Picked up my two new Witness Matches in .45 yesterday.

[Juicespeare1]

I have to say they look nice.

Not quite as well finished as my CZ97B's, but nice nevertheless.

I got two in sequential serial numbers. One has a slightly better trigger than the other.

One thing I'd like to know, does someone make a slightly longer overtravel screw for the trigger?

It appears I need screws maybe 1/8" longer or so to eliminate all the overtravel.

I made the mistake of unscrewing one from the trigger by tightening it too much. It fell out of the back of the trigger. It was not easy to get it back in, but I finally did.

I now need to find out if my CZ97B magazines will work in my Witness Match models.

Edited April 18, 2008 by Juicespeare1

[Juicespeare1]

Shot both today and have to say I like the pistols, but hate the sights.

I'm gonna look for other sights, any ideas where I can get some new sights?

[UW Mitch]

Try emailing Henning - this is the forum for his shop after all. I know some people have gone to great lengths (and expense) to recut the slide and put Bomars on. I don't particularly like the sights on my Match, but for what I paid for the gun, don't see anything really wrong with them either.

~Mitch

[Jeff686]

Be careful when trying to eliminate all the over travel. I dialed out too much and had a problem with ignition. I'm not sure I understand the details, but it's something about the sear dragging on the hammer and slowing it down. With full power hammer spring, you might not be as sensitive as me, but if you want a nice trigger, lighter springs really help. Reference to the overtravel issue here: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?...p;hl=overtravel

I would suggest checking out Henning's web page. He's got a lot of good trigger parts. I highly recommend the long firing pin.

[R.Elliott]

Be careful when trying to eliminate all the over travel. I dialed out too much and had a problem with ignition. I'm not sure I understand the details, but it's something about the sear dragging on the hammer and slowing it down.

I would suggest checking out Henning's web page. He's got a lot of good trigger parts. I highly recommend the long firing pin.

Right. Hold the hammer back and press the trigger and hold it back against the stop screw. Now ease the hammer forward and see if you can feel the sear bump on the hammer hook or drag past it. If you can, back the screw out a little until it clears. You want the hammer to just clear the sear without forcing it's way past it. This may leave your reset a little longer than you are used to if you are a 1911 guy, but you'll get accustomed to it very quickly and it won't matter at all for your split times. The stock screw should be plenty long for correct adjustment.

Good luck.

[Juicespeare1]

I had no problem with either one the way I set them. No problems with ignition at all. My son and I fired a couple of hundred rounds through each this past Friday. Only had one FTF, not sure why, but not too bad for the first time to fire them.

Be careful when trying to eliminate all the over travel. I dialed out too much and had a problem with ignition. I'm not sure I understand the details, but it's something about the sear dragging on the hammer and slowing it down.

I would suggest checking out Henning's web page. He's got a lot of good trigger parts. I highly recommend the long firing pin.

Right. Hold the hammer back and press the trigger and hold it back against the stop screw. Now ease the hammer forward and see if you can feel the sear bump on the hammer hook or drag past it. If you can, back the screw out a little until it clears. You want the hammer to just clear the sear without forcing it's way past it. This may leave your reset a little longer than you are used to if you are a 1911 guy, but you'll get accustomed to it very quickly and it won't matter at all for your split times. The stock screw should be plenty long for correct adjustment.

Good luck.

[Juicespeare1]

I did adjust my overtravel just a bit on both right now. There was an ever so slight bump and I wanted to eliminate this so I can have a reliable trigger pull for years to come.

Edited May 7, 2008 by Juicespeare1

[Juicespeare1]

BTW, the CZ-97B magazines work great in the Witness Elite Match just fine.

I did notice the feed lips are a bit tighter on the Witness supplied magazines making them a bit harder to load, but having an UP-LULA makes this a non-issue.

The CZ-97B magazines are a bit easier to load due to the less tight space between the feed lips.

Anyhow, it's nice having magazines which work between different firearms. Especially different designs such as the Tanfoglio and the CZ designs.

I recently had to send two Springfield Armory hicap 45's back to SA for warranty service due to frame cracks. They no longer support the hicaps, so I'm getting a deal on two TRP Operators in an exchange + cash deal. That leaves me with 20+ hicap 45 magazines for a hicap SA or ParaOrdnance that I no longer have firearms for.

So ... I'll either have to sell the old hicap mags or buy a PO or hicap RIA or hicap Armscor or something else which can use the old hicap SA mags. In any case I'm happy to have the Witness Elite Match and CZ-97B's due to magazine interchangeability.

[photog]

A button head M3x5mm installed behind the trigger works on my Witness Limited.

See pictures Here: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=64652

I had the same issue with the trigger not resetting without a little more overtravel than i preferred, but I'm really not noticing it it now. Be sure to buff the plunger head and trigger bar, and maybe even the frame where the trigger bar rubs. Then if the trigger is still too heavy, you can slightly tweak the trigger return spring to reduce the pull weight. Just doing those easy things should make the trigger feel much better, at least it did to mine.

[loop]

I received my Tanfoglio match in .45 on Monday (last week) and made a number of changes to it before I fired it. I put in a Henning long firing pin with Wolff Spring, replaced the recoil spring with a 12-pound Wolff, put on Henning's aluminum grips and replaced the front sight with the fiber optic.

With the front sight replaced with the fiber optic I have no complaints about the sights. I did have an issue there. The screws on the adjustable sights were turned all the way down so tight I was afraid to turn them hard enough to break them loose on my first trip to the range. When I got them back to my workbench I had better tools and light and found out what the problem was and it was easy enough to break them loose and make adjustments.

I like the rear sights with the fiber optic front. It's a quick, easy sight picture that I don't have to think about.

Second trip to the range was Sunday. I immediately eliminated my favorite target load because it was shooting two-inch groups at 10 yards. The third load I tried went down to one inch so I set about sighting the gun in. In the process I changed from a 12-pound recoil spring to a 14. I still didn't like the way it felt and went to a 16-pound spring.

Suddenly the groups opened up to eight inches. This is where things got weird. I had two mags of target loads sitting on the bench (the original load I'd eliminated) so I thought I'd shoot them up and go home. My targets have a one-inch diameter red dot in the center and in the first half-dozen rounds of the target loads the red dot disappeared. After two mags any trace of red in the middle was gone.

Changing the recoil spring made the load go from iffy to incredibly accurate.

I have a theory why that happened. The lighter recoil springs allowed more barrel movement before the bullet exited the barrel. The stiffer spring kept the gun locked up until the bullet exited the barrel. That, however, doesn't explain why a round that was delivering excellent accuracy suddenly went wild.

Trigger is a little heavier than I'd like (wife says I'm nuts). Didn't have any trouble with set screws. Very comfortable with settings I made.

Overall, I'm very pleased. The gun is very accurate and I have zero reliability issues.

Will know more Tuesday night after IDPA match.

And, once again, KUDOs to Henning. With his help I was able to address my issues before I even had the gun in hand.