Tag Archives: european american armory

Reviewing the best Budget Staccato Clones

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European American Armory, in collaboration with Turkey’s Girsan, has been importing a new series of double-stack 1911s, dubbed the Witness 2311 line, for the past couple of years. Originally just offered in polymer-framed variants, which we’ve reviewed, EAA for 2025 shifted gears and began to market a pair of guns with alloy frames.

EAA Girsan Witness 2311 S Match and Match X
I give you, the EAA Girsan Witness 2311 Match Standard and Match X, both 9mm double-stack 1911s with metal frames and polymer grip modules that run from 2011-pattern magazines. Both run a Tungsten Cerakote on the frame. (All photos: Chris Eger)
EAA Girsan Witness 2311 S Match and Match X
Both are full-length single-action guns with skeletonized tuned triggers, extended beavertail, and commander-style hammers.
EAA Girsan Witness 2311 S Match and Match X
Further, they have oversized ambidextrous manual safety levers– needed on a single-action semi-auto– as well as a double-stack composite grip frame with a full-length accessory rail and dust cover under a Government-length slide. 
EAA Girsan Witness 2311 S Match and Match X
It’s in the slide/barrels format that these two guns are the most different, with the Match X showing off a big compensator “donut” while the Match S runs that big bull barrel. 

We had both of these interesting pistols on hand, so the obvious thing to do in a review was to bundle them together.

Quick Summary: The optics-ready Girsan-made EAA Witness 2311 Match series 9mm pistols are feature-rich and proved reliable and accurate in testing, offering a low-cost solution to anyone looking to get into the double-stack 1911/2011 game and wants a gun that will work as advertised.

Full 1,900-word review over in my column at Guns.com. 

14 Shot Tip Up .380: Meet the EAA Girsan MC 14T

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At first look, the EAA-imported Girsan MC 14T appears to be a clone of the original circa 1970s Beretta Cheetah series, now a classic.

However, you will note that the EAA carries an M1913 Picatinny accessory rail on the dust cover for mounting lights and lasers– a feature never cataloged on any old-school Cheetah variant.

Using a simple straight blowback action, it is chambered in .380 ACP and uses a double-action/single-action trigger with a manual frame-mounted safety lever.

The EAA Girsan MC 14T, left, compared to a Beretta Cheetah. Note the Girsan is slightly longer, and we’ll get into that. Of note, it uses the same magazine as the double-stack 13+1 round magazine of the Beretta 84.

This extended barrel length is to allow a “tip up” barrel easily actuated by a one-push lever on the right-hand side of the frame. For the gun nerds out there, Beretta briefly made a tip-up .380 Cheetah, the Model 86, but it was a single stack, and collectors, due to its rarity, tend to drive prices on those into the $1,500 region.

This is comparable to Beretta’s pipsqueak mouse guns such as the Model 21A Bobcat shown here in .22 LR.

More on the MC 14T in my column at Guns.com.