Gun Questions Tanfoglio TZ75 & Ruger

S

Shann

Joined
Sep 2, 2004
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My law partner is selling his 9mm Tanfoglio TZ75. I'm kind of interested, but haven't heard much about them, other than that they are a CZ clone. Its pretty much in mint condition. Is it a good gun? How much is it worth?

Also, he's selling a Ruger SP101, .357 magnum, that I've been liking for a while. Its probably been fired less than a box of ammo. Do you think offering him $300.00 bucks would be fair all around?

Thanks.
 
I don't know what's fair, but that Ruger is nice in the condition you describe.



munk
 
Buying from friends carries a risk.

I usually say, "how much do you want for it?" Then I decide if I would pay that amount.

I don't negotiate with friends. They are difficult enough to find. as it is.

The Ruger would be a very good price.

I know nothing about the TZ
 
I would grab the Ruger. It is a nice weapon.
Pass on the Tanfaglio. I purchased one of their high end (800-900) dollar competition versions (The Limited) for steel plate competition back in the 90's. First problem I had was that it hit dead low no matter what I adjusted. Phone call to EEA the importer and we find the gun had mismatched front and rear sights. Send off to them for fix. Get the gun back and after 200 or so light loads through it the gun goes full auto. Loads of fun in a 10 shot .45 auto without foreknowledge of the coming event. Contact EAA and then send it in for repair. Now here is where things get ugly. After the gun was gone for a month or so I call to see how things are going. I get forwarded to their gunsmith, who tells me the gun is fixed but I am lucky they did it for me since I had had some gunsmith screw with the trigger. (I had not)! I told him this and he told me the gun would never have left their shop like that and basically I was a liar! Needless to say I flipped and got hung up on. I called back and asked to speak to the boss. I got the pres. or head of EAA, he basically told me that he stood behind what the gunsmith said, so I must be a liar. Fast forward to the gun getting to me. It is repaired, but they used parts (black) that did not match the chromed lower the gun I had used. When I ask them about this they tell me that this was all they could do for me as they just imported the guns and then sent them to dealers and did not have the chromed parts to match that lower.
I started using the gun after I got over my anger, and after a couple hundred rounds the rear sight (a cheap Bo-Mar copy) breaks. Now I have a screwed up gun and a bad relationship with the importer. What do you do?
Trade it for a good ol 1911 Springfield .45 and never look back.
Tanfaglio may be a fine firearms maker. I may have gotten a fluke. But EAA's bad customer service and treatment left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
If you are interested in a CZ style gun, buy a CZ they are superior IMHO,
OK rant mode off.:mad:
 
A $300 offer for a nearly-new SP101 sounds just about right. If such an offer came my way, I'd find the money to buy it. The Ruger's a known quantity and you'll seldom hear a bad word about their revolvers. It's even a good caliber.

Dunno about the Tanfoglio. I've never owned one. If I were in the market for a good semiauto in 9mm in the $300-$400 range I'd be scoping out used XD's and CZ's, and Glock police turn-ins.
 
Thanks for the replies. I've done some research and pretty much everybody agrees that the Ruger is one good gun, if a bit heavy. THat just makes it easier to handle and I'm not looking for an everyday carry gun. More something for a "truck gun".

Now I just have to go home and raid my piggy bank to see if I've got enough money. This one has to be a secret from the wife, because we just bought two rental buildings and have no money at all right now.:mad:
 
Shann - I just bought a used Tanfoglio (EAA) Witness Combat in 10mm. I've already ordered a 40S&W barrel for some cheap(er) range shooting.

Though I've gotten the chance to shoot mine very little, it made me change my course from looking at G20/21's. I can't speak to longevity but I do have a suggestion:

Go to: CZ Clone Forum and take a look at the data. Tanfoglio also make the Baby Desert Eagle for Magnum Research. Very, very similiar guns.

Everything I've heard does indicate that EAA customer service as about as bad as it gets. There seems to be a concerted grass roots effort to convince Tanfoglio to get a different U.S. distributor, but they do sound like great guns for the money.
 
I have a Ruger SP101 3" in 38 special. I'd make sure that the box of ammo was not a box of proof loads. I have seem some hot ammo out there - Some Remington 158 gr. ammo could sure hurt ...

No gun is too heavy for 357 ammo.

The Ruger is a great gun.

Check the cylinder rotation while locked up to be sure it locks up tightly on all charge holes, and check the cylinder gap with an auto thickness guage. I would do this if I were in the market for a new gun. It should be about .005 or so. If it is .009, the gun has thousands of rounds through it or was defective from the factory. Some guns are delivered with excessive gaps, and then they spit lead. To check the gap at each cylinder hole, you have to pull the trigger back (gun empty of course) to get the gun to lock up. While holding the trigger back, measure the size of the gap between the cylinder and the forcing cone with the auto guage.

A correct gap is about .005" or .006" - if too small, the gun could lock up when hot. If too large, then you have too much flash and the gun will spit lead.

I also like to check to be sure that the cylinder rotates smoothly for all charge holes. Rugers have a heavy action, but you do want similar feels from all cylinder holes.
 
The Ruger is a good pistol but any 3" barreled pistol can be a bit taxing on your hands shooting full house .357 loads. Expensive too. You might want to practice with .38 Specials if your going to shoot it a lot. Also remember that Stainless steel is just that, it will still rust if not taken care of. Every once in a while, look under the grips to make sure there is no rust where water can hide. If you do find a small spot of rust, never use steel wool to remove it. The small fibers of steel will get into the stainless and cause to to rust easier. You need to use something like Scotch Brite to remove rust from stainless guns. I'd buy it for $300. Hope this helps..........................Malcolm
 
I'd plan on doing most of my shooting with .38 special. Its also cheaper. Thats one of my problems with the .44 magnum that I have, .44 special is not so common that its "cheap" and I don't handload.
 
I'm taking it out this weekend for a "test drive" Sitting here at my desk right now looking at it. It locks up tight, the crane is tight. A little light scratching. The crown does have a small nick in it. I don't expect that to have much bearing on the practical shootability of this gun, but its the only thing I can find wrong with it.

I've dry fired it a few times, the single action is sweet, but I'm not going to shoot it like that much. The double action is smooth, a little loading just before the release, overall better than I expected. The front sight is worthless, though, I can barely see it in decent light, not at all in the glare. That's fixable, though.
 
I used to have a Tanfoglio Witness in .45. It was a great gun- must've killed over a hundred coons with it. Probably closer to 200. Had to sell it when I was desparate for cash, and still miss it. I have yet to pick up another semi auto that felt so perfect in my hand, especially for less than $300.

It was at least as accurate as my Kimber with its favorite loads, and the trigger was lighter and smoother too. The hard chrome finish on mine was extremely durable, surviving daily carry on the farm with sweat, lotsa dust, and rain. I don't know the exact model you're talking about, but mine had a wide range of carry options. It could be carried hammer down for a double action first shot, with the safety on or off. Or cocked 'n' locked like a 1911, which is usually what I did. It also held 10 rounds standard.

After about 5000 rounds and several years, the magazine springs were starting to get weak and induce feeding malfunctions. (it had a great track record for reliability before) Wolff makes replacements for them, but I never got around to taking care of 'em before selling it. Though it's generally advisable to avoid a gun with known reliability problems, keep in mind several of them can be fixed easily for cheap, too.
 
I like the looks of the SP101

If Ruger had ever put out a eight shot 32 HR I'd have gotten one in a heartbeat.


munk
 
I like everything about the SP101. Sold one to a good friend a few years back. Great gun.
 
the possum said:
I used to have a Tanfoglio Witness in .45. It was a great gun- must've killed over a hundred coons with it. Probably closer to 200. Had to sell it when I was desparate for cash, and still miss it. I have yet to pick up another semi auto that felt so perfect in my hand, especially for less than $300.

It was at least as accurate as my Kimber with its favorite loads, and the trigger was lighter and smoother too. The hard chrome finish on mine was extremely durable, surviving daily carry on the farm with sweat, lotsa dust, and rain. I don't know the exact model you're talking about, but mine had a wide range of carry options. It could be carried hammer down for a double action first shot, with the safety on or off. Or cocked 'n' locked like a 1911, which is usually what I did. It also held 10 rounds standard.

After about 5000 rounds and several years, the magazine springs were starting to get weak and induce feeding malfunctions. (it had a great track record for reliability before) Wolff makes replacements for them, but I never got around to taking care of 'em before selling it. Though it's generally advisable to avoid a gun with known reliability problems, keep in mind several of them can be fixed easily for cheap, too.
Click to expand...

I almost bought one of these a few years ago, but was short $. It had a beautiful heft to it, a fantastic grip frame, and nice checkering and stocks. really professional work. It was very inexpensive as well considering. I believe they also made the Witness in .40 and 9 of course. Wish now I had bought it from everything you say. I have never felt pistols as comfortable as the CZ type.

BTW, a woman friend of mine has a consecutively serial numbered pair of CZ-75's. She was in the service over there 20 years ago and drove up to the factory and bought them right off the line for super cheap. They were really hot in the US in the '80's. My kind of woman...

Norm
 
The full size, steel frame Witness' are available as .45, 10mm, .40S&W, 38 Super, 9mm and a .22 conversion.

There may have been more but I'm certain of the ones above. I've got the 10mm.
 
I put about 100 rounds of .38+p and .357 magnum through the SP101 this weekend. Both were 125 grain semi-jacketed loads. The gun shot pretty much to point of aim at 15 yards. The recoil was pretty mild with the .38+p and fairly stout, but not bad, with the .357. I liked it a lot. I shot single action first, to get an idea about accuracy and then mainly did double action.

We had to share the range with a bunch of high-power shooters, who were mostly pretty nice, but it did prevent me from doing much more than shooting to make sure the gun shot well and I liked it.

I can't shoot for sh*it anymore, unfortunately. I could barely hit a 5X7 target at 15 yards with my .44 magnum Anaconda (in double action anyways). As the range master said "it ain't nothing to write home about."
 
I had a Tanfoglio BTA-90 compact 9mm the pistol was lovely to look at. The build quality and finish where great. Unfortuantly it did not shoot well at all. It would only feed FMJ with any semblance of reliablity. I would not buy another.

Patrick
 
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