HTere are plenty of taurus advocates around here (and anywhere else)- but you find just as many antis. What worries me most of all about their stories is customer service- taurus has a lifetime warranty, and apparently it gets used alot. Have just heard too many horror stories about no email replies, keeping stuff for way too long etc, and the fact that it has to be used in the first place. Apparently ruger and glock have great cs, but never had to use them (well ruger mailed me a pin for my cylinder on a gp100 but that was my fault i lost it, they sent it for free).
My only experience with taurus is an old .38spl- not even sure of the model number. It was fine. And it is very old, I was actually surprised when I noticed it was a taurus (before I even paid attn to brands lol if you can believe that ); and apparently their quality has increased since then, so it could only get better (otoh autos and wheelies are two different animals). And further, if I believed everything I read on the interweb, i would have never taken a chance on a kahr, because reports on pm9s are pretty split in the same way, on the same fronts. Time will tell.
I would say, if taurus happened to offer some package that just did not have a counterpart by another maker, and i really liked it, I might consider it. But I think in what he's looking for, service .40sw are a dime a dozen (in a good way) from known quality manufacturers.
If the .45acp has too much recoil, maybe .40sw will work, but I'm not sure they are all that different in force- just different nature of recoil. Might be better off "going down to a 9mm"... it's what I shoot. But I'll admit it does leave you wanting. Let him shoot your xd45 some more. That's where it's at in the xd line- if I was going to get one, it'd be their xd45tac, because (as i was talking about re something offreed by taurus no one else makes), glock just doesn't have a [prac/tac .45, and xd does. only reason i'd consider.
I'm sure taurus is fine though.
