Tanfoglio Stock III - Tanfoglio Australia

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Richard puts 10 fast ones through
the Stock III on as many plates.
Shooting at the next level with the
Tanfoglio Stock III
by Jack Craword
T
he Tanfoglio flag has been waved
high for IPSC shooters for the best
part of the past decade by world
champion Eric Grauffel, with a
bagful of European Championships and no
fewer than four World Championships. By
gunmaking company standards, Tanfoglio
is a relatively recent arrival, although the
company’s origin goes back to just after
World War II. Indeed, Tanfoglio started
life with the manufacture of firearms parts
and replica firearms and in due course, it
entered the serious handgun business as a
subcontractor to Israeli Military Industries,
manufacturing one of its pistols.
In the late 1980s, the company started
manufacturing its own line of self-loading
pistols, with a focus on their use for
sporting competitions, namely IPSC competition, as well as products for military and
police service. Since then, the company
has built a solid reputation for producing a
range of competitive high-power self-loads
that fit all of the IPSC classifications.
Current range
The current range of Tanfoglio self-loading
pistols that are of interest for IPSC and
other Practical competition use start at the
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For an entry-level priced pistol, the Tanfoglio
Stock III has many good features including target
grade rear sights and ambidextrous safety. The
fibre-optic sight is an option on this model.
basic XL2 and XL4 models and go right
up to the Custom Eric (named for Eric
Grauffel!) Gold Custom models, which
are designed for the Open Class IPSC
competition and based on the hardware
used by Grauffel to win four IPSC World
Championships.
But the beauty of the Tanfoglio range is
that it contains something for everyone.
The Match LE is the next model up and
has a cone lock-up polygonal rifled match
barrel and single-action trigger and comes
with a hard chromed slide. The Limited
Custom is one of the most popular models
among IPSC shooters, as it has most of the
features of a custom-built target self-loader,
including a full-length frame rail, extended
controls, extended magazine well, walnut
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Tanfoglio Stock III
grips and a pre-drilled frame to take sight
mounts. It is single-action only, but there is
a double-action version of this model listed
as the Stock II Limited. There is also a
Limited Custom GK that has the frame and
slide ‘GK’ coated, which is a proprietary
low-friction anti-corrosion coating that is
dark grey, as compared to the hard chrome
finish on the standard Limited Custom.
It should be noted at this point that the
Australian importers of Tanfoglio pistols,
NVT (Tanfoglio Australia), has had a
number of these models built especially for
Australia and therefore may not appear on
Tanfoglio’s own Italian website.
The Stock III
Among the array of competition pistols
are the Stock models. These are entrylevel self-loaders and the latest iteration
among them is the Stock III, an obvious
successor to the Stock II. The Stock III is
a 9mm Production Class IPSC pistol that
can be used in all IPSC divisions as it has
double-action operation and qualifies in all
other respects for that division. NVT has
put together a Stock III package at a very
competitive price and while we had to do
a relatively rushed job with this review
because the pistol was not available until
shortly before the magazine’s deadline,
there was still time to give it a workout on
both bullseyes and some faster scenarios.
The Tanfoglio pistols are recoil-operated, with the barrel locked into the slide
with a series of locking lugs (very similar
to those of the Colt 1911) over the top of
the breech area of the barrel. The design
follows that used on pistols such as the
Browning Hi-Power, in that, the control of
the unlocking of the barrel from the slide
as it recoils is done via a cam slot on the
underside of the barrel. This is superior
The Tanfoglio Stock III in 9mm
has an integral rail on the
underside of the frame, adding
desirable extra mass to the front
of the pistol.
to the swinging link system of the 1911
pistols, as the barrel is supported laterally
much more rigidly, but the take-down pin
passing through the fairly wide cam slot
under the barrel. If the take-down pin and
the slot are a good fit, there is little chance
of the barrel moving from side to side and
from shot to shot.
The accuracy of a locked-breech selfloader is always determined by two critical
factors, given good barrel quality. These
are the slide-to-frame fit and the barrelto-slide fit. If clearances in each of these
areas are excessive, accuracy will suffer,
as the sights are mounted on the slide
and any sloppiness in these areas will be
reflected in the grouping ability of the
pistol.
Tanfoglio self-loaders do not use a
The Stock III was tested
with three types of factory
ammunition. It liked the
Federal best.
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removable barrel bushing; they have
carefully machined, slightly oval-shaped
barrel bushing integral with the slide. The
rear of the bushing is relieved, but there
is a section of the bushing hole that is
perfectly round and the diameter of the
exterior of the muzzle of the barrel. This
allows the barrel to be a snug fit in the
slide when the action is locked up, but as
soon as the slide starts moving to the rear,
and the rear of the barrel is pulled down
out of engagement with the locking lugs
via the cam, there is sufficient vertical
clearance on the slide bushing to allow
the barrel to move downwards without
binding.
The Stock III that was received for
review was standard in all respects, other
than the front-sight, which had been
replaced with a fibre-optic unit where the
standard front-sight is a Patridge-type
blade. The other features of this model
are the blued steel frame and slide with
chequered front and back strap; a double
serrated slide for better traction; a matchgrade 121mm-long barrel for supreme
accuracy; an extended beavertail and
double-action trigger; a custom magazine
release (reversible); extended ambidexterous safety; chequered walnut grips; and
a Weaver mount on the frame, under the
frame rail.
On taking the Stock III out of its
fitted aluminium case, my first impression was very favourable for one simple
reason - it is a fairly heavy pistol. It
weighs 1300g with an empty magazine
and much of its weight is upfront, thanks
to the rail on the underside of the frame.
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Tanfoglio Stock III
The recoil equation is a simple one and a
heavier firearm will always result in less
recoil than a lighter gun using the same
ammunition.
Some of the currently available entrylevel 9mm self-loaders that have a significant amount of polymer in their construction can weigh as little as 850g and are
therefore very lively to shoot. However,
they may be more comfortable to carry
around for extended periods.
After several decades of shooting many
types of handguns at various types of
targets, my preference always gravitates to
the heavier rather than lighter pistols, as I
feel I have better control and consequently
better performance. The thicker front end
of the frame acts just like a muzzle weight,
with the added advantage of the integral
rail being there to add even more weight if
required.
The Stock III comes with a very good
set of fully adjustable rear sights, which
are stamped for direction for windage and
elevation.
The double-action trigger operates
the hammer for the first shot from the
hammer-down position and then the pistol
reverts to single-action mode. On the test
pistol, the double-action pull was a smooth,
consistent and relatively light 3.6kg, while
the single-action release weight was
around 1.5kg with a bit of smooth creep.
The trigger itself has a small grub screw
through its face, which can be adjusted to
minimise backlash.
The trigger group
on the Stock III is a
compact assembly in
the rear of the frame.
Both the double- and
single-action trigger
release on this pistol
were very good, at
3.5kg and 1.5kg
respectively.
The Stock III is easily
disassembled for
cleaning. The pistol
comes with at least
two magazines.
Accuracy testing
Because of the short time available to
test the Stock III, factory loads were used
throughout, as handloads could not be
Paul puts an empty case in
the air getting into some
falling plates. The Stock III
has good recoil recovery,
thanks to its weight.
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organised in time. Three types of ammunition was used, including Brown Bear
115-grain JHP, Magtech 124-grain lead and
Federal Premium 125-grain JHP loads.
The Magtech loads are fairly popular with
competition shooters as an alternative to
reloading, as they are loaded with hard cast
lead projectiles and are able to be used on
pretty much any range, as some ranges
have restrictions on the use of jacketed
ammunition.
Accuracy testing was done off a bench
over sandbags at 25m and quite a bit of
ammo was expended shooting in faster
sequences at the plate targets. Reliability
with all the ammunition used was 100 per
cent. The Federal loads produced the best
25m accuracy, with full magazine (10-shot)
groups coming in around 60mm. The
Magtech loads were not far behind, while
the Brown Bear ammunition was the least
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Tanfoglio Stock III
accurate. This Russian-made ammunition
uses copper-plated steel cases (not reloadable) and has not shot all that well in any
9mm that I have put it through. It is okay
where tight groups are not required and
expands the range of options in testing a
pistol’s reliability.
Greg Anderson from NVT advised
that there are two rifling options for the
Tanfoglio Stock III: a standard six-groove
cut rifling or polygonal rifling. The test
pistol has polygonal rifling and is stated to
have a match-grade barrel. I have two .38
Super self-loaders myself and one has cut
rifling and the other has polygonal rifling.
The former handles lighter 125-grain cast
bullets better than the latter, while the
polygonal rifling works best with heavier
135-grain and larger bullets. It could be a
characteristic of each of these particular
pistols, so a conclusion should not be
drawn from such a small sample.
I liked the handling of the Stock III; its
weight upfront makes its recoil recovery
easy and the smooth single-action trigger
contributes to its ease of use. I handed the
pistol and some loaded magazines to four
volunteers at the range and all came to the
same conclusion.
Field-stripping
Stripping the pistol for cleaning is typical
of this type of self-loader. There are index
dots punched into the rear of the frame
and slide and after removing the magazine,
the slide release/take-down lever can be
pushed out of the frame when the dots are
lined up and the slide and barrel can be
removed from the frame. Once the slide is
off, the barrel and recoil spring assembly
can be taken out of the slide for further
cleaning.
Summary
As a Production Class IPSC pistol, the
Tanfoglio Stock III can be used in all
divisions and while it is priced as an
entry-level IPSC, its standard competition oriented features will enable the
pistol to stack up against some more
expensive hardware. For me, its extra
weight is a major feature that should not
be overlooked when comparing it to its
competitors.
With a recommended retail price of
less than $1400, the Tanfoglio Stock III
is a very attractive package and NVT is
offering further sweeteners in a package
deal. Just remember to check out the NVT
website in case there are any amendments
to the package by the time this story hits
the streets.
For more information, visit www.nvt.
com.au
.
Specifications
Manufacturer: Tanfoglio
Model: Stock III
Distributor: NVT
Calibre: 9mm
Barrel Length: 121mm
Overall Length: 220mm
Height: 135mm
Width: 40mm
Sight: Square blade front-sight, fully
adjustable target rear-sight
Frame: Steel with chequered front and
back straps, beavertail and Weaver rail
Magazine: 10-round double-stack
Trigger: Double-action: 3.5kg; Singleaction: 1.5kg
Safety: Frame-mounted ambidextrous
RRP: $1395 with accessory pack
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