EAA Witness

[7br]

I know that a person can pick up a conversion kit that has a slide, barrel and other assorted goodies for a Witness. Is all of that necessary or could a person pick up a new barrel, Recoil Spring, and magazine and go from there? Specifically, 9mm to 10mm.

[bobthenailer]

I know that a person can pick up a conversion kit that has a slide, barrel and other assorted goodies for a Witness. Is all of that necessary or could a person pick up a new barrel, Recoil Spring, and magazine and go from there? Specifically, 9mm to 10mm.

no the breach face of the slide is different for eather caliber as well as possibley the extractor and i beleive the 10mm is on the large frame aka 45 acp/38 super and the small frame is for 9mm and 40s&w. my brother has a 9mm with a 40 s&w top end conversion kit.
a recomendtaion install a wolfe heavy duty extractor spring to all whitness slides this is a well known weak point causing jambs

[Trapshooter]

Mark,
I've got a couple, a full size, and a compact in 10mm. I believe (but don't know for a fact) that the breachface width may be different between a 9 and a 10. The barrel OD may be different, and I am sure the spring is much heavier. I picked up a second 40 S&W barrel for the compact so I didn't have to spend so much time searching for the 10mm empties. I'll drag mine out, and get you a couple dimensions if you are interested. Mine are both the older style with the squared off slide instead of the newer more rounded slide.

Trapshooter

[7br]

Mark,
I'll drag mine out, and get you a couple dimensions if you are interested.

Trapshooter

I appreciate the offer, but sounds like this is a no-go. Might possibly buy the pistol later and go with a conversion kit. I think a barrel is about 95 and it looks like a guy can pick up a conversion kit for 200 and change.

Just trying to figure out a bargain. Darned farm stock in me is showing up again.

[wiljen]

Small Frame guns (9/.40) will take kits for 22lr. / 9mm Para / 357 Sig / 40 S&W
If you buy either the 357 Sig or 40 S&W Kit, you can simply buy a barrel for the other of the pair but the 22lr and the 9mm have different breech face sizes.

Large frame guns (10mm/45)

Large frame (.45) is dimensionally almost the same, but has a wider and thicker grip area.
Even though it can step down to the same calibers as the 9/40 frame, it will use different components (and magazines) when doing so.

Large frame kits can be had in:

9mm Para / .38 super /.40 / 10mm / .45 / .22LR (at standard cost)

.357 Sig / 9X21 / 9X23 / .400 Corbon etc. (at additional cost)

Again some (9mm Para / 9x21 / 9x23) and (40 /10 / 357 Sig) use the same breechface and slide while others require the whole kit.

I used to have a witness hunter in 10mm and regret having traded it off. It was a great grip frame for absorbing the recoil of the original 10mm Norma loads.

[sqlbullet]

Wiljen hit it on the head. If you have a 9mm Witness it is very, very likely that it is a small frame. It will accept conversions only for cartridges that have a similar OAL to the 9mm.

Also, the 9mm breechface is significantly smaller (~.020) than the 10mm. It may be possible to go the other way (10mm down to 9mm) with only a barrel, but it is not recommended. The extractor may or may not grab the rim hard enough to reliably extract. It may also cause unusual wear patterns.

Unless you have a large frame, you aren't going from 9mm to 10mm.

[mike in co]

Wiljen hit it on the head. If you have a 9mm Witness it is very, very likely that it is a small frame. It will accept conversions only for cartridges that have a similar OAL to the 9mm.

Also, the 9mm breechface is significantly smaller (~.020) than the 10mm. It may be possible to go the other way (10mm down to 9mm) with only a barrel, but it is not recommended. The extractor may or may not grab the rim hard enough to reliably extract. It may also cause unusual wear patterns.

Unless you have a large frame, you aren't going from 9mm to 10mm.

CURRENT witnesses are all built on the same(large) frame. so all the CURRENT guns are are interchangeable....it was thier plan. but it means that all the short rounds are now in a large frame gun...not good in my opinion.

older guns are built on two frames(large and small) and thus your quest will not work as the 10 is a large and the 9 is a small.

mike in co

[JSH]

AND, if it is a MATCH frame you can pretty much forget doing the barrel swap. You can but from what I have read and been told you will loose out on the original match barrel and end up with a plain old standard shooter, after fitting.
I wanted a 45ACP and a 22RF on the same frame.
jeff