So my girlfriend is a stick n string bear hunter. Me, I’ll pass on that craziness. I told her I’d back her up with my M-1 Garand and a Ruger 454 across my chest with a couple speedloaders and en-bloc clips in my pocket. So we have this black bear hunting trip planned and I wanted a concealable, light weight pistol for our nature walks with our dogs and daily run for cardio. She tells me wolves are a much bigger concern than black bear are…OK…Sounds like I need a 10mm then.

left side

I love the 10mm, great loads out there for 2 legged predators and enough thump with the right load for any 4 legged ones in our neck of the woods, bear included. These wolves travel in packs…ok, we all know that so I wanted a high capacity gun. So no single stack 1911’s. That pretty much leaves me with an EAA Witness or the Glock .

In 2007 coming back from Iraq,  5 of us purchased EAA Witness P-Carry 10mm’s, we got a break for ordering five. It is a sexy ass gun, I do love the way she looks. If there’s one thing in this world I love it’s a light rail that ends when the slide does. Now everybody loved their Witness 10mm but me, reason being my frame cracked almost immediately. Not like blew apart but the trigger plunger and spring cracked right through to the magwell. It was still safe to shoot I suppose (but I didn’t) and the only reason I knew it was suddenly the mags were sticking when they should have dropped free. I went looking and found that plunger busted through the frame. I just had a lemon. It was paper thin there and everybody else’s was much thicker at that part of it. So after a year and a half gone to EAA (if you need EAA customer service it barely exists) they send back a new gun but not the same model. My dealer was cool and just refunded me and sold the new one.frame inside

Now I’m looking for a high cap 10mm and I thought of the P-Carry. I ended up getting one of those original 5 from one of my buddies. And the trouble continues….

First the trigger wouldn’t reset. A quick google search and I figured out to polish up that trigger plunger and the trigger bar. I also cleaned up some plastic “leftovers” from the factory in the frame where the trigger bar slides along. That seems to have fixed that. So with a box of Buffalo Bore Heavy 10mm ammo, which is a 220 grain hard cast flat point at 1200fps, boasting 3 feet of penetration through bone/flesh and 703 lbs of muzzle energy off I went to bust some caps.

The First Shot: Holy Moses!! That stuff is hot! I felt very sorry for the poor girl and her notoriously weak factory springs, a slide with little mass and a 3.6 inch barrel. WAY WAY to much power there for that set of factory springs. Dropped to some light reloads and had a blast rest of the morn. When I got back I ordered a recoil calibration pack from Wolff Gunsprings and some extra power mag springs.

So the springs get here: Recoil springs in 18,20 and 22lbs. Extra strength firing pin springs included. Also I got the +5 and +10% mag springs. I dropped in the 22lb recoil spring and a firing pin spring, with the factory magazine spring it wouldn’t keep up with the slide. Jam, jam, jam. So I put in the +10% and it worked. Minus 1 round but it worked, from 15 to 14 round capacity. In spite of the fact it cycled with the “anti-tank” BuffaloBore ammo I still did not have a good feeling. I really do feel like I’m trying to jam 10 gallons of crap into a five gallon bucket with that heavy load and that compact EAA Witness. I think I made the wrong bear/wolf high cap 10mm choice.

cartridgesI do want to say I dropped to the 18lbs recoil spring and shot quite a bit of quality, fast 10mm self defense ammo. This stuff is still potent but not what I want for Smokey the Bear. I like the gun, I like it alot. It’s accurate, with a bit of easy tweaking it’s been totally reliable. It’s good looking and comfortable to shoot with the loads I think it was meant for. I have a 38 Super Witness, an all steel one I had for years and never a problem. I think had I gotten the full size steel 10mm I would have been much happier, like the 38 super.

So back to the drawing board. I considered this full size 10mm EAA Witness from their custom shop. I think it looks great too but 1000$?? That seems pretty steep for what it is.main-13902 I did what I should have done from the git go, I bought a Glock 20 Gen 3 short frame. Incidentally, my first real Glock. I’ve been a Springy XD guy for years. Got a ton of those things and despite all the petitions I have signed begging them for a 10mm they never saw fit to bother doing what the customers want. Maybe it’s because they were too busy dickin’ up my EMP 9mm and then charging way to much for it. Sound like a grudge? Another article…right side

bb ammoSo that’s the EAA Witness P-Carry 10mm Story….decent gun with a bit of work and a dremel tool. I would say NOT for really heavy loads and probably not for the novice, be prepared to tweek a few things. I do now trust the thing to go bang and it rides in my center console with a full mag of Federal 180 grain hollowpoints. I feel fine knowing it’s there, it groups as good as anything I own and shoots POA, but in the end I think if I get harrassed by wolves or run into a bear I will feel much better with that Glock and the BuffaloBore 220’s.

RIA 10mm, I picked up cheap and rebuilt Wilson Combat/Ed Brown. Nice gun now. Just got the cerakote done 11/18

As always thanks for reading and train often.

By: Cary Kieffer

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Cary Kieffer

USMC Infantry/Combat Veteran/MUESOC/Sniper School - Med Retired LEO w/ 8yrs on job before Iraq wounds caught up with me.

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