Hi folks - I'm an absolute newbie here; this is my first post. I found the forum searching for anyone with an EAA witness .45 who might shed some light on a curious problem.
I've had this pistol since buying it new in November, 1996. I doubt I've put more than 500 rounds through it, and it's spent most of its time in my safe. A little while ago, I decided to exercise it a little, and I found one (of three, original) factory magazine that caused 100% failures to feed. The other two mags are 100% function. As far as I knew, this was a perfectly functioning sidearm, the last time I used it.
Upon inspection, I discovered that the two working mags have a small piece of spring wire floating above the base-plate of them, and the one that doesn't work does not have this wire. Swapping the wire onto the non-functioning mag makes it function flawlessly! And, the mag I took it off of stops functioning. Clearly, the mags need this wire to work, and I must have lost one of the wires "way back when". Clearly, the wire keeps the mags from going an extra ~0.05" up into the grip, and that small amount is the difference between function, and no function.
Here's a photo of a mag with the wire (left), one without, and the actual wire between them...
![]()
I went to EAAs website and looked up a parts diagram, and whatdya know, there's NO piece of spring steel wire shown. I'm wondering now if these mags were seconds, and EAA discovered a cheesy way to make them work. I've written EAA, to no avail.
Anybody heard of this curious problem before?
Thanks!
I've had this pistol since buying it new in November, 1996. I doubt I've put more than 500 rounds through it, and it's spent most of its time in my safe. A little while ago, I decided to exercise it a little, and I found one (of three, original) factory magazine that caused 100% failures to feed. The other two mags are 100% function. As far as I knew, this was a perfectly functioning sidearm, the last time I used it.
Upon inspection, I discovered that the two working mags have a small piece of spring wire floating above the base-plate of them, and the one that doesn't work does not have this wire. Swapping the wire onto the non-functioning mag makes it function flawlessly! And, the mag I took it off of stops functioning. Clearly, the mags need this wire to work, and I must have lost one of the wires "way back when". Clearly, the wire keeps the mags from going an extra ~0.05" up into the grip, and that small amount is the difference between function, and no function.
Here's a photo of a mag with the wire (left), one without, and the actual wire between them...
I went to EAAs website and looked up a parts diagram, and whatdya know, there's NO piece of spring steel wire shown. I'm wondering now if these mags were seconds, and EAA discovered a cheesy way to make them work. I've written EAA, to no avail.
Anybody heard of this curious problem before?
Thanks!
