Jericho 941 barrels (manufactured by Tanfoglio in some/all cases?); CZ75B 9mm and older Tanfoglios have a barrel with an OD of .502" (12.75mm???).

I was told by someone at CZ that the Champion threaded barrel for sale on the CZ-USA webstore was threaded M14X1 (which makes sense because the barrel is 14mm in diameter and there are 10 threads per cm), I bought a small frame Witness compensator from Numrich which also had 10 threads per cm, but the two would not mate together. The threads in the comp seemed to be shallower than those of the CZ barrel, not to mention the Champion barrel is short, overall, including 3/4" of threads it measures 4.5" from breech to muzzle (the same as an SP01, don't get me started on CZ's advertised barrel lengths!), so you would have to cut 3/4" off a standard length slide to screw on a compensator.

Luckily the CZ Webstore has a great return policy and I was able to return the Champion barrel for a full refund. I then bought a 9mm tactical Sport barrel which actually measures 5.1" which is perfect for use with a standard length slide and comp, now I just have to thread it!

I have been told CZ, Tanfoglio and Springfield threaded barrels all have a different thread, which leads me to believe since they all have a 14mm OD that they all use some oddball, non standard thread. I believe the threads in the comp are shallower than a standard 14x1, but have the same thread pitch, I'm thinking of buying a M14X1 tap and die, threading the barrel and reaming the threads in the comp.

Does anyone have any useful information for me from their own experiences?

And no, I don't want to just get a Glock. Yes I'm crazy, but aren't we all?

I seem to remember reading or seeing something somewhere that the thread for these barrels is 14 x 0.75. I will try and find where I saw it and post confirmation.

[Follower ”modding” and increased mag. capacity]

Yeah man, I really appreciate it. I stumbled across this thread while googling the pearce mag extenders . I wanted a cheap alternative to the Mac-gar +2 mags, and I think this definitely qualifies as cheaper since its free haha!

I just really wanted a second or third opinion on the reliability of this modification since I've only ever seen it here. And because I know that I can get a pearce or mec gar +2 adapter for 15-20$ which I know will give me the extra rounds .On the same note If this mag mod turns out to fail it would cost me 15-20$ for a replacement follower and then Id only be back to where I was to begin with.

It's a bit of a gamble, but you have reassured me. I will see if I can get 14 out of one of the red follower mags I have. Maybe cut out the dimples on the 41AE mag. Oh, I tried what you sad and I put my already modded follower and spring into one of the flat sided mags and still was only able to get 13. One more is better than None more though! haha!

Thanks again for all the help and feed back.

One other thought came to mind after reading your post and that is what type of mag spring have you got in the mag. My experience has been that the small frame mags, depending on their age can come with two different types of springs. Older mags will come with a spring where the coils simply stack up on themselves and take up more room in the mag. New mags have a spring where the coils at the top are smaller than the lower coils so that some of the top coils sit inside the lower coils as the spring compresses and therefore take up less space and allow more rounds.

After re-reading your post I am presuming your pistol is a 40S&W or 41AE and not a 9mm. If that is the case the only way to get many more rounds in a small frame mag is an extended base pad. A friend I shoot with has a small frame in 40S&W and we ended up having to change out the follower & spring to one of Hennings small frame Grams follower & spring and added on a Pearce +2 mag pad and that gave him 16 rounds but it was tight!!! If you were desperate for that type of round count you will need the Grams kit and I would go for Hennings small frame base pads which are aluminium and not plastic and are also more generous in the dimensions so should make the 16 rounds easier to achieve!! Unfortunately this is not a cheap option and will run you around $55 per mag for the follower/spring/pad!!!

[Follower ”modding” and increased mag. capacity]

Thanks a lot for the feed back, vous! I am not so much concerned with the "dimple" mags because have not been 100% reliable to begin with.

My main question is;

Is this mod 100% reliable with the red follower, factory, Magazines ??? How have they functioned for you???

I have not had a single malfunction from my factory mags, and I don't want to compromise that reliability.

I also don't want to fork over the $40-$60 for 14 or 16 round mags... yet

Personally I have not had any issues with the mod followers in my mags as long as you don't cut them too much so that they pop out the top of the mag lips. If you keep the mod to the specs as shown in the earlier posts you should be fine. Best option is to mod one mag use it alot for the next while and work from there. Hope this helps!!

[Follower ”modding” and increased mag. capacity]

So, I know this is a dead thread but maybe someone is still around. I tried this "mod" on one of my black follower, 41AE, mags with the "dimples" on the bottom. I WAS able to get ONE more round out of it but only one. I haven't tested it at the range yet and I want to be sure it works before I try it on my red follower factory T mags. Anyone here can vouch for the reliability of these modded followers ??? (done correctly of course) I see that gunslingerdk did it with his 9mm but how did it function in the field??? How has it worked in the years since the last posts????? I hope some one can help

With the "dimple" mags, you need to cut or mill out the dimples as they are stopping more rounds at the bottom of the mag going past them. If you have a flat side mag without the dimples you should get more rounds in straight away!!

[speed holster]

I hate to burst any bubbles but you can draw just as fast with a blade-tech paddle holster as you can with a "Race" holster. The paddle holsters are actually more forgiving when drawing from funky start positions, which are becoming more common in matches. I have tried a bunch of different "Race" holsters (CR Speed, Ghost, Speedsec, and Double Alpha) but always end up going back to the simple Blade-Tech paddle holster.

I agree the draw from a Blade-tech can be as fast as a race holster generally but it depends on the person drawing in the end!! I like the Blade-tech but when I tried it I was alot slower on the draw to target than I was with the Speedsec. That is what I found personally and obviously for my draw motion the Speedsec is the quicker option. As always pays to try them all or as many as you can before making a final decision.

[speed holster]

Where to get them?

Double Alpha in the Netherlands has them for pretty well all pistol models including Tanfogs. There used to be a few distributors in the US but for some reason that has dried up and I haven't seen any available there for some time!

One point I forgot to mention is that the Speedsec will only fit the square trigger guard models not the round trigger guard models!!

[speed holster]

Does anyone use Hoppner & Schumann Speedsec 5W holster. Price is very reasonable(compared to daa or slb), how is the quality and fit?

I use the Speedsec for Limited, Open & Single Stack. Excellent holster which works really well. Quality is exc and the fit in my three is perfect!!

[1911 witness custom or 1991 custom]

I'm looking at either a 1911 witness custom or even the 1991 custom to use for ipsc single stack classic. Anybody have much experience with these, how well do they run, accuracy and what are the triggers like ?

I currently shoot a sig tacops however it is not legal for single stack classic because of the rail on it, I do not really want to it milled off. It has had a lot of work done on it and is very accurate.

Thanks

Hi Mike

I have been using the Tanfog (Witness) 1911 for about three years now as my single stack comp gun and have been very impressed. It was surprisingly tight when I got it and has stayed that way since. Accuracy is very acceptable and is as good as others if not in some cases better than other high cost 1911's.

The only work I did on mine was to add an adjustable sight, that is personal preference though, and also did some work to lighten the trigger which is not flash out of the box. Really the trigger is the only thing you probably need to do anything about otherwise it will do you very well and at a reasonable price compared to the cost of other 1911 models in NZ!! Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info. Been looking at the 1911 custom which has adjustable sights and comes with 4 mags. Would definitely get the trigger worked on and possibly fo front sight. May have the option of getting a Dan wesson pm 7 which is all set to go - different money of course.

Either the Custom, after a trigger job or the Dan Wesson will do a great job. Just comes down to $$ to spend as you say!!

[Increasing Magazine Capacity?]

Hi all, I just have some quick questions about magazine compatibility among Tanfoglios.

1. Am I correct to assume that the Witness, Stock, Match, Limited, etc. of the same caliber all use the same magazines -- either the small frame or large frame magazine?

2. Is there any setup or way to increase the magazine capacity of a small frame 9mm magazine while retaining the stock look or base pad? I know that Henning has an increased capacity 9mm small frame magazine, but I'd hate to let that low hanging magazine pad destroy the look of the gun.

Thanks in advance! Sounds crazy, but 17 rounds is too few for me, especially considering CZ-75s come with those sweet 19 round Mec-Gar mags.

For a small frame mag you can do two things. Firstly, trim the legs of the factory follower so that they are just slighlty longer than the little stub that sits underneath the follower which sits in the middle of the mag spring. Secondly play around with the spring length and trim half a coil off and test then another half and test etc.

The second part you have to be very careful on as you don't want to cut too much off and the tension isn't enough to feed the rounds.

I have been doing this for years on my small frame mags and generally just trimming the follower will give you two extra rounds or one and nearly two!! Good Luck.

Also forgot to mention option 3 which is buy Hennings small mag Grams followers and springs and play around with the spring length.

[speed holster]

just bought a EAA witness small frame in 9mm.

2 cmplete uppers.one with comp / one without.

anyone have a recomedation for the right speed

holster?

I have the DAA Racer for my small Frame Stock II and it is excellent!! Other options are the DAA Race Master, Speedsec 5 and Ghost. All have pros and cons so best to try each if you can!!!

[1911 witness custom or 1991 custom]

I'm looking at either a 1911 witness custom or even the 1991 custom to use for ipsc single stack classic. Anybody have much experience with these, how well do they run, accuracy and what are the triggers like ?

I currently shoot a sig tacops however it is not legal for single stack classic because of the rail on it, I do not really want to it milled off. It has had a lot of work done on it and is very accurate.

Thanks

Hi Mike

I have been using the Tanfog (Witness) 1911 for about three years now as my single stack comp gun and have been very impressed. It was surprisingly tight when I got it and has stayed that way since. Accuracy is very acceptable and is as good as others if not in some cases better than other high cost 1911's.

The only work I did on mine was to add an adjustable sight, that is personal preference though, and also did some work to lighten the trigger which is not flash out of the box. Really the trigger is the only thing you probably need to do anything about otherwise it will do you very well and at a reasonable price compared to the cost of other 1911 models in NZ!! Hope this helps.

[45 Gold team feeding/ejection issues]

The pistol is in .45, I am usually using round nose 230gr lead, loaded with 5.6gr 231 and a 14# spring. I have run as low as 4.0gr 231 with a 12# spring with the original barrel and slide. Today I was able to get to the range and test it, experienced several stoppages, all related to the empty case not getting away. I had a partner along and had him watch while I was shooting and the empties are hitting the Double-Alpha 3n1 C-More mount. The mount is nicked up underneath from the brass hitting it. I believe that the empties are hitting the mount and reflecting back in the ejection port. So the question is how do I profile the ejector to throw them out and not up?

The throating worked and the pistol actually fed semi wad cutters, so the polishing and porting I think were a success. I am really supprised how ruff everything is compared to the original, I guess that's how you keep the pricing reasonable.

I had a similar scenario with my .45 with a low scope mount similar to the DAA one you are using. Couldn't get the thing to stop hitting the mount so in the end I made one which sits the bottom of the mount up a little higher and the problem went away!!

[henning competition magwell]

Ha ha. Thanks for the input. I've been having issues durring reloads where the mag seems to bind around the magwell entrance. Did you have this issue? Was it fixed with the new mag well?

I never used factory bases with the Henning magwell as was using the Henning bases for sometime before putting the Henning magwell on and have never had any issues since putting it on.

I agree with Nealio that the Henning magwell makes the grip more comfortable but I personally found it also helped with the mag changes, a much bigger target. Also I was obviously lucky with mine as it fit very snug and lined up almost perfect and only needed to give the frame/magwell a very very light file and sand to blend it.

[henning competition magwell]

I was wondering who is running one and how you like it. Is it worth 125? Are there any comparison pics of factory vs hennings magwell.

Thanks

In simply terms, bigger, faster,nicer!!! Worth 125 to me. Hope that helps!!

[What was this EAA Carry Comp setup for?]

According to the Tanfoglio catalogue from 1997-98 the Carry-Comp was "specially made for speed and action shooting...."! That is as specific as it gets.

As a matter of interest, the Carry-Comp and it's higher end option the Professional Defence both disappeared from the Tanfoglio catalogues in around 1999-2000 however the kit to make up one of these was still available from sometime after!!

[Looking to make 11 round .45 Mags]

I talked to EAA today and they said as soon as they get the new .45 mags I can send mine in and get the new style. Those don't have dimples, so hopefully I can run my big base pads with the Grams followers.

That's good news, hopefully that will sort out the issue and give you the extra rounds!!

I tried the Grams followers but were a no go as I found they would pop out of the top of the magazine if it was empty and got dropped. How did you get over this or was this never an issue in your mags?? I am presuming you are just using the standard Grams followers.

[Looking to make 11 round .45 Mags]

What followers and springs are you using and how many coils??? Also do your mags have the dimples at the bottom of the mags??

These are the Tanfoglio made mags. They lack support on the front of the round after 10 rounds just like all the other Tanfoglio made mags.

I tried stock followers with a Grams 11 coil spring, stock follower with an 11 coil Wolff spring, and a Grams followers with 11 coil spring.

I wish I had bought the Mec Gar mags. I'm trying to get these exchanged with some good mags from EAA.

Mine are Mec Gar mags but have had them for many years so not sure if they are the same as the factory ones you have. Mine had dimples at the bottom which I had milled out and the used the factory follower with the legs trimmed and the spring that came with the mag. Once I had trimmed the follower legs and added the extended base pad, I get 13 rnds and no feed problems or jams!!!

I have also tried using the factory aluminium basepad that came with my .40S&W Limited and by just changing the base pad can get 11 rnds and again no issues.

Maybe I just got lucky with my set up!! Hope you are successful getting replacements from EAA, the .45 is a great pistol and alot of fun!!

[Looking to make 11 round .45 Mags]

Well I threw my H-141's on my .45 mags tonight and I couldn't get them to feed if I put more than 10 in there. So I guess I will just use a "barney" mag instead if starting with 11 in the mag.

The only problem with using the H-141 extensions is that I would need to buy longer springs, so the cost really adds up.

What followers and springs are you using and how many coils??? Also do your mags have the dimples at the bottom of the mags??

[Looking to make 11 round .45 Mags]

Henning has a pretty good return policy. It's how I got my 520's when I originally ordered 500's and discovered the 500's don't work too well with the magwell. I'd go with the 620's. I suspect they will hang out below the magwell enough to give you more than enough to seat them, as well as some purchase to pull them out in case of a jam. For $5 more, though, you could go with the H141 and not even worry about it.

If the mag length is not important, I would agree and go for the H141. My .45 mags are setup with the H141's and I am running 13 in the mag and there is plenty of room past the magwell!!