1 reason NOT to buy taurus

[stalkingbear]

I recently bought a taurus PT1911 with the heinie straight 8 nite sites and love it in all ways EXCEPT the sites. No,nothing is wrong with the nite sites,they work fine. My gripe began when discovering the gun shoots about 2" low at 15 yards with most standard pressure 230 gr loads. Most people wouldn't even notice or care about this but being an excompetition shooter,I'm a "freak" about my guns shooting EXACTLY to point of aim. After an agonizing morning on the phone with repeated calls to taurus,heinie,and brownells,and finally digging out my dial calipers,I was able to determine taurus makes their own sites under licensing agreement with heinie,and the dovetail slot is oddball size,larger than any other gun or site manufacturer makes. This means that at the present time,you CANNOT buy an adjustable rear sight for the taurus of any kind,nor are you able to redily adapt any other site to fit the taurus dovetail. To top it all off,taurus customer service/tech support got smart with me on the phone!!!!!!! I'll NEVER even THINK of buying another taurus product or reccomending them to anyone else.

 

[makarovnik]

Taurus customer service sucks. I own one revolver and it shoots way low and to the left. Their turnaround time is also horrible (several months).

Out of all my pistols I like my makarovs and Hi-Points best. Nary a problem with either. I wish Hi-Point would make a higher end gun that can be carried safely with a round in the chamber. I also wish they would make their .380 a little smaller.

Pooh on Taurus!

 

[HGUNHNTR]

Consistently low and left is a tell tale sign of a right handed shooter pulling their shot.

Just saying

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

Can a lower front sight be put on it? Or, are you using a "six-o'clock" point of aim on the target? "Fighting" handgun sights are usually regulated to shoot to exact point of aim, which would cover up a bullseye.

 

[doglb]

No offense guys, but I get kind of tired about all the negative comments about Taurus.

I own the PT1911 and could not be happier with its performance.
I know it may not be the "ultimate" 1911, but it works great for me!
Never had an issue!
Yes, I do agree that their CS is not the best-
Yes, I do agree that its hit and miss with their products-

But doesnt it ever get old, all the bashing?
I know everyone needs to vent and I understand that when you spend your hard earned cash on something you want it to work.

In my opinion every manufacturer produces "lemons", I just think if you know that a certain manufacturer has a bad rep or a bad product than stay away from it and buy something better.

I am not trying to piss anyone off, but being an ex-competition shooter, wouldnt you have known better than to pick up the PT1911?

I know alot of happy Taurus owners, and they couldnt be happier

 

[Oro]

Consistently low and left is a tell tale sign of a right handed shooter pulling their shot.

Yes, I agree, except he says he's an ex competition shooter, and he has a set of calipers at hand. Sounds like he knows what he is talking about.

Which makes me wonder why he bought Taurus to begin with. They are built in latin America to random standards. We all have known this for a long time. Why buy them if you are "in the know?"

doglb: you may own a fully functioning Taurus. Good on you. But because you own one doesn't mean they on average produce good guns. It takes a large sample of testing to show that. And Taurus doesn't fare well in that test from a broad spectrum of owners.

 

[mljdeckard]

I'm with hgunhntr here. Let's get a ransom rest and settle it.

For a 'competition shooter' and someone with such meticulously high standards, you've put your faith in a gun at the high range of the cheapest market. (Did the Taurus rep say something like that?)

 

[stalkingbear]

OK kiddies,since yall are jumping to all kinds of conclusions,I decided to test 1 just so I would KNOW EXACTLY what I'm talking about 1 way or the other,unlike some people,and to determine if it would be a good canidate from which to build custom. Using dead on hold,it consistantly hits directly low. How many people buy different products in order to know wether to reccomend them or not? Pretty sure it's not my shooting as I found this out by shooting from rested position AFTER shooting it 2 handed. Since after scanning catalogs,I've determined I'll have to mill out a front sight,slightly lower in height,and drill/fit the trititium into it.

 

[Old Navy]

As a disappointed EX taurus owner, here is my logic. If manufacturer X has a 3-5 % lemon rate and maufacturer Y, has a 15-20% lemon rate why on earth would I buy the less reliable gun to PROTECT MY LIFE? Those percentages are probably realistic for most guns compared to taurus. Remember the YUGO? There were some people who liked them too and would get mad if somebody bad mouthed them.
As far as "South American" guns being inferior, I'd bet very few Bersa owners would agree with that. Bersa's are incredibly accurate out of the box, have one of the best stock triggers on earth, are very reasonably priced and come with a lifetime warranty that their customers like. I have two of them and they are as accurate as my CZ's and more accurate than my Glocks or the XD(M) I had with the "match" barrel. Check out Bersa talk.

 

[mbt2001]

Doesn't the Taurus 1911 come with adjustable sights??

 

[Clint C]

+1 for Taurus

I love my Taurus Tracker 970 in .22lr. I get a head shot on squirrels everytime.

As far as semi-fixed sights go if it shoots low you are to file down the front sight, if it shoots left or right move the rear sight right or left. Your owner manual will tell you this. Or at least the owner manual for my Ruger MKI told me this.

 

[ecbaatz]

Shooting low

Can you just file a little off the front sight to get the poa to equal the poi? that is what I did on my Kimber Eclipse Pro II. Worked great.
Eric

 

[Oro]

I decided to test 1

Well, there's the problem. You can't test "1" and think it creates a valid sample. I wouldn't comment on a gun until I've owned/shot five of them, and that's still a pretty invalid number for statistical purposes.

That's why forums are great, you can go ask people who have lots of experience before shooting one sample or taking a salesman's advice and then buying one blindly.

As far as "South American" guns being inferior, I'd bet very few Bersa owners would agree with that.

You are correct. What I meant to say was "Built in Brazil" to random standards. I know darn well that Argentines have been building dang nice handguns since the '20s (looking for a Sistema right now to round out a subset of my collection). I should not have tarred all of the countries with that brush. Let's amend my statement to say "Brazil." Mea Culpa.

 

[hankdatank1362]

Paint the white dots black (both front and back) and file down the front sight. Just pretend they're regular silhouette sights.


ETA: But you're right, you shouldn't have to.

 

[HexHead]

"You are correct. What I meant to say was "Built in Brazil" to random standards. I know darn well that Argentines have been building dang nice handguns since the '20s (looking for a Sistema right now to round out a subset of my collection). I should not have tarred all of the countries with that brush. Let's amend my statement to say "Brazil." Mea Culpa."

For that matter, most Springfield Armory 1911s are made in Brazil and I don't hear anyone saying they are junk.

 

[MMCSRET]

I am convinced, after reading all the Taurus bashing that the bashers have never had anything mechanical fail ever, anywhere in their entire lifetime. Never had a pilot light go out, never had a battery go dead before the warranty was up, never ran out of gas because the gage was miscalibrated, never had the electricity go out, a tornado wouldn't have the courage to touch down on their property, creek banks are always high enough to hold spring runoff. And most of all; have never missed a bullseye because of their own inability; good to have something else to blame isn't it?

 

[greyling22]

I looked for adjustable sights too. I figure somebody someday will make a set.
I also considered trying to jb weld an adjustable sight into the taurus notch. or partially filling the notch and then filing it out to a standard dovetail dimension. in the meantime I just shoot at a bigger target.

 

[greyling22]

I looked for adjustable sights too. I figure somebody someday will make a set.
I also considered trying to jb weld an adjustable sight into the taurus notch. or partially filling the notch and then filing it out to a standard dovetail dimension. in the meantime I just shoot at a bigger target.


oops, repost.

 

[tbtrout]

My only experience with Taurus is I am now fixing a friends PT99. The pin that holds the rear adjustable sight broke for the second time. He had it repaired a few years ago. I called Taurus last week to get another pin and the resonse I recieved without any hesitation was:

" we do not have any parts in stock, we are closing for a few weeks at the end of December. Call back in January."

After that phone call I will never buy a Taurus, because just in case I get the odd lemon. I can not trust them to fix it. I understand things break, human error etc... But I am all about the customer service How the problem is rectified will keep me as a customer.

 

[moooose102]

while taurus seems to make a decent enough gun, THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE S-U-C-K-S!

i was told a week and a half to exchange magazines and a main recoil spring (warranty). it has been over a month and a half, and still no parts.
so i have a useless pile of parts sitting in my safe. i have placed several phone calls (some of which were supposed to be for the customer service manager which i think is just an empty voice mail box) with not one single return call.

everytime i actually stay on hold (forget) long enough to actually talk to a person, all i get is the run around.

other than driving all the way to florida with a big can of whoop-ass, i dont know what else to do.

go and buy a hi-point, or kel-tec, or anything other than a taurus.

because like anything else mechanical, at some time, it will break, and then you are going to be up the creek without a paddle.

as for the gun shooting low, yep, even off a rest. i have just compensated by alining the bottom of the front sight dot to the top of the rear sight.

if you have either a machinist freind, or a little money, have a dovetail adapter made. then you could buy a different set of sights.

they will never get any of my parts again. i will buy replacements. then, if they want to warranty me new ones, they can either credit me, or send me new ones which i will set aside until i need them. but i will not be in this position again.

if i had the money, i would just go and buy a different gun. and sell this if and when i ever get the parts back. but buying this pistol was a one time deal.

so, now taurus will get bad word of mouth (and internet) advertising for the next ??? long every chance i get.

freaking jerks!

 

[Ben86]

That sucks. You might have talked me out of buying one. This is one of several posts I've read about them not shooting to point of aim.

Sell it and get a smithy or something.

 

[Steve C]

Fixed sights are generally regulated for 25 yds not 15, so run that target out to 25 and see where it hits. 15 yds is baby distance for speed shooting combat games where +/- 2" isn't important. I have a couple Walther P1's that shoot low with the top of the sight held at the top of the notch. I just bring the base of the sight to the bottom of the notch with these guns and they shoot to point of aim. The shooter adapting to the hardware is much less expensive than adapting the hardware to the shooter.

 

[jlh26oo]

I'm a "freak" about my guns shooting EXACTLY to point of aim

Just an F.Y.I. but since different loads will have different P.O.I. given identical P.O.A., that will be difficult to acheive across all ammo using any fixed sights. Too bad about the odd-ball sized D.T.'s, but considering how you describe your needs, I would probably just sell it now and invest in something higher quality with adjustables, vs. spending money to modify the P.T.

At least prospective T.H.R. buyers now know the P.T.'s D.T.'s are not a standard size, so thanks for sharing S.B. It looks like that detail already saved someone from the same headache.

 

[GRIZ22]

My PT1911 shoots to POA with hardball at 25 yds and has been trobule free for about 2 years and several thousand rounds. I had to make a slight windage adjustment when I got it A friend of mine was shooting low with his new 1911 with a flat mainspring housing. Swapped it out for an arched housing and it was dead on. IIRC some people shooting low was one of the reasons they amde the 1911A! with the arched housing. There has been more than one fixed sight gun (S&W, Colt, etc) I had to make some sight adjustments with a file.

 

[DAVIDSDIVAD]

How dare they give you a gun that works perfectly well!