I was really wanting something in .38 Super after reading about them from back in the heydays of bank robbers and Gmen . Was looking at a Colt , but my FFL talked me out of it . Said if it was him , he'd buy a EAA Tanfoglio . Ended up buying a Stock III Witness . You want to talk about an accurate piece , this thing is way better than it's owner , I can't do it justice , but I have fun trying . I would love a S&W in .38 Super , but they are few and far between and very pricey . Anybody else have one ?

I used to own a stock TZ-75 back in the 90's. It was an excellent pistol in every way. I don't own one any longer but do know acouple of buddies that hav and swear buy them.
Enjoy yours!

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Dave

I have owned two; a full size and a compact, both in 9mm. They were excellent pistols.

All of my .38 Supers were Colts, with one being a Colt upper on a stainless Essex frame.

S&W made a 1911 Doug Koenig edition .38 Super.

I own two.

A mid 1990’s 9mm P19 CZ75 clone fitted with a single action only trigger that was chambered with a worn out reamer. I have had it re-reamed twice and the leade is still not right. It also shot low with everything I could find. I had a higher Bull Cherokee rear sight fitted and still had to file down the front sight more than I wanted to.

The trigger was awful. I finally pulled it down and polished it up and it is now much better, but still nowhere near my 1911’s. It now resides in a carbine frame permanently. It really needs an enhanced trigger, hammer and sear cradle to get the full potential from this gun.

My other Tanfoglio, purchased in late 2018, is a Witness 1911 45 Custom. From the box it had a good trigger. I polished the internals and it is now great. The quality of the trigger parts was such that it only took half the time I would usually spend giving an EGW trigger replacement set a polish before installing.

Rear sight adjustments are a little course. Those on my SA and Kimber 1911’s are much finer, but it is still good enough to place 3 out of 5 rounds touching at 15 meters from a standing freestyle position if I do my part.

The best thing about the .45 Custom was its price. With extended slide release, ambi safety and adjustable sights it was under the retail of the next closest 1911.45 with standard controls and fixed sights.

I would happily buy another modern Tanfoglio.

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View from down under

You have chosen Wisely

Congratulations

I have found the 38 Super to be especially accurate in most pistols that are chambered for it

At the moment I have several Tangfolios, and I have been shooting others for decades

When EAA was located down in OpaLocka Florida, the gang over there used to shoot IPSC at my Uncle Hal's range. So we all had a good relationship with them. Back in the day they set me up a pair of pistols. It must have been the late 1980s that they built two these for me

One is 45ACP and the other is 38 Super

Since then I have added 3 chambered in 10MM Auto. One is an Elite Match, one is an Elite Limited and the third is a Witness Hunter

I also have a second Elite Match in 45 ACP. It is one of the older ones that was equipped with the Super Sight on the rear

I was not overly thrilled when they switched the rear sight on the Elite Match. I really like that Super Sight, which is their Bomar copy. Most of the newer pistols have added rails to the frames, this is another feature I am not fond of

However, the Elite Match is probably one of the best values in a quality firearm these days

They are all superb auto loaders.

Colbybruce , I have only seen one of those Doug Koeneg 1911s in .38 Super . It was here on the forum , I don't think it lasted a couple of hours .
Didn't they make a M686 in .38 Super also ?

Yes,
a 686 and a 627

I’ve got one in 10mm that is accurate and feeds everything. It’s just a Plain Jane Model I picked up for $350, IIRC. Only hitch I ever had was a case head separation that blew powder and brass in my face and pitted my shooting glasses pretty good (thank goodness for those), but I think it was just a weak case. After I extracted the pieces, I went right back to shooting it. You can easily change calibers and I’ve often thought of getting a .38 Super barrel and mags for it.

Attached Images

73A89B81-7CE7-4442-B582-743EA3EDB1F9.jpg (94.9 KB, 22 views)

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USS Brewton FF1086
SWCA#3597

I used a elit match for some years before giving up uspsa . I was gitting to old and slow !! I sold it to a buddy and he still runs it some 8 years later . I did a few upgrades that to henningshootsguns site , at least that was the site back then . Accurate , great trigger buy HEAVY so not a carry gun and why I sold it when I stopped matchs Mine was a 40sw , easy to make major PL

I have stated before with conviction and hands on experience about the superb quality and performance of the Tanfoglio semi-autos. They are just a lot of bang for the buck. I competed with one in 40 S&W for several years while shooting Police Competition events. One of my favorite plinking handguns is a 45 acp frame with a 22 LR slide. It is very accurate and reliable. I think the whole Tanfoglio line of handguns is very much under appreciated.

Have an Elite Match in 10mm - great gun.

Also have a 686 in 38 Super that is dying to get to the range...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a TZ-75 from a ways back. It has a very nice SA trigger and a smooth but fairly heavy DA trigger. It has been a very nice pistol over the years. I like it so much I bought a CZ SP01 Shadow a few years back.

I have a TZ-75 Series 88 that I bought shortly after they were debuted. I found mine to have poorly regulated sights, it shot quite high at 25 yards. Mine also had problems with reliable ejection. I found that it was reliable with European made ammo, +P ammo, and NATO spec ammo, but most U.S. non+P ammo would occasionally stovepipe jam, especially on the last round. For U.S. non+P ammo I swapped out the factory 14 pound recoil spring for a 12 pound spring and it proved to be very reliable.

It was and is quite accurate. The double action pull is a little heavy, but smooth. The single action pull has a fair amount of creep, but is smooth and pretty light for a mass produced pistol.

I have a .45 Single Comp it has been 100% reliable. 0 malfs in the years I’ve owned it. All steel and well made. The only negative I’ve heard was they have or had a guy in CS or their Head Smith or whatever he is or was that needs help in his people skills department. The only time I used their CS department was to order a replacement rear sight I dinged. No drama, had it in about a week. I’ve always wanted a .38 Super myself. If I ran into one made by Tanfoglio and had the dough I wouldn’t balk. My only “complaint” would be the finish on mine is a dull or matte black. I prefer polished blue but since I knew what I was getting when I bought it I can’t complain about it. They are nice guns.
Speaking of Tanfoglios, my mags have a spring steel wire formed around the outside of the mags. The wire slides off and doesn’t seem to affect functionality if removed but it appears to be factory since it fits the mag with no play. Any idea of its purpose?

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Who are those guys?

I've never dealt with their customer service, but I have heard it varies tremendously. I doubt I'll ever have to deal with them, my TZ-75 is so old I doubt they would service it nor have spare parts.

I had a TZ75 in the 1980s and enjoyed shooting it. I did some work on the trigger and stippled the front of the frame if I remember correctly. Later I needed something else more and sold it. CZs were unobtainium in those days.

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Made it, Ma! Top of the world!

My 38 Super Witness is on my hip whenever I plan on wandering off the beaten path. It's a hog when carrying 34 rounds (extra mag included) but it's nice knowing I have plenty of stopping power if needed. Super accurate with my 147 grain XTP reloads.

Attached Images

witness.jpg (104.9 KB, 17 views)

As I've said many times, US spec 9mm is generally downloaded weak sauce mandated by SAAMI to protect the mighty .45. (...and that's my conspiracy theory for this week)

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Release the Kraken

I have two of them and my thoughts align nearly word for word with most of what colt_saa posted above. My first one was a purchase that I hemmed and hawed for a long, long time over -- back in 2011, I wanted to buy my first BETTER 9mm gun. By that, I wanted something that:

--was more than "combat accurate"
--had a single action trigger that was noticeably better than typical
--had decent sights that would promote small group shooting rather than roadblock it

Now I am a Smith & Wesson semi-auto pistol guy through and through, so please don't take this the wrong way when I say... I was looking for a 9mm pistol that would easily distinguish itself beyond a box stock Beretta 92, a S&W 5906 or 39-2 or any of the piles of Tupperware 9mm guns.

That's what I wanted and I wanted to accomplish that without going the 9mm-chambered 1911 route.

The Tanfoglio "Witness Elite Match" was the answer for me. More than anything, before I bought it, it was the single action trigger feel that made me take the leap. The sights don't offer as good a picture as a Bomar or that Super Sight that colt_saa pointed out above, but it works. The accuracy of this particular pistol is simply beyond what I think most folks would believe when I say it.

In the years that followed, I have been fortunate in that heavy hours at work has afforded me a little more luxury in gun purchases, and I have since added many top-drawer 9mm-chambered guns but yet, I have not been able to eclipse this Tanfoglio with any of those guns so chambered in 9mm.

This is a pistol that I got absolutely brand new for $559 after shipping and FFL. That's $559 in my hands in 2011 money for the 9mm that continues to out-shoot my 952's, PPC-9, 3566 Limited, SD-9, Pro Series 9mm, etc etc on and on, so on and so forth. Some might suggest that my life is missing a Sig P210, but I doubt I'm going to take that route.

Where firearms are concerned, my passion in this life is Smith & Wesson Performance Center Limited target semi-automatic pistols. These guns are the epitome of why I own and love handguns. That my totally 100% box stock Tanfoglio continues to distinguish itself among them is the highest praise that I can offer.

Bought a TZ75 a number of years ago. Bought from a guy who needed the money and said he hardly shot it. From the looks of it it wasn’t used and abused and was like in new condition. Seemed to be a very well built handgun. It’s still in the safe and I never take it out?
I got a good deal on it and I liked the wood grips that were on it!

I wanted to add one more angle to the Tanfoglio discussion that is separate from my experience and love for the ones that I own, so it's in it's own post.

I get perturbed when these guns are brushed off as cheap copies of the CZ-75. I have to say this because it makes me curious if the folks who constantly elect to do that have a true picture of why the Tanfoglio is precisely that -- a copy of a CZ-75.

Fact of the matter is that the basic CZ-75 is unequivocally a fantastic design. This isn't a subject that is argued much. Love the gun or maybe don't even like the gun, you'd be a moron to try and argue that this isn't a phenomenal design.

Well, that's what gun folks thought back in the early 80's also, but the CZ-75 was locked away behind the iron curtain. This was a fantastic design that nobody in the free world could get. The Brothers Tanfoglio saw the genius and went after the design and that's how these guns were born. Some guys in the early 1990's were paying (comparatively) a high price tag for the Springfield P-9 pistol, compared to a 1911 or any of the other domestic 9mm guns on the market at that time, because the CZ-75 design was that good. The Springfield P-9 wasn't made by Springfield. It was an imported and re-branded Tanfoglio that Springfield sold for not cheap money.

These days, CZ and even more so, CZ-USA brings us fantastic products all across the board, these guys are one of the top gunmakers in the business world wide and for darn good reason. And yes, the Tanfoglio exists as a "cheaper copy" of the CZ in today's world.

But I don't think a lot of folks who discount the Tanfoglio on the whole have much idea of the history of them and probably don't have much experience with them. Tanfoglio is very successful in European competition circles, even if they don't have a huge following in competition in North America.

I don't think it untrue to call them a "cheap copy" of a CZ-75, I just think it's an overly critical opinion that doesn't say much, if anything, of the pure success of the very same cheap copy.

The Israeli Mossad certainly got a lot of fantastic service from the Tanfoglio TZ-75 pistol over many years.

I've owned several through the years. My current truck-console gun is a TA75 I got cheap -- someone had stored it on some bad surface and one side was extremely rusty. It's ugly even after a thorough cleanup, but like every one I have ever owned it is accurate, reliable and rugged.

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Pisgah

You got your revolver answer.

I know where three DK .38 Supers are. Honestly, I don’t believe any of the owners will sell them, but send me your contact info and I will email the owners and ask.

I had one years ago and sold it back to the distributor because I was more into S&W Collecting. It was a mistake and I should have just set it aside, but I recalled buying a Colt Trooper (not a MK) and had that for years.

I really liked it. I am planning to get another one sooner or later--within a year.

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Rather be outdoors