USPSA Limited 40SW handgun: CZ TSO vs Tanfoglio Witness Xtreme

[Sean_ht]

Hi guys,

Any suggestion for a limited division handgun below $2k, in 40SW caliber?

I narrow down my options to the following two models:

1- CZ tactical orange 

2- Tanfoglio Witness Xtreme

 

CZ TSO is slightly heavier, which makes the recoil slightly more manageable and almost $200 cheaper. It also comes with a thumb-rest.

Tanfoglio Witness Xtreme has a slightly better trigger and slide cut. But it is more expensive, and I need to buy a thumb-rest, separately for it.

 

Also, in that price range, please give me your suggestions of any other model?

[motosapiens]

why do you think the trigger on the tanfo is better? have you tried a cz? I had a regular garden-variety tac-sport and the trigger was pretty amazing.

 

Personally I would recommend the CZ because I think you'll find better support and parts availability and customer service.

[Rnlinebacker]

Hi guys,
Any suggestion for a limited division handgun below $2k, in 40SW caliber?
I narrow down my options to the following two models:
1- CZ tactical orange 
2- Tanfoglio Witness Xtreme
 
CZ TSO is slightly heavier, which makes the recoil slightly more manageable and almost $200 cheaper. It also comes with a thumb-rest.
Tanfoglio Witness Xtreme has a slightly better trigger and slide cut. But it is more expensive, and I need to buy a thumb-rest, separately for it.
 
Also, in that price range, please give me your suggestions of any other model?

If you're going to commit to limited, my vote is for the TSO. Buy a second eventually that can be your match gun

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

[phoenixsomd]

17 minutes ago, motosapiens said:

why do you think the trigger on the tanfo is better? have you tried a cz? I had a regular garden-variety tac-sport and the trigger was pretty amazing.

 

Personally I would recommend the CZ because I think you'll find better support and parts availability and customer service.

Indeed!

[Sean_ht]

@motosapiens the trigger of a regular Tanfoglio is not as good as CZ TSO. But I have heard the Xtreme version of Tanfoglio has an impressive trigger.

 

 so far the score is 3-0 in favor of CZ TSO.

 

Thank you @Rnlinebacker, @phoenixsomd@motosapiens for the respond.

[MikeBurgess]

you left out plain old Tanfoglio Limited , it doesn't carry the Extreme line premium price and in the end most end up replacing various fire control parts to their preference anyway.

 

That said Tac Sports have ridiculous triggers right out of the box, there is more than one thread on here about how to INCREASE the pull weight on them. the ones I have seen personaly started out brand new about 2lb max and after use were closer to 1.5lb 

[Joe4d]

buy used STI, 5.4 to 6"  well south of 2k and have a better gun cheaper to work on for a longer time and probably still hold its value

[gnoyesiv]

if they still have any dawson had some edges that were right at 2k might look into them. I don't have enough experiance with the other two, just shot each a couple of times from friends.

[IHAVEGAS]

37 minutes ago, Joe4d said:

buy used STI, 5.4 to 6"  well south of 2k and have a better gun cheaper to work on for a longer time and probably still hold its value

I have owned 3 STI 2011's  and 1 TSO, I would buy another TSO (or TS) if going back to limited. 

[Sean_ht]

used STI in good condition is hard to find. The new ones are way over-priced. Also their magazines is way much more expensive than any of the other two brands.

 

@MikeBurgess the plain Tanfoglio limited after customizing it will pass the price-tag of the Xtreme version. The plain one comes with one regular magazine. Just adding three mags and four extended base-pad, plus the henning trigger brings its price to the range of Xtreme. Except the Xtreme has a slide cut. Although, I am not sure for a 40cal handgun lightening the slide is good or makes the recoil-feel worse.

 

[aandabooks]

For Limited I have 3 TSs and a TSO.  Could turn my Czechmate into a 9mm Limited Minor gun if that were a thing.  All have sub-2lb triggers out of the box.  Don't have to spend any money on the trigger system.  I had a STI Edge a couple years ago.  It got sold pretty quickly in favor of the CZs.  I did recently pick up an Atlas Titan but have only shot 1 match and a couple practice sessions with it.  I don't know if it will find a way to stay in the collection but the CZs are not going anywhere.  

[MikeBurgess]

7 minutes ago, Sean_ht said:

used STI in good condition is hard to find. The new ones are way over-priced. Also their magazines is way much more expensive than any of the other two brands.

 

@MikeBurgess the plain Tanfoglio limited after customizing it will pass the price-tag of the Xtreme version. The plain one comes with one regular magazine. Just adding three mags and four extended base-pad, plus the henning trigger brings its price to the range of Xtreme. Except the Xtreme has a slide cut. Although, I am not sure for a 40cal handgun lightening the slide is good or makes the recoil-feel worse.

 

if your shooting USPSA your going to want different mag extensions anyway and mags are pretty cheep. I cant see spending $700 more on a limited than I would a extreme.

and My personal opinion is slide cuts look cool and are over rated beyond that.

[Sean_ht]

@aandabooks I have experience shooting with Atlas. It is a nice 2011 variant. Every single owner of that gun after saying its a nice gun to shoot with, told me it is supper picky on ammo. Furthermore, $100 for a mag is crazy. 

 

For limited division, minor is just waste of time and money. Unless one may just want to have some fun time shooting with the much less snappy 9mm cal. at the limited division, and does not care much about HF.

[aandabooks]

1 minute ago, Sean_ht said:

@aandabooks I have experience shooting with Atlas. It is a nice 2011 variant. Every single owner of that gun after saying its a nice gun to shoot with, told me it is supper picky on ammo. Furthermore, $100 for a mag is crazy. 

 

For limited division, minor is just waste of time and money. Unless one may just want to have some fun time shooting with the much less snappy 9mm cal. at the limited division, and does not care much about HF.

 

I only have about 500 rounds through the Atlas since I got it a couple weeks ago.  I had some old .40 loaded up and have been shooting it.  Have not had any issue feeding.  Gun is really nice and I am the second owner of the gun.  The mags are more than $100 since I bought the Gen II tubes, Grams guts and Taran basepads.  

 

The mags for the CZ platform are $47 mags but need $38 CZCustom extensions and $17 spring/followers.  By the time you set up a CZ TS mag it is $102.

[Darqusoull13]

2 hours ago, Sean_ht said:

Hi guys,

Any suggestion for a limited division handgun below $2k, in 40SW caliber?

I narrow down my options to the following two models:

1- CZ tactical orange 

2- Tanfoglio Witness Xtreme

 

CZ TSO is slightly heavier, which makes the recoil slightly more manageable and almost $200 cheaper. It also comes with a thumb-rest.

Tanfoglio Witness Xtreme has a slightly better trigger and slide cut. But it is more expensive, and I need to buy a thumb-rest, separately for it.

 

Also, in that price range, please give me your suggestions of any other model?

I can tell you I DID go with a CZ TS because of parts availability and support. Both the CZ and Tanfo shoot fine and are reliable. I preferred how the TS grip fit my hand and I already had CZ guns so it made sense for me. All of my CZ's have been extremely reliable and I enjoy shooting and practicing with them. One thing that also played into my decision was the CZ Pro Staff had always been extremely nice to me and other shooters. They went so far as to answer pretty odd questions I had. 

If this is your first foray into USPSA and you're in the US shoot me a PM. I'll make you a deal on a Tac Sport (not orange) I have for sale on the forums (link) for under what it's listed. 

[Sean_ht]

@aandabooks

CZ TSO 40 comes with three mags. So need to buy one extra mag with extension+spring/follower

On the other hand,

Atlans comes with one mag, and need to buy three more mags. Plus, Atlas is way over $2k.

[aandabooks]

5 minutes ago, Sean_ht said:

@aandabooks

CZ TSO 40 comes with three mags. So need to buy one extra mag with extension+spring/follower

On the other hand,

Atlans comes with one mag, and need to buy three more mags. Plus, Atlas is way over $2k.

 

I had the TSs before I stumbled into a TSO I couldn't pass up.  Then the idea of a custom 2011 that is not a STI crawled into my head and I tracked down an Atlas here on the forums.  Way over $2k and it came with 1 mag.  $500 off to SSI and 4 more mags were delivered to the house.  I am in way deep on the Limited division and I still prefer to shoot open.

 

To the OP, at this moment I would recommend that if you are looking to go with the TSO and get a regular TS as a backup.  The one that is linked above is a pretty good price with the mags.  The TS and TSO take the same mags so you'd be ahead that way.

Edited October 16, 2019 by aandabooks

[Sean_ht]

@Darqusoull13 , thanks for the offer. But in that price range, I rather to buy a new TSO. 

 

Maybe I should have mentioned this in the original post. I shoot USPSA in open, production, and optic-carry divisions. I shoot 9mm in all those divisions, and limited is a new experience for me, specially the 40cal.

 

[Sean_ht]

I shoot Tanfoglio in production (stock Xtreme) and open (customized gold team) divisions. In open-carry I used to switch between VP9 and P320/X5, but lately shooting with Tanfoglio platform makes the Sig a bit odd to shoot with (the slide is way too light). 

I started shooting with G34. After switching to Tanfoglio, I feel the polymer frame handguns are too front-light to the extend that it is a bit awkward to shoot with, for the first mag or two. 

 

I have not shot with either Tanfoglio Limited Xtreme, or CZ TSO.

The reason I choose Tanfoglio Limited Xtreme, as one of the option, is consistency between what I already shoot with and the new one. It is basically the same grip/grip-angle, ... , and also it is possible to switch slides (I doubt I will ever need to change caliber, but that is an extra benefit). Since I never shoot or dry fire a Limited-Xtreme, I am not sure how good is the trigger, but assume it is quiet similar to the Stock-Xtreme's trigger (except for the trigger shape).

 

As for the CZ TSO, I checked it in one of the matches I was at. I did not shoot with it,  just dry fire. The trigger is very nice, but what impressed me was the grip and weight balance. Again, I did not shoot with it, so not sure how it handles the 40cal recoil. BTW, this CZ that I checked was in 9mm, so the owner could not give me much info. about the recoil management of a 40cal one.

 

Now with this back-ground information, any suggestion?

 

[Degs]

My vote is for the TSO. Its worth every penny. I've only had it about a month, over 1k down the pipe and 1 match. Not a single issue. I've shot a lot of different sti's (9mm & 10mm) while they are nice i cant justify the price tag. Never shot a 40 2011 so I can't compare the recoil impulse. I also used to have a tanfo elite witness match. Again,  excellent gun but I couldn't find as many parts or holster options. For the money, out of the box the TSO is very hard to beat. 

[rowdyb]

In 40 I've owned a STI Edge and Eagle. An Atlas Titan. Two TS and one TS Orange. If you don't want to play with the gun and just buy parts and shoot I would get the TSO. If Limited was going to be your sole focus I would steer you towards a 2011 variant.

 

In the CZ versus Tangfo the above reasons are all true. Look at buying small parts for them and their year round availability. Look at who responds to your emails fastest. Look at how many are shot by regular people, not the stars.

 

What didn't I like about my TS? The grip. What didn't I like about my TSO? I never felt I got it balanced spring wise. The feeling of how the gun cycled never matched the 2011's feeling.

 

What did I love about my TS and TSO? Well I shoot a CZ a lot in Prod so they are familiar inside. You can get mags that hold 22 of 40 and easily be legal. The grip on the TSO was miles and miles better than the regular TS. (I wear medium gloves) The price of the TSO was awesome and it came with a ton of parts. And when I went to sell it it sold instantly.

[Sean_ht]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and inputs.

I decide to pick the TSO route.

 

[regor]

4 hours ago, rowdyb said:

You can get mags that hold 22 of 40 and easily be legal

 

What setup are you using to get 22? If I trimmed my CZC springs by half a coil I could cram 21 in my mags, but I don't see where you'd get the extra round.

[rowdyb]

4 hours ago, regor said:

hat setup

The first TS I had, actually an used 'ipsc standard', i had very old versions of czc pads and spring/followers and I had two mags that would take 22 reliably. I didn't set them up, they came with my gun and I always kept those mags for as long as I could hahaha.

[Rosswoodford]

On 10/16/2019 at 4:21 PM, Sean_ht said:

used STI in good condition is hard to find. The new ones are way over-priced. Also their magazines is way much more expensive than any of the other two brands.

 

Keep an eye on the classifieds. A couple DVC limited guns went for right around 2k, and a couple of edges were sub 1500 in the last year. I picked up an edge on the forum for 1k.