Majorly cracked 9mm Witness slide

[Will B. Droopy]

Hi All,

Well, I cleaned and oiled my large frame Tanfoglio 9mm Witness, just as I always do after our local USPSA shoots. But when I placed the slide back on the frame I heard this odd metallic "click" sound that I had never heard before when reassembling this pistol, but thought nothing of it.

Then, a few minutes ago I looked down at my gun, and did a double take. Below is what I saw (I may have been only a single 9mm round away from having the rear of the slide embedded in my skull. Ouch!)

Are cracked slides a common problem with Tanfoglio, even with little pipsqueak 125PF 9mm rounds?

PS: I have, at most, put 2000 rounds through this gun of standard velocity factory ammo (I do not reload, nor do I ever use reloaded cartridges from ANY source, nor do I use +P or +P+ ammo).

[olp73]

...................I have heard of cracked Tanfoglio slides before, but never anything like this. Have you contacted Tanfoglio? I think you should! If they had a bad batch you might save someone’s scull.

It is definitely covered by warranty!

[pivoproseem]

THose round top style slides have been known to crack, but usually the 10mm....

Send it back to EAA, or buy a "Match" slide/barrel for your gun as they are sturdier.

...................I have heard of cracked Tanfoglio slides before, but never anything like this. Have you contacted Tanfoglio? I think you should! If they had a bad batch you might save someone’s scull.

It is definitely covered by warranty!

[Nealio]

Send it back and try to get a square slide

[Will B. Droopy]

Send it back and try to get a square slide

No, I have completely lost faith in Tanfoglio . Even though the Witness is a beefy, well constructed pistol, I have read too much about frame and slide cracking on these models, both the small and large frame (even though others had "only" cracks on the ejection port area of the slide, which isn't nearly as long or as dangerous as my particular slide fracture).

I've always had great luck with Taurus , and since I have a bunch of 9mm ammo in my closet, and I am a recoil-sissy, I think I will go with this almost unknown, but tried-and-true, design called the "1911" ;-), but in 9mm:

[Nealio]

Was it a steel or polymer frame?

[rvb]

I've always had great luck with Taurus , and since I have a bunch of 9mm ammo in my closet, and I am a recoil-sissy, I think I will go with this almost unknown, but tried-and-true, design called the "1911" ;-), but in 9mm:

Consider an STI vs the Taurus... then you are eligible for contingency $.

-rvb

[warpspeed]

WOW ! That is crazy. My guess is they will want it back ASAP to see just what caused that. it could have gone very badly. Glad no one was hurt.

[Will B. Droopy]

Was it a steel or polymer frame?

All steel; I don't like plastic guns :

[JThompson]

Looks almost like the spring was to long....

JT

[Will B. Droopy]

WOW ! That is crazy. My guess is they will want it back ASAP to see just what caused that. It could have gone very badly. Glad no one was hurt.

Thank you! My wife freaked when she saw the huge crack in the slide, knowing it would have been a right-eye ending experience for me if I had fired just one more shot.

The gun shop people are always very accommodating , but I suspect that they think I am somehow at fault for this, since I also had TWO Charles Daley Tactical shotguns I had to return to them a year or so ago due to a defective part in both guns.

However, the gun store folks (who seem to have the patience of Job!) really didn't even want to look at the cracked Witness slide, and certainly didn't appear to realize the seriousness of this issue, even though the crack had now propagated completely through-and-through to the very edge of the slide overnight .

The only thing keeping the slide together was the metal directly under the ejection port.

I picked the Taurus 9mm PT1911 up from them yesterday as a replacement, and so far so good...

-Bill

[Idahokid]

I have a poly 9mm on lay a way.maybe I should rethink.

[Skydiver]

Which slide style? The older style without the current "scalloped" profile doesn't have any issues as far as I know.

[Nealio]

I have a poly 9mm on lay a way.maybe I should rethink.

if its the "Carry" model, you will be fine (it has the heavy square slide). If its the base line model with the rounded slide then you might see some issues if you shoot it a lot.

Its not like every new gun self destructs after a few hundred rounds. Mostly the guns that have issues are the .40 and 10mm guns with the round slide. I think guys don't put the right spring in them and they crack on occasion.

My guess is the gun this thread had a bad slide and wasn't "normal" for even the round slide guns.

[cbr6864]

After reading about all these cracked slides im really starting to regret buying my witness

Is there anything common tying all the cracked frames together example finish, round vs square slide, cal. , full size vs compact?

Edited March 20, 2012 by cbr6864

[Nealio]

After reading about all these cracked slides im really starting to regret buying my witness

Is there anything common tying all the cracked frames together example finish, round vs square slide, cal. , full size vs compact?

It is very rare that the square profile slides crack. The only ones I have heard of cracking were 10mm ones, and IMHO they were probably didn't have a stiff enough spring. There are a lot of guys on this forum with square slide guns that have over 15,000 rounds through them in .40, 9mm, .38 Super, etc.

The round slides have a higher percentage of cracking, but even then I don't think many of the slides crack. There are a LOT of these guns around. Most likely the culprit of cracking is shock loading of the slide due to the spring bottoming out or bad metallurgy of the slide metal.

If the slide does crack you can get it warrantied. If you bought the gun through Davidson's, its guaranteed for life. If all else fails, you can get a new slide for $150, and that slide is the square profile.

What model do you have?

[Will B. Droopy]

As one of the posters that had a 9mm Witness slide crack on me, I investigated this problem a bit Online, and from my understanding only the steel framed Wonderfinished slides seem to crack.

And I would guess (not worth much, I know) that the polymer frame of your particular model will absorb so much slide energy that the slide should be OK. (Even I would trust such a gun, but I have made it a rule now to only buy 9mm CZs and 1911s, which (especially the 1911) are way overbuilt for the "pipsqueak" 9mm cartridge).

Can't say as I ever really fell in love with the EAA like I do did with my 1911 and it's many variants, but the Witness was by far the most accurate pistol I had ever shot -- almost like a friggin' lazer!

But what bugged me the most about all this, is that NO ONE seemed to care about the slide crack, and EAA most assuredly never contacted me on any of this after I turned it in. It was almost like they wanted to ignore these issues as "bad for business"...

PS: BTW, just to clarify, my steel Wonderfinish 9mm Witness cracked using 100% FMJ factory target rounds (no reloads or +P), and it was never abused and always babied, and I used only its full strength stock recoil spring.

[david s]

After reading about all these cracked slides im really starting to regret buying my witness

Is there anything common tying all the cracked frames together example finish, round vs square slide, cal. , full size vs compact?

It is very rare that the square profile slides crack. The only ones I have heard of cracking were 10mm ones, and IMHO they were probably didn't have a stiff enough spring. There are a lot of guys on this forum with square slide guns that have over 15,000 rounds through them in .40, 9mm, .38 Super, etc.

The round slides have a higher percentage of cracking, but even then I don't think many of the slides crack. There are a LOT of these guns around. Most likely the culprit of cracking is shock loading of the slide due to the spring bottoming out or bad metallurgy of the slide metal.

If the slide does crack you can get it warrantied. If you bought the gun through Davidson's, its guaranteed for life. If all else fails, you can get a new slide for $150, and that slide is the square profile.

What model do you have?

As one of the posters that had a 9mm Witness slide crack on me, I investigated this problem a bit Online, and from my understanding only the steel framed Wonderfinished slides seem to crack.

And I would guess (not worth much, I know) that the polymer frame of your particular model will absorb so much slide energy that the slide should be OK. (Even I would trust such a gun, but I have made it a rule now to only buy 9mm CZs and 1911s, which (especially the 1911) are way overbuilt for the "pipsqueak" 9mm cartridge).

Can't say as I ever really fell in love with the EAA like I do did with my 1911 and it's many variants, but the Witness was by far the most accurate pistol I had ever shot -- almost like a friggin' lazer!

But what bugged me the most about all this, is that NO ONE seemed to care about the slide crack, and EAA most assuredly never contacted me on any of this after I turned it in. It was almost like they wanted to ignore these issues as "bad for business"...

PS: BTW, just to clarify, my steel Wonderfinish 9mm Witness cracked using 100% FMJ factory target rounds (no reloads or +P), and it was never abused and always babied, and I used only its full strength stock recoil spring.

This drama is showing up on the forum about every 6 weeks. Not big numbers. On a 1911 forum a guy had busted Kimber. They all break, some less than others.

1. Always All-Steel guns, mostly Wonder finish?

2. At least 80% have the round top slide?

When was this style built? Is this the current production Large Frame?

In at least the last several years i've never read about the Current production Witness Elite series ever having cracked slide or frame issues! Why?

[cbr6864]

I started looking around online for "EAA slide cracked" from what I have seen almost all were the base model, Witness wonder finish, rounded slide, 10mm and 40cal. But I did find several 9mm slides cracked, it looks like the witness wasn't designed to run the 40cal and 10mm just too much pressure. I know all firearms have problems but I hate that feeling in the back of your head telling you that you better baby this thing. The accuracy im seeing with my witness stuns me every time I hit the range.

I have a brand new Witness full size steel ill admit the slide is pretty thin in some areas

[david s]

I started looking around online for "EAA slide cracked" from what I have seen almost all were the base model, Witness wonder finish, rounded slide, 10mm and 40cal. But I did find several 9mm slides cracked, it looks like the witness wasn't designed to run the 40cal and 10mm just too much pressure. I know all firearms have problems but I hate that feeling in the back of your head telling you that you better baby this thing. The accuracy im seeing with my witness stuns me every time I hit the range.

I have a brand new Witness full size steel ill admit the slide is pretty thin in some areas

The "feeling in the back of you head telling you that you better baby this thing" has to go Away! Just put a Match Conversion slide kit on and be done with it. Must be a huge difference in the quality of the metal between the Elite Series slides and the Full Size Steel pistols slides.

I run 200rds/mo of 9x23 Winchester factory ammo(1460fps+587ftlbs) thru my Match 9mm(reamed to 9x23) and don't worry about! You can't baby a gun!

[Nealio]

the witness wasn't designed to run the 40cal and 10mm just too much pressure

The guns will run .40, 10mm, and .38 Super just fine if you have the square slide and you spring them properly. That round slide they use is too thin though for a lot of use with the hotter calibers.

[Idahokid]

I have a poly 9mm on lay a way.maybe I should rethink.

if its the "Carry" model, you will be fine (it has the heavy square slide). If its the base line model with the rounded slide then you might see some issues if you shoot it a lot.

Its not like every new gun self destructs after a few hundred rounds. Mostly the guns that have issues are the .40 and 10mm guns with the round slide. I think guys don't put the right spring in them and they crack on occasion.

My guess is the gun this thread had a bad slide and wasn't "normal" for even the round slide guns.

It's the full frame,full size poly,rounded barrel.9mm.Model number 999104.Black barrel.4.5 long.

[cookselk]

I had a 38 super slide crack in the same manner as yours, but it had some 20-25,000 rounds of major through it. Furthermore, in comparing it to my 38 super stock model I noticed that there is a slightly deeper machined "ring" located about where the mouth of the chamber would be, and this is where it cracked. Interestingly, this ring was not present on my stock model but was on the replacement slide.

[gittist]

Another EAA wonder-finish .40 Witness with a broken slide. The thin strip right below the ejection port is broken all the way through. I purchased it in 2007 and think it was a 2005 batch due to the label on the box. I didn't shoot it much b/c of not finding a lot of the brass and the complaining of 3 or 4 people to the right of me on the firing line. I think I put less than 1,000 rounds through it and field stripped it after each shoot.

The weapon was returned to the gun shop that I picked it up from and apparently the online retailer is honoring their lifetime guarantee and shipping a new one. Are the newer ones better?

[johnbu]

Another EAA wonder-finish .40 Witness with a broken slide. The thin strip right below the ejection port is broken all the way through. I purchased it in 2007 and think it was a 2005 batch due to the label on the box. I didn't shoot it much b/c of not finding a lot of the brass and the complaining of 3 or 4 people to the right of me on the firing line. I think I put less than 1,000 rounds through it and field stripped it after each shoot.

The weapon was returned to the gun shop that I picked it up from and apparently the online retailer is honoring their lifetime guarantee and shipping a new one. Are the newer ones better?

My understanding is they redesigned and made the slide too light. Cracks occurred, especially with higher power calibers. They re-redesigned to make it thicker and more robust and cracked slides seems to be mostly if not totally fixed.

Glad they are stepping up and replacing it.