Tanfoglio Witness 1911 Problems

[Lappo]

I was recently shooting my witness when the hammer got stuck in between the cocked and uncocked positions. I re-cocked the hammer, only thinking that it would have just been a one off, but over the past few days, this same problem has been happening more and more. Also, just to top that, my Co2 capsules are leaking everywhere when pierced into the mag, thus me only shooting about one magazine through a single Co2 cartridge. I think it may just be the magazine that is broken because the BB's do not appear to cycle through the magazine aswell, making me look kind of weird because I am not hitting the target for the simple reason of nothing is ACTUALLY coming out.

Any help would be a life saver!

Thanks in advance!

Jack

[Aardys]

time to buy a new one then

[Baha-Man]

Sorry guys, but these things really are a pile of junk.

As a warning to anyone thinking of buying one, see here:

http://airgunbuyer.com/webnews.asp?ID=757

I used to have the real thing back in the 1980's and still shoot regularly when I go to Arizona so I was interested to have a look at the Tangfolio. After a few moments I handed it back with a laugh. Save your money guys.

By the way, I'm a new boy - joined for the firearm section but do have an air rifle for back garden practice (HW80). Hope there aren't any initiation rituals on here...

[Aardys]

.

By the way, I'm a new boy - joined for the firearm section but do have an air rifle for back garden practice (HW80). Hope there aren't any initiation rituals on here...

bend over

[gingernut]

With respect chaps if your pistols are new and break take them back to the shop.
If they are second hand you have no idea what has been done to them so tough luck.

I have 3 of these pistols and friends have another 3 and we have had no real problems with them.

[bobby1]

I bought one to see what the fuss was , it worked well and was reasonably well made for 79 quid ,
but if a bb came free from the mag it would find it's way into the mechanism and cause jams , also the bb were quite hard to spot without a full strip down ,
not realy my thing though ,

[blooregard]

Sorry guys, but these things really are a pile of junk.

As a warning to anyone thinking of buying one, see here:

http://airgunbuyer.com/webnews.asp?ID=757

Old news dude. These problems only seem to affect the newer batches, the originals are very good for a £70 pistol. If your expecting them to them to be hand machined from steel then your bound to be disappointed, but if you want a cheap and well made replica you can shoot then they are still the best available for the price.

As I am sure others will say as well, mine has now had thousands of BBs through it and it still shoots as well as when I bought it.

Hopefully they return to their original quality, and magazines become freely available.

[PaulR]

The leaking mag can be easily fixed - as you screw in the capsule it can begin the unscrew the valve as it undoes clockwise!

To fix this take the capsule out and look at the brass bit of the valve- there are two slots use these with a screwdriver to turn anti-clockwise until it is tight.

The other problem I can't help you with - I now have two unusable 1911s both fire once and then jam, turn upside and two BBs will fall out. Same thing happens next shot. I have stripped both and even tried interchanging parts - no joy. I now have two static models.

[Freeonthree]

I was recently shooting my witness when the hammer got stuck in between the cocked and uncocked positions. I re-cocked the hammer, only thinking that it would have just been a one off, but over the past few days, this same problem has been happening more and more. Also, just to top that, my Co2 capsules are leaking everywhere when pierced into the mag, thus me only shooting about one magazine through a single Co2 cartridge. I think it may just be the magazine that is broken because the BB's do not appear to cycle through the magazine aswell, making me look kind of weird because I am not hitting the target for the simple reason of nothing is ACTUALLY coming out.

Any help would be a life saver!

Thanks in advance!

Jack

The pistol is not at fault, it's the clip.
The spring in the clip has more pressure than the plastic feeder tube at the top of the clip can endure.
After a while, the feeder tube gets warn prematurely from the excessive spring pressure, and it starts double feeding or worse.
I've spent many hours figuring out the cure for this problem.
First of all, real 1911's hold 7 rounds, and these are replica's, so why not load 7 or 8 rounds, and make it more realistic ?
I've found that if only 7 or 8 bb's are loaded at a time, the pressure on the feeder tube is alot less than if you load 18 bb's, and I believe the feeder tube can handle the pressure involved with 7 or 8 loaded.
If you've been loading 18 bb's since the pistol was new, and the jamming has gotten worse over time, try loading 7 or 8 and see if that cures the problem.
If it still jams, then the damage is done, but all is not lost.
What you can do at that point is remove the spring retaining plate on the bottom of the clip, remove the spring, and cut 2 inches off the bottom (larger end), then reinstall.
Now your pistol with operate dependable, even with 18 bb's, however the auto lockback (when the last bb is fired) will not function.
I now have 2 clips with shortened springs, and they work great.
With any new clips, only load 7 or 8 bb's and you should never have any problems as far as I can tell so far, but im still testing that theory.
So far i've shot alot of rounds, and havn't had a single jamming issue with either of my 2 new clips.
So we have 2 options, 18 rounds and no auto lockback with the clips that have shortened springs, or 7 or 8 rounds with the stock clips,and the pistol fully functioning.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with these wonderful KWC made 1911 replica's, but the clips would be better if they had better quality plastic or even better, metal feeder tubes. I hope this helps alot of people experiencing problems with their KWC made 1911 blowback pistols.

[Freeonthree]

I was recently shooting my witness when the hammer got stuck in between the cocked and uncocked positions. I re-cocked the hammer, only thinking that it would have just been a one off, but over the past few days, this same problem has been happening more and more. Also, just to top that, my Co2 capsules are leaking everywhere when pierced into the mag, thus me only shooting about one magazine through a single Co2 cartridge. I think it may just be the magazine that is broken because the BB's do not appear to cycle through the magazine aswell, making me look kind of weird because I am not hitting the target for the simple reason of nothing is ACTUALLY coming out.

Any help would be a life saver!

Thanks in advance!

Jack

Here's a You Tube video I made about this particular problem...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYYi...ature=youtu.be

[Freeonthree]

That was an earlier video I made, before I knew about losing the auto lockback. Here's my updated video....
At the very end, I accidentally say "no blowback" but I meant to say "no auto lockback".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0vCmWlBdCA