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EAA Witness Pavona .380..IF You're Man Enough!

11K views 47 replies 28 participants last post by  olfarhors  
#1 · (Edited)
Way back in the summer, glenwolde posted a thread about the EAA Witness Pavona .380....aaaand I was hooked! I actually like the .380 caliber. Primarily, I am a revolver kind of geeze-ette, but I dable with semi auto pistols every once in a while and when I do, I prefer to shoot .380 when I can. I've been frustrated because most 380's are not known as target pistols! The EAA Witness Pavona appeared to be just the thing for me - a pistol designed so that is has a reduced recoil spring for easy slide manipulation and reduced felt recoil, a longer barrel (3.6"), a bit more massive weight-wise (1.9 lbs) - but not too heavy, an external hammer, slide lock and safety that are easily accessible with shorter fingers, as well as a host of other features -including a reasonable price. Specs can be found here.

So, I had my ffl order one for me, knowing full well that this gun was NOT on the Maryland approved handgun roster. That was in July. It is now December and I have just this week brought my new Baby Pavona home from jail, err...the FFL lock up. Yes - it took from July to almost mid December to get state approval for this pistol, but it was definitely worth the wait! The Pavona .380 mag holds 13 rounds. (Original post "edited" in order to verify/clarify the precise magazine laws in Maryland. Regardless, the pistol WAS approved and placed on the Maryland hand gun roster. Yippee for me!) ;)

I have put about 250 rounds through the 380 Pavona in the last few days and both DH and I have determined that it is a GREAT pistol! Easy to manipulate, comfortable to hold for both of us (he has big hands and mine are arthritic and small), and it's really accurate and down right FUN to shoot! While it's more accurate in DH's hands than mine I figured I'd show you what a gray haired little old lady can do with this pistol!



That's 50 rounds of .380 on a 6" paster at 25 feet. Not too shabby for a revolver gezette! I can burn through 2 to 3 boxes and not feel any discomfort at all shooting the Pavona .380! While it was indeed originally designed for women shooters, the ergonomics of the pistol make it a great piece for almost everyone! It's bigger and more substantial than most pocket 380's, of which there seem to be quite a few in the market place, but it performs more like a range gun while still being of a carry size.



Here is a size comparison of one of my Bersa 380's and the Pavona. I plan to shoot the Pavona a lot and hope that I can really get my technique down with this piece, then apply my skills to my larger H&K VP9. The VP 9 is a wonderful pistol, but quite a bit more energetic and not as easy for me to shoot and also concentrate on everything one needs to do while shooting a pistol (which IS different than shooting a revolver).

While the EAA Witness Pavona is available in a host of colors, I opted for charcoal - but it still has silver colored fleck through out the polymer frame and a "chrome" slide!

Yeah, like Trace Adkins sings, my favorite color is chrome!

I think that the Pavona 380 is a "sleeper"! Most men just don't even consider it as a possible pistol for their collection because of the fact that it was primarily designed for women, but it is for that reason that it should be included in a man's collection as it would be a great "family" firearm! Young folks, women (wives, gal friends, moms, range bunnies!) and men can all shoot this accurately and with no discomfort! DH doesn't let the Pavona sparkles bother him at all, he even carries my pretty quilted tote bags on the job site when he needs to haul around extra "stuff" ; he is secure in his masculinity!;) Getting one of the women in your life to enjoy the shooting sports with you would be very, very easy to do with a Pavona 380, and they will be eternally grateful to you for introducing them to the sport! DH is still my hero as the only problem with the Pavona 380 is that I can not remove the slide myself, but that is the only downside !

If you get a chance to try this pistol, we urge you to do so...but be sure to take lots of ammo to the range with you because you will have a Great time shooting it! DH and I highly recommend The EAA Witness Pavona 380 - IF you're man enough to buy one!
 
#2 ·
Wow! I know you love your Bersa 380's, (as I do mine), so this is a ringing endorsement! Enjoy!
 
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#5 ·
Way back in the summer, glenwolde posted a thread about the EAA Witness Pavona .380....aaaand I was hooked! I actually like the .380 caliber. Primarily, I am a revolver kind of geeze-ette, but I dable with semi auto pistols every once in a while and when I do, I prefer to shoot .380 when I can, but I've been frustrated because most 380's are not known as target pistols! The EAA Witness Pavona appeared to be just the thing for me - a pistol designed so that is has a reduced recoil spring for easy slide manipulation and reduced felt recoil, a longer barrel (3.6"), a bit more massive weight-wise (1.9 lbs) - but not too heavy, an external hammer, slide lock and safety that are easily accessible with shorter fingers, as well as a host of other features -including a reasonable price. Specs can be found here.

So, I had my ffl order one for me, knowing full well that this gun was NOT on the Maryland approved handgun roster. That was in July. It is now December and I have just this week brought my new Baby Pavona home from jail, err...the FFL lock up. Yes - it took from July to almost mid December to get state approval for this pistol! Now, when I took it home the other day, I had to leave the magazine at the FFL because in Maryland, while it is not illegal to own hi cap mags, it is illegal for a Maryland gun shop to sell them to Maryland residents! The Pavona .380 mag holds 13 rounds. Not to worry - I ordered 3 mags directly from EAA and had them ship to a lgs across the Maryland state line so that I could pick them up in Pennsylvania; as I said it's not illegal for us to own hi cap mags, we just can't buy them in Maryland...(shakes head in abject disgust, but what can a crab loving Maryland resident do but work around the system???) Ahh... and for those of you that are thinking "what happened to the mag left at the Maryland FFL"? Well, they are mailing it to the same lgs across the line into PA for me to pick up there! (palm faceplant...)

I have put about 250 rounds through the 380 Pavona in the last few days and both DH and I have determined that it is a GREAT pistol! Easy to manipulate, comfortable to hold for both of us (he has big hands and mine are arthritic and small), and it's really accurate and down right FUN to shoot! While it's more accurate in DH's hands than mine I figured I'd show you what a gray haired little old lady can do with this pistol!



That's 50 rounds of .380 on a 6" paster at 25 feet. Not too shabby for a revolver gezette! I can burn through 2 to 3 boxes and not feel any discomfort at all shooting the Pavona .380! While it was indeed originally designed for women shooters, the ergonomics of the pistol make it a great piece for almost everyone! It's bigger and more substantial than most pocket 380's, of which there seem to be quite of few in the market place, but it performs more like a range gun while still being of a carry size.



Here is a size comparison of one of my Bersa 380's and the Pavona. I plan to shoot the Pavona a lot and hope that I can really get my technique down with this piece and then apply my skills to my larger H&K VP9, which is a wonderful pistol, but a bit more energetic and not as easy for me to shoot and at the same time concentrate on everything one needs to do while shooting a pistol (which IS different than shooting a revolver).

While the EAA Witness Pavona is available in a host of colors, I opted for charcoal - but it still has silver colored fleck through out the polymer frame and a "chrome" slide!

Yeah, like Trace Adkins sings, my favorite color is chrome!


I think that the Pavona 380 is a "sleeper"! Most men just don't even consider it as a possible pistol for their collection because of the fact that it was primarily designed for women, but it is for that reason that it should be included in man's collection as it would be a great "family" firearm! Young folks, women (wives, gal friends, moms, range bunnies!) and men can all shoot this accurately and with no discomfort! DH doesn't let the Pavona sparkles bother him at all, he even carries my pretty quilted tote bags on the job site when he needs to haul around extra "stuff" ; he is secure in his masculinity!;) Getting one of the women in your life to enjoy the shooting sports with you would be very, very easy to do with a Pavona 380, and they will be eternally grateful to you for introducing them to the sport! DH is still my hero as the only problem with the Pavona 380 is that I can not remove the slide myself, but that is the only downside !

If you get a chance to try this pistol, we urge you to do so...but be sure to take lots of ammo to the range with you because you will have a Great time shooting it! DH and I highly recommend The EAA Witness Pavona 380 - IF you're man enough to buy one!
How is it size-wise compared to a PT111? You got me interested.
 
#7 ·
Great write-up Sekol!

I understand your wanting to get better with the H&K but heck with shooting the EAA like you do I would say it will make a great home defense gun for you. Put a handful of rounds in that tight of group and the bad guy will quickly stop doing whatever it is you want him to stop doing!

I have never shot any but I would think the Beretta 84 may be similar to this gun.
 
#8 ·
Nice write up, glad you like it. Looks like a good shooter for you.
 
#9 ·
Hombre- I haven't a clue as to how it compares to a PT111, but I do have an oldie but goodie Taurus PT 908 that I can dig out & compare, but the 908 is a single stack 9mm and the Pavona is double stack do I don't know if that eould help at all...

Darbo - the Pavona is more comfortable to shoot than a Beretta 84, definitely and even tho' I cant get the slide off of the Pavona myself yet ( I WILL master it at some point, I hope) tear down & reassembly of the Pavona beats the 84 hands down!

The closest pistol I've ever shot to the Pavona is my beloved Taurus PT 58, but the Pavona is much more comfortable to shoot, and the PT 58 has been retired for quite sometime. The only other 380 pistol I've shot that approches or exceeds the accuracy of the Pavona is a Colt Government Mark IV! The pony is definitely the prince of 380's, but has a price tag to match -IF you can find one in reasonable condition and do not plan to EVER disassemble it!
 
#10 ·
Good for you for not letting the idiots in the People's Republic government stop you. Gad, what a pick of morons.

I bet that really is a great shooting pistol! The target shows it, too!

 
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#11 ·
EAA Witness with a name and sparkles for the ladies:D
 
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#12 ·
Wow nice shooting for an ole gray geezer ( us ole geezers are the best shots IMO ). That Pavona is beautiful. I wondered what the Charcoal looked like close up. I really like EAA pistols - hadn't thought of trying a 380 , but think I will add that to my wish list. Thank you for the excellent range report.
 
#14 ·
cz75 variants are just awesome accurate pistols.

Have you tried a small frame 9mm cz, SAR or witness in steel? The bigger steel guns make the recoil go away. And you can pop in a 8-9 pound recoil spring for easy racking.

Hows the trigger? There are a couple pretty easy things to polish that will make the trigger much much nicer. But it requires a detail strip of the frame to do so. Adding $$ in parts can allow you to drop the DA pull into the 6-8 range. The bottom range while feeling super may require soft primers and reloading.
 
#16 ·
cz75 variants are just awesome accurate pistols.

Have you tried a small frame 9mm cz, SAR or witness in steel? The bigger steel guns make the recoil go away. And you can pop in a 8-9 pound recoil spring for easy racking.


Hows the trigger? There are a couple pretty easy things to polish that will make the trigger much much nicer. But it requires a detail strip of the frame to do so. Adding $$ in parts can allow you to drop the DA pull into the 6-8 range. The bottom range while feeling super may require soft primers and reloading.
A friend's Witness 45 plus the endorsement of our FFL, convinced me to take a chance on the Pavona! The trgger feels great to me as it is, but then again I'm not an accomplished pistol person! :)
 
#19 ·
Kinda' hard to knock a .380, a .25 acp was 007's main carry for a long time. Nice looking pistol and super write-up!
 
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#20 ·
Excellent! Maybe I will reconsider one. I was originally looking for a locked breech .380, but the Pavona turned out to be a blowback. I might reconsider...but I'm really wanting a Chiappa MC14...

Discount Guns for Sale - Buds Gun Shop
 
#22 ·
Excellent! Maybe I will reconsider one. I was originally looking for a locked breech .380, but the Pavona turned out to be a blowback. I might reconsider...but I'm really wanting a Chiappa MC14...

Discount Guns for Sale - Buds Gun Shop
Ohhh, glenwolde, you get 2 mags with that Chiappa! That's great! The Pavona only comes with one, but when you order 3 from EAA they give you a really good discount! :)
 
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#26 ·
Geez! all this getting in touch with my feminine side I need to go drink a few beers, burp a little, go shoot My 10 MM about 500 rounds, play a few rounds of Pool, maybe visit a topless bar.
I just feel so inadequate at this point!!
anyway congrats and NOW you have been bitten by the CZ bug and are infected for life!
Enjoy.
 

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#31 · (Edited)
Go for it, Rossi! I am LOVING the Pavona .380! DH is gonna need to start are-loading 380's for me ASAP!!! We've been to the range several times this past week!
 
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#35 ·
Sekol, the Government Model .380 isn't difficult to field strip. Really. Just don't lose the little spring that activates the slide lock. I've owned one, in Coltgard, for several decades. Long enough to have some Smith & Alexander parts in it. Locked breech, with enough weight to tame recoil nicely. Single-stack, 7+1, though. Only real necessary mod was to get rid of the wood-shop grip panels for Pachmayr panels.

I'm willing to bet that EAA will be making some 10 round mags available shortly, just for People's Democratic Republic States, as well. :)
 
#36 ·
The Colt Government Mark 4 in .380 IS a bear to put back together IF you let the part of the ejector that sticks up fall down into the frame. You are a very nice guy, so I am hoping that never happened to you! :) DH saved the day yet again when that happened to me, and I swore I would never try to take it apart again! It's been a while since I shot that lil' Colt, but if I remember correctly, that is one fiiiiine piece of firearm engineering! It lives in the safe, one of my most loved firearms, but not shot much 'cause cleaning it was terribly traumatic for me! Actually, I like the grips on the Colt, but my hands are smaller than most. Heck, maybe Santa might give me a free cleaning of 1 firearm!

We've been to the indoor range 3 times this week after work, including tonight, so I could shoot the Pavona! I'm just burning right thru boxes of .380. Ido hope Santa doesn't have to pay extra freight charges on any ammo he carries in his sleigh! :)
 
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