.40 Witness feed issues

[gittist]

I have an EAA/Tanfoglio .40 caliber full size witness. It has issues feeding both factory and hand loaded ammo (seems more so for factory). The loaded rounds will either jam into the top of the breech or stick straight up through the ejection port; I don't seem to have the nose dives that others have. . I have pics but they are too large to upload here and I don't remember how to reduce them :-(. I tried loading the rounds up to longest they could be and still fit in the magaizine but the third or fourth round jammed. I have a 9MM conversion for this pistol and as of yet it loads the 9MM fine. Help??

[mike_pinto]

Oh yes. Ye old feed lips too wide problem. I have been fighting mine for quite some time. Make sure you can't lift the round straight up through the feed lips with very little pressure. If you can, the lips need tuning.

[J-Ho]

definitely try different mags. Sounds like mike is right.

[olp73]

I have an EAA/Tanfoglio .40 caliber full size witness. It has issues feeding both factory and hand loaded ammo (seems more so for factory). The loaded rounds will either jam into the top of the breech or stick straight up through the ejection port; I don't seem to have the nose dives that others have. . I have pics but they are too large to upload here and I don't remember how to reduce them :-(. I tried loading the rounds up to longest they could be and still fit in the magaizine but the third or fourth round jammed. I have a 9MM conversion for this pistol and as of yet it loads the 9MM fine. Help??

Is it made before 2004? If so, CHANGE THE MAG RELEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I promise you this will take care of ALL your feeding problems. The difference is night and day!! since it works in 9mm I assume this is a small frame?

http://henningshootsguns.com/tech/tech.tan...magrelease.html

[gittist]

UPDATE with photos.

The sticker on the Tanfoglio box says EA40wonder2005. I think I have a large frame. When I take the base plate off of the magazine I get the deminsions that the Henning site equates to a large frame. One problem that I do have when shooting the 9MM conversion is that it goes to slide lock with one round remaining in the mag. It looks like the follower is activating the slide lock lever.

Also the spring within the .40 cal magaizines often gets in the 'crack' between the follower and the strip that runs the length of the mag (picture).

Other than the one photo that says staged (that happens too), they were actual pictures of feeding problems. I also get malfunctions where the round is high and parallel to the breech, and the round headpsaces on the breech face.

Even though I have a 2005 manufactured pistol I believe it has the old style mag release.

Past and future advice appreciated.

[Mo Hepworth]

I had similiar problems. I made sure the mag was not spreading out too much at the lips,(this may solve the stove pipe issue).....I also trimmed the follower so it still works,...but shortened the shelf (where is contacts the slide lever),...I used a box cutter, and cut straight across. I also sanded down the engagement surface on the slide lever,..both sides. This solved my premature slide lever locking back. You have to test it while you are removing material.

In limited you probably could just get a Henning slide lever (so it does not lock the slide back at all),...but for Limited 10 you want this to work. I would try removing about 1 mm from the shelf first.

[Mo Hepworth]

UPDATE with photos.

The sticker on the Tanfoglio box says EA40wonder2005. I think I have a large frame. When I take the base plate off of the magazine I get the deminsions that the Henning site equates to a large frame. One problem that I do have when shooting the 9MM conversion is that it goes to slide lock with one round remaining in the mag. It looks like the follower is activating the slide lock lever.

Also the spring within the .40 cal magaizines often gets in the 'crack' between the follower and the strip that runs the length of the mag (picture).

Other than the one photo that says staged (that happens too), they were actual pictures of feeding problems. I also get malfunctions where the round is high and parallel to the breech, and the round headpsaces on the breech face.

Even though I have a 2005 manufactured pistol I believe it has the old style mag release.

Past and future advice appreciated.

got a picture of the rounds inside the mag,...but outside the gun. (so we can see how high the rounds are)

[RiggerJJ]

Eric Graffel reccomends round nose bullets for Tanfos... just a thought? I know they helped with mine.

jj

Edited July 4, 2009 by RiggerJJ

[vous]

Have you also tried longer OAL bullets? From the pics yours look reasonably short around factory length but from experience the Tanfoglio especially in large frame 40S&W prefers longer OAL. I load mine to 1.175" OAL but know others here load to slightly different lengths from 1.17" to 1.20".

I see from the pics that you have the 40 mags with the insert which will probably mean these longer lengths won't fit so might have to get a non-insert mag to test.

Also you definitely have the old mag release looking at you pics!

[hardluk1]

vous i am just a weekend shooter and right now shoot only factory loads ,georgia arms. I have not had trouble with standard OAL in 1500 rounds but did see right off when two new mags were bought to go with my 40 witness match that they did not carry the rounds in the mags at the same angle as the one mag that came with the pistol. Both mags gave trouble at home just chambering a round and i tuned them to set the nose of the rounds parallel with both the one stock mag and the tops of the mag openings,( the angle thati s). Used a small brass hammer and plyiers. Worked great scents, bought two more and did the same thing to them. I do shoot at a monday night indoor match. Also bought a 9mm conversion and had two adjust one of three mags but never had trouble at the range after around 1200 rounds. I have seen both nose high and low on rounds in the mags between the 2 calibers and 8 mags i do have. Had some old 1911 issue junk years ago so the first thing you did was look for what could be problems. It was always the mags.

Edited July 5, 2009 by hardluk1

[gittist]

July 9, 2009 update.

Traded a few emails with Henning Walgreen. Ordered a new styl;e mag relase from him and put in in today. Had to sand down the top part of the magazine bottom pad so mag release would fully engage. Put problem rounds in what I thought was a problem magazine and no malfunctions. After I shoot a couple hundred I'll update again.

thanks for the input.

[CHA-LEE]

Those failures look exactly the same as when the magazine feed lips get too wide on my magazines. Make sure that the Magazine feed lips are not more than .385 - .390 inch wide when measuring between the feed lips. If they are wider than that the rounds will slip past the feed lips when feeding and cause this exact problem. A good visual test of the feed lip width is to load up the magazine and compare the ramp angle of the bullet case to the angle of the feed lips. They should both be at the same ramp angle. If the bullet case is pointing up at a steeper ramp than the magazine feed lips then they are too wide. If the bullet case is pointing down at a shallower ramp than the magazine feed lips then they are too narrow.

I have also seen it where the rounds will start to nose dive but hit the feed ramp and bounce upwards past the chamber. Again, with a fully loaded magazine by hand push out the rounds one at a time. The cases should slide across one another without catching. If there is any catching between the cases then it will nose dive when it attempts to feed in the gun.