Hi everyone,
I am new to the forums but not to the trade or the great website.
I am a gun writer in Europe and the designer of the Tanfoglio Raptor-EAA Thor Single Shot Pistol, recently introduced in the Us by EAA – Cocoa/Florida.
Just to bring the news to the largest on line Single Shot Pistol community in the world, please see below the list of calibers available at present for this gun.
A whole list of handloading charts for each caliber applied to the Raptor/Thor is available for anyone interested, with special mention of a couple of real magic numbers like 6,5x57R and 7,62x53R, consistently grouping around 1/4 of a MOA. The Raptor/Thor is also available in .45-70 and .500 S&W, with the highest bullet performance ever reached in a pistol. Just to give you some evidence, here is a well tested (over 300 shots in one gun) load:
Case Primer Bullet Powder-grs. V0
Win. RWS5550 Hornady350 VVN120-60 2150 Fps

Calibers for the Raptor/Thor Single Shot Pistol:

.223 Rem
5,6x52R
6,5x57R
.270 Win
.270 WSM
7-08 Win
.308 Win
7,62x53R
.357 Mag
8x57 JRS
.375 Win
.44 Mag
.444 Marlin
.45-70 Gov
.500 S&W Mag

You can check the gun out at www.tanfoglio.it or www.eaacorp.com
Good shooting, Nicola Bandini – Armimagazine/Board of Directors - Italy

Nicola,
Welcome ot the forum. Specialty handguns are my favorite/only choice when it comes to Long Range Shooting and most of my hunting. I do some hunting with revolvers, but primarily specialty handguns.
In fact I shoot at one 1000 yard match with specialty handguns. Will even be shooting at one mile with several specialty handguns in July which the Outdoor Channel will be filming.
Will be using a 7mm WSM, 6.5-284, and 6mm-284 cases in specialty handguns for the filming.
Please keep us up to date with this product.
What is the case capacity of your 6.5x57R compared to the 6.5-284 or 6.5-06 case?
Do you offer any barrels beyond 14 inches?
Does the barrel come with an action or do you have to already have a 1911 style frame yourself?
Ernie Bishop
My e-mail if you ever want to correspond with me is ernie33@sbcglobal.net

Dear Xp
let me just answer you publicly, since I expect some of the information can be of general interest.
The Tanfoglio Raptor/Thor comes as a complete gun on machined 1911 frames made in Europe, assembled and factory tested in each caliber. The barrels are interchangeable with one pin out by hand in less than 20 seconds - i.e. with two scoped barrels you can fire and hit in two different calibers in the field under 20 secs.
The strong part of the story is that the artillery-eclipsing block lock of the gun makes it the strongest action ever built on a pistol: we have gone beyond 75.000 psi with .45-70-500 and not managed to have even a malfunction.
The other strong part is that the barrell carries an integral, cnc machined Weaver rail: with the latest Warne mounts, no scope will ever come loose or give you alignment doubts.
Barrel length is only 14 for now: we are developing a 10"-.500 S&W open sights model as a dangerous game-back up gun, and if we have Us market requests, will do a 16" model in some selected calibers like the Wsm line.
The Raptor/Thor is also born with power ejector: cases normally fly 10 feet, depending on caliber.
For the 6,5x57R: this is by far the most accurate 6,5 on the market today. It is an old number from central Europe, but if you go beyond Cip specs when used in a modern gun like the Raptor with RWS modern cases, you can have spectacular performance in a 14" barrel: with 40,0 gr of Vihtavuori N133, I get a Nosler Partition 120 up to 2650, with 1/3 MOA accuracy that for a hunting bullet is quite extraordinary. With RWS Fmj 80 gr bullet we have reached something like 3250 Fps in the Raptor, with 46,1 gr of H322: I think that for the kind of very long range pistol shooting you do this could be interesting. Case capacity of the caliber is about 55 Gr of N133.
Conclusively though, the caliber that is most interesting to me at the moment is the 7,62x53R, another number regularly winning the Finnish 600 metres BR championship, reputed to be one of the most accurate .30 ever. I am at present doing consistent 1/4 MOA with this, wich I think is quite something with a handgun.
I would appreciate to hear from anybody of similar ballistic results.
Good shooting, Nicola Bandini.

In all fairness there are other strong action SP's that can equal the performance/accuracy you are getting. But still it is great accuracy (not to mention great shooting) for a factory SP.
What kind of set-up do you use for bench shooting?
What kind of rifling and who makes your barrels or are they your own?

Dear Ernie thank you for all the info. The point I was stressing is that the performance of the Raptor-Thor Single Shot pistol is just factory: barrels are Lothar Walther (Germany) cold hammered and cnc chambered. Twist for instance on the European calibers like the 6,5x57R is 8 inches (7.85 to be precise or 200 mm) for the Us calibers they follow SAAMI specs.
We have tested 3 different 6,5 Raptors with 3 different shooters at 200 yards and we have grouped 6 shots (2 each) in 1.5 inches...This is what I call "factory standard".
For Bench shooting I use Nikon 2,5-8x28, 2,5-8x32 Leupold and lately Burris 3-12x32 which is the best for long range shooting, considering the parallax correction option and the Ballistic Plex reticle. Otherwise, for smaller calibers like the .223 or the powerful 5,6x52R (.228 bullets) I use a 6,5-20 rifle scope (Leupold or Nikon). Warne rings are very good in all settings anf calibers and Tanfoglio/EAA has them coming as standard factory with the pistol.
The 2005 edition of the gun has adjustable trigger: the hammer of the Raptor/Thor is a higher, heavier modified from Colt standard, so you can make the trigger pull really light and even make the hammer custom lighter for top results in BR shooting.
The point I was stressing conclusively, is that the Raptor/Thor averagely shoots 1/3 of an inch out of the box.
Good shooting, Nicola Bandini.

Thanks for the explanation. Point well taken.
That is great accuracy for an out of the box SP. Also very pleased about the light trigger pull possibilities. I am always thinking about accuracy when it comes to SP's.
Only accurate specialty handguns are interesting to me. I believe many handgunner's will be looking forward to see your product be readily available in the US.

Here is a pic of the Thor.

As promised, some better pictures of the Tanfoglio Raptor/EAA thor. Will post more in the next days. Good shooting, Nicola Bandini.

E.A.A. (European American Armory) 800-536-4442.
I learned that they do have some "Thor" Single Shot Pistols in stock currently. If you are a dealer or you can have your dealer contact them and they will direct to wholesalers to purchase the pistol.
Cartridges at this time are (All are blue, 14 inch barrels with no fluting or porting):
223
45-70
375 Win.
44Mag.

Nicola,
Since your the developer of the gun, how is the recoil with the 45-70 and the 500 S&W? What is the heaviest bullets you've tried at what velocities? Just curious on how the 1911 grips handle recoil?
Thanks,
Dennis

Well Dennis,
I have shot quite a lot Hornady 500 grainers in the .45-70 Raptor-Thor, and the latest reloads were with 45 Grains of Vihtavuori N120, producing a clean 1700 Fps. Quite bad on the hand, but worse on the forearm. But the most painful combination speed-recoil is with the Hornady 350, pushed by 60 grains of Vihtavuori N120 at 2150: this load is quite unbearable without porting at the range, just acceptable hunting for 1-2 shots, when the adrenaline does some pain killing function.
For the .500 S&W Magnum, we are just starting the development of the handloads for the Raptor-Thor: with the 420 Gr bullet we are expecting to reach 2000 Fps or very close to that in the 14 inch barrel. If we do, I expect it to be possibly worse than the .45-70 /350 I mentioned above. I will keep you posted, good shooting, Nicola.

Thanks Nicola. Got some 700 grainers from a local here in Alaska, and can imagine how bad that would be! Only loaded some light loads in my 4" S&W, but with your longer barrel, its going to be moving!