EAA Girsan Witness 2311 — Full Review w/ Don Welch

We've got a special one — a review and a guest. My podcast partner Don Welch, a 1911/2011 aficionado, was in town for our election-night podcast, so we put him on the EAA Girsan Witness 2311. It's a 4.25-inch double-stack 1911 in 9mm — they call it a 2311 because they wanted to be different. You get a really nice 1911-style beavertail, a grip safety, an ambidextrous slide safety that works very nicely, a light rail up front, and it ships as a complete package with an included red dot they call a FAR-DOT.

Hands-on impressions first. The grip texture is odd — it's a spiked-up plastic feel rather than that sandpaper grit, and it's just a little strange. The mag release is actually pretty nice: sticks out enough to find, not so far it interferes with your shot. The semi-skeletonized trigger measured five pounds on our gauge — other YouTubers were calling this an eight-pound trigger, and at least on our sample that's just not true. Don's tip: a little oil down by the hammer where the leaf spring sits crisps it up even more.

Then we went to shoot it, and things got stupid fast. Chris from Honest Outlaw said his dot stopped working after three shots — ours stopped working after zero shots. Dead before the first round. So we ran irons, and on top of that I got nailed square in the forehead by an extracted round. It was ejecting straight back at 12 o'clock, which, if you're keeping score, is not a good thing.

The irons were their own adventure. Don couldn't find the hold at all — everything was printing high — and he eventually had to bury the front post completely to hit center, something he's never had to do. I was lollipopping the front post slightly over the rear dots and ringing steel, including one-handed. Part of the problem is the design: the iron sights are machined onto the dot plate itself, the orange front is distracting, and neither of us liked the setup. I'm a blacked-out-rear, bright-front-post guy.

Credit where it's due: the fitment is actually pretty good. Slide-to-frame fit is solid, mags fall right in through that magwell, and the gun cycles smooth — it's not Staccato smooth, but for what it is, it's decent. It comes with exactly one Checkmate mag, so budget for extras; the good news is Checkmate mags run about $40, and standard Staccato-pattern mags fit, versus $100 Atlas or $120 MBX money.

How does it stack up against the Tisas B9R, the other sub-$1,000 Turkish double-stack we've reviewed? Don's take: the Tisas is better in just about every aspect, though the Girsan's safety is a bit nicer and it has the nicer magwell. Our joint bottom line: this is a $600 gun selling for $800. If you find one on sale or used at six bills, drop in an EGW kit, polish the feed ramp, replace the dot, and you'd have something. But if you're going to sink $500-600 into fixing it, just buy a Prodigy at $1,200 and skip the project. As for the included dot — that's just junk. Get something else on day one.