mindcrime Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 I've been shooting production for quite a while now and am thinking of getting into limited. I couldn't find any info using search. I am hoping for opinions regarding the competitive capabilities of the witness limited vs the sti's. I am trying to take into account tunability, reliability, ease of maintenance, price, availability of factory and aftermarket parts along with the general accuracy, recoil control and general application in limited. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pivoproseem Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 Here are some answers... Hennings post about S*i and Tanfos... I've been shooting production for quite a while now and am thinking of getting into limited. I couldn't find any info using search. I am hoping for opinions regarding the competitive capabilities of the witness limited vs the sti's. I am trying to take into account tunability, reliability, ease of maintenance, price, availability of factory and aftermarket parts along with the general accuracy, recoil control and general application in limited. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CocoBolo Posted October 9, 2011 Share Posted October 9, 2011 " I am trying to take into account tunability, reliability, ease of maintenance, price, availability of factory and aftermarket parts along with the general accuracy, recoil control and general application in limited." If that is the actual truth then answer is obvious, the STI. My personal preferece is the STI Edge, that extra weight helps with the flip and recoil. You did not mention Cost and all I have to say on that is Compare the Limited after all the custom work and parts against the Edge with a trigger job. I'd say the Edge would be less expensive, keep your eye on the Forum for used guns, it is that time of year. I've shot with Henning, after the 2010 TX State Limited, we were talking and he truned to me and said my Tanfo is highly modified, and you think my Edge isn't? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mindcrime Posted October 10, 2011 Author Share Posted October 10, 2011 Excellent! Thank guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe4d Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 STI, once set up will out last the EAA, parts are everywhere, and it will hold its value better and it is easier to get magazines that actually work from many different sources. The only advantage the Witness platform has is initial new purchase price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seth Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 Try it from this perspective... I got a phone call from a buddy a few weeks ago. "Come Shoot this weekend"... well I was out of town with nothing more than a 5" STI that's my truck gun and a single 126mm mag. My response was "I have nothing but a gun". His response? I'll loan you mags, ammo, mag pouches and a holster. Try that with a Tanfoglio. I like the Witness. I think you can get a great trigger out of it, it handles well, points nicely and is generally an excellent platform. BUT its not well supported, parts distributors are more scarce than STI parts, and there are FAR fewer folks shooting one. Its nice to have 50 shooters at a match all have spare parts for your gun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 From a price perspective you can have a fully tricked out EAA/Tanfo Limited gun for about $1600 - $1700. To achieve the same thing on an STI/SVI gun you are going to spend about $2500. Then you have to think about the cost of mags. You can get EAA/Tanfo Limited ready (21+1) mags for $95 a piece. You would probably have to pay at least twice that much per mag to get 21+1 STI/SVI mags. When I priced it all out when I started getting a STI/SVI setup for competing in Limited division it was about $1000 - $1500 more expensive to go down the STI/SVI rout. So I chose to go with the EAA/Tanfo setup. As it turns out the shorter slide of the EAA/Tanfo guns is exactly what I need for my big hands to keep from getting slide bite. I can't even shoot an STI/SVI gun now because the slide will chop my hand to pieces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nealio Posted October 10, 2011 Share Posted October 10, 2011 You did not mention Cost and all I have to say on that is Compare the Limited after all the custom work and parts against the Edge with a trigger job. I'd say the Edge would be less expensive, keep your eye on the Forum for used guns, it is that time of year. You can run a Tanfoglio Limited bone stock, as I did all last summer. You don't need to do "custom work" any more than you would on an STI. Does everyone need a $3000 Brazzos STI? Just like with anything, you can dump as much money into stuff as you want, but you don't "need" to. I only have a few hundred bucks worth of hop up parts, which is about the same as every STI I've seen around here (magwell, trigger job, sights, etc). Dropping $1800 on a pistol is no guarantee that its going to run every weekend anyway. I've seen more STI's go home with broken parts than Tanfoglios, so if we want to take our tiny bit of experience and assume that is true for everything, the STI is definitely a waste of money.. Back to the original poster's question. IMHO the Tanfoglio guns are a better "value". They shoot great out of the box, the mags are cheaper, and you can find everything you need as far as gear goes. Do they last as long as STI's? Nobody knows cuz nobody has ever done a head to head test. As far as longevity goes, how long does an STI last anyway? I've heard numbers ranging from 40K to 60K rounds. You should ask CHA-LEE how many rounds he has on his Limited, because I think its up there. Plus like CocoBolo mentioned, you can find smoking deals on the classifieds. There was a tricked out Tanfoglio limited with 5 mags, belt, holster, mag pouches, etc that went for something like $1100 earlier this year, so the deals are not just on STI's. If it were me, this is what I would take into consideration: 1. How much money do you want to spend? 2. Do you like a straight pull (1911) trigger, or a pivot trigger? 3. Do you have large hands? If so you might like the Tanfoglio better, if not then I'd go with an STI. 4. Do you want to just buy what everyone else has, or try something different? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casman Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 (edited) I'll toss another vote for the EAA in the hat! I know a lot of people claim reliability issues with them and I have seen some have problems but no more so than with the S*I variants. Personally I have three Limited guns and all have run beautifully, even when abused severely by grinding them in the moon dust of many of the major 3-gun venues. I have recently switched to the new K-40 and K-9 mags and now even the ammo is easier than the S*Is the new mags run factory length ammo flawlessly and require no tuning at all. The best part of this is, in a pinch you can run to Wal-Mart and grab ammo. An interesting thing about the Tanfo as well is that, as you see above, guys with large hands like the fit. In my case I went to Tanfo because I have short fat fingers and the S*Is bit me in different places and made shooting uncomfortable. The Tanfo fits my hands without having to do any modifications to the grip at all. (Not that I haven’t tried lots of mods; but I'm back to nice simple aluminum grips from Henning.) In the end though, whatever gun you go with make sure it fits comfortably and that YOU think it's the coolest, fastest, most accurate gun on the range and it won't matter what it is. Have fun choosing! Edited October 11, 2011 by Casman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mindcrime Posted October 14, 2011 Author Share Posted October 14, 2011 Thanks everybody. What I like best about these guns is the low bore, they seem like they would be very quick and flat shooting. Plus, everybody has an STI Probably a good thing I suppose, but still... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skydiver Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 (edited) If you like the low bore axis and all metal gun for Limited, the other gun to look at is the CZ Tactical Sport. Finding holsters, mags, parts and accessories for it is easier than finding parts for a Tanfoglio. Personally, though, I love my Tanfoglio's. Edited October 14, 2011 by Skydiver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mo Hepworth Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 (edited) i ahoot a limited custom .40 and a stock 2 9mm. Both work well, and shoot pretty flat. I had an edge and loved it. IT was a tad more reliable than my Limited custom, which has issues whenever the mag lips open up.. SOlution= check your mags often. Edited October 15, 2011 by Mo Hepworth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casman Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 i ahoot a limited custom .40 and a stock 2 9mm. Both work well, and shoot pretty flat. I had an edge and loved it. IT was a tad more reliable than my Limited custom, which has issues whenever the mag lips open up.. SOlution= check your mags often. Better solution now; switch to the the new K40 mags. Much nicer lips! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
latech15 Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I have had both. I now shoot STI's due to the ease of finding parts and gunsmiths. They are much easier to take completely down. There are no teeny tiny pin-pins in the STI. I was always scared when I had my tanfo apart that I would lose one of those tiny parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skydiver Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I have had both. I now shoot STI's due to the ease of finding parts and gunsmiths. They are much easier to take completely down. There are no teeny tiny pin-pins in the STI. I was always scared when I had my tanfo apart that I would lose one of those tiny parts. LOL! The reasoning about lots of small parts is one of the reasons that drove me to go from CZ to Tanfoglio. Although built around the same base design, there is simpler engineering and less tiny parts in the Tanfoglio rather than the CZ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now