FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The Witness P reminds me of a tactical take on a CZ P-01, which isn’t a bad thing. Picking it up out of the box, I was surprised at how pleasant it felt in hand, albeit a little bit top-heavy. Once loaded with 15 rounds of 10mm, though, it was very well-balanced.
I couldn’t help but fidget with the controls since they are so darn big! I could have played with that safety all day, simply flicking it back and forth.
FEATURES
While this isn’t a feature-packed and innovative pistol, its features get the job done. The DA/SA trigger is surprisingly smooth and consistent. While it did feel overly heavy in DA and seemed to have more pre-travel than I expected in SA, it was consistent, and you get used to it.
I read some reviews stating that the trigger edges were too sharp to the point they caused some pain while shooting, but I didn’t experience any of that. It was all good with this specimen. Would it have been nice to not be such an aggressive “hook” shape? Yes, but not every gun can come with a flat-face trigger.
I’m not a fan of manual safeties…at all. They simply add another potential failure point in a time of need. With that said, this safety is easy to manipulate due to its size. The mag release isn’t oversized like the safety, but I had no issues quickly dropping the empty mags out to reload. All the mags dropped freely and without hesitation.
It came with one 10-round mag and two 14-round mags, which saved some time at the range since I pre-loaded them at home. Seconds saved turn to minutes and start to add up! With some decent grip texturing and windage adjustable sights to finish it off, as I mentioned before, it gets the job done.
SPECS
- Caliber: 10mm
- Capacity: 10+1 or 14+1
- Overall Length: 7.3 inches
- Barrel Length: 3.6 inches
- Width: 1.4 inches
- Height: 4.5 inches
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Weight: 28 ounces
RANGE REPORT
My first range trip was where things started to get a smidge sketchy for me. Within my first magazine, I had two failures to feed. Next magazine, I had one. This trend continued with most of the other magazines I put through the Witness P.
Now, I’ll admit I was using only one type of ammo for the entire review since I don’t typically keep a plethora of 10mm on hand, but I still would not have expected to have that many issues. For reference, I was using 200-grain Blazer Brass aluminum case TMJs.
I continued to shoot through the malfunctions, and I wish I could blame my accuracy on them, but I can’t. I would estimate that 95 percent of the time I’m shooting pistols, they are striker-fired semi-autos. So, shooting in DA without much time on a gun always poses a larger than ideal “accuracy curve” for me.
However, as I mentioned earlier, the trigger is smooth and consistent, so once I got used to it, it was smooth sailing. If you’re someone who shoots DA/SA often, you shouldn’t have any problem at all.
PROS & CONS
Pros:
- Smooth DA/SA trigger
- Windage-adjustable sights
- Accessory rail
- Affordable
- Controls are very easy to manipulate
Cons:
- No optic cut
- A few failures to feed
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A tad difficult to rack
FINAL THOUGHTS
If you’re looking to enter the 10mm club but don’t want to spend an arm and a leg, look no further. It seems like 10mm offerings are popping up more and more lately, but many come with a steeper price tag than the Tanfoglio.
The Tanfoglio would make a great training pistol to get your feet wet with 10mm and a fun range piece. As for home defense or concealed carry, the jury is still out, until I could validate the reliability with other ammo.
If I get the chance to shoot this again with other loads, I’ll report back. In the meantime, have you had better luck with certain ammo for this gun? If so, drop which ammo in the comments. I’d love to hear about your experiences with it.
