Taurus: your verdict on Taurus auto-loaders.

What is your view on Taurus auto-loaders?

  • Excellent: It has my full confidence.

    Votes: 114 25.7%
  • Good: Not quite there yet, but above average.

    Votes: 77 17.4%
  • Average: Nothing special at all.

    Votes: 116 26.2%
  • Below Average: They are substandard.

    Votes: 83 18.7%
  • Poor: Pathetic, and I will never rely on.

    Votes: 53 12.0%

  • Total voters
    443
  • Poll closed .
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el Godfather

Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2012
Messages
1,847
Dear THR:
The Taurus question keeps popping now and then. Mostly on folks with complaints and very few ever on with praise. Majority of the online boards have overall negative view about the Taurus firearms. Why?

After all the negative rant there is, why do folks keep buying Taurus and then later complain?

Do the online negative sentiments actually reflect the reality?

Have Taurus handguns improved over the years or have they further declined?

What are three things Taurus can do to get you to pick Taurus as your primary weapon with confidence?

Regards
 
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Because of my experience with Taurus products over the years, I have no faith in their weapons.
 
"What are three things Taurus can do to get you to pick Taurus as your primary weapon with confidence?"

TWO would do, for me (and I suspect for most)

#1 - CONSISTENCY. Their quality is so severely erratic, that it creates huge 'trust' issues, even with many of us here who own some few that we really like a lot, but have near zero faith in any but for a very very few specific models and vintage.

#2 - Customer Service that is worth something more than a bad joke. If they paid attention to #1, might not much matter, but given their erratic quality track record, it just adds insult to injury for too many folks, and angry buyers don't come back.

Neither will happen, because it costs money, and Taurus management very deliberately chooses to be the high volume low price (aka low average quality) leader, not unlike Wallyworld. They sell so much volume "no matter what" it simply doesn't matter to the CEO. 'Cheap' sells volume, always has, always will. Everybody likes cheap, not everybody likes what goes with; 'everybody' is a bigger number than 'not everybody', and Taurus knows that. Their only halfway serious competition in the low end market is probably Kel-Tec and Hi-Point, neither of which has a diverse line, neither of which much pretends to be anything but cheap... but neither of which built a very large market in South America to support manufacturing scale before targeting the North American market.
 
I found an old Taurus PT92 that is a pure joy to shoot. Great balance, butter smooth trigger and accurate as a pistol can be. It's a little beat up, but When it shoots that good, I don't care.
I have a PT111 that is dependable, but I never got used to the Heinie sights.
Have a PT22 that has given me fits from day 1, but that little pistol and I are coming to terms.
If I could change one thing about Taurus, it would be their customer service, probably second worse I've come across with Beretta being the worst.
All in all I like their guns.
 
My only experience is with a TCP that is IMO the best of the lower priced pocket 380 pistols. Mine has been 100% with the exception of a bad magazine which Taurus replaced very quickly.
 
My PT92 was a dream to shoot...smooth, never failed me. I shot a couple of Beretta 92s and couldn't tell the difference...except for the price of course.

I haven't dealt with the customer service though...seems a lot of people complain about it a lot.
 
I have a PT145. I bought it at a big box sports store and it jammed from day one. They sent it back for me no charge and it was returned in two weeks still jamming. Sent it back again and two weeks later it was fixed. It is now one of the nicest shooting guns I have ever owned. Good balance, accurate, perfect trigger pull, and an overall nice looking pistol. I don't know if I will buy another one but I am glad I stuck with this one till it was fixed correctly. Also I know the forums bash Taurus but they bash Glock too. The manager at the store was very surprised that I was having a problem because he claims they rarely get any Taurus pistols back and they sell a lot of them.
 
I said about average, I've owned a couple, the pt25 I had was a jamomatic, but the pt140 I have shots really well and hasn't had any problems
 
The PT-92 is as good as anything else on the market and a proven performer. Their others are usually innovative and on balance generally better than Kel-Tec, although since Kel-Tec makes far fewer models their customer service is usually better. Although Kel-Tec has had my RFB back three times and its still not right, longest streak without a failure is 138 rounds (still active, last time out was my first session without a failure).
 
Considering all the problems I had with their revolvers I couldn't possibly bring myself to trust a Taurus auto. There are many Taurus hard liners who dismiss any complaints and believe them to be part of some vast conspiracy. That, IMO is just down right silly and bordering on pathetic. It's pretty plain to see their products are hit or miss and customer service is poor at best. Why do people keep buying them? People who are new to guns usually buy based on appearance (and Taurus makes some nice looking had guns) and do their research afterwards. Couple that with a price tag that is a bit less than the S&W next to it but to the untrained eye, looks pretty much the same.

Their are also a lot of myths surrounding Taurus revolvers. Many people continue to perpetuate the myth that a Taurus revolver is internally a S&W and the only thing making it a Taurus is the roll mark. For semi autos their is a similar story that grew out of Taurus purchasing a beretta factory.
 
I would ask they make prettier guns...
I know their reliability is iffy (if you get one that works, it'll serve you beautifully, but get one that doesn't, and it'll be headaches). If they could improve on quality control/consistency, and make their guns a little nicer to look at, I'd be fine.
 
I have two Taurus semi-autos and one Raging Bull. I bought the semis brand new, they (a 24/7 DS Pro C .45 and a 709 Slim) have been flawless and are my EDCs. I bought the Raging Bull used, the lockup was awful but I returned it and for $20 shipping and a week and a half at Taurus it came back repaired. I have no issues with either their guns or their customer service.
 
I bought a PT-145 NIB based on research on this and another forum. While there were a lot of naysayers, too many had heard from a friend of a friend of the friend that Taurus sucked. Enough actual owners of the PT-145 seemed satisfied enough for me to take the plunge. Well, I guess I got lucky. Through 1500+ rounds the PT-145has been nothing less than flawless. So, I rolled the dice and bought a second PT-145, in case they discontinued the model. After 600 rounds of flawless operation, I deem myself charmed. The newer one has replaced the first one as one of my EDC's.
 
With Taurus it is a quality control issue. Its not that they make bad guns; its just that their quality control is poor and CS is mediocre at best. I have owned 6 Taurus guns at one time (still own two), 3 had serious issues, and 3 were perfect. If you get a good one its most likely going to last but I had a 50/50 shot of getting a good one. My Taurus 44 mag Tracker's cylinder would open after firing each shot unless I used Special loads only, my Taurus PT-145 went full-auto on me and they had to replace the gun, and my Taurus m85 Ultra light's cylinder would bind until frozen. I would have to use a rubber mallet to unlock the cylinder. However, my 8-shot 357 mag model 608, my 9mm model 905 revolver, and my PT-92 (sold to fund another project) always performed above expectations.
 
:) I had a Taurus 85 S for 8 years and shot many times with no problems. It would eat all ammo. The Taurus 94 is fun to shoot and built like a tank. My 24/7Pro have shot more than 3500 times with no problems and I have confidence on Taurus products although I hate their CS. The product quality is noticeable when compared to other brand names side by side. Some of the bashing on the Taurus products are passed from father to son through generations. I call it parroting, with little or no solid basis for it. A one click wikki search will give anyone the fact that Taurus and S&W had ties on sharing technology. Taurus makes from the screw to the plate in the house. It's a forge industry.
In these days to say Taurus copy others is cheap talking. Taurus has come up with very interesting concepts and products. I love my S&W's, my Tauruses, my XD's. I only comment on guns I know, shot and carried.
10sport64
GRRN, NRA and 2nd Amendment Foundation Member
Self-Defense is Nature's eldest law.
-- John Dryden, English Poet 1631-1700
 
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Owned two autoloaders and both have been some of the most forgiving and easy to maintain and use guns out there.
I voted Excellent.

Interestingly, I wonder what difference ti would make if there was a caveat to only vote if you've only actually owned one that's enforcable.
 
10sport64, I too think that a lot of the negative stories about Taurus guns are second or third hand. While I had issues with some of mine; I also had an issue with a SIG of mine but there was no SIG bashing thread. A gun is a machine and any machine can fail. Furthermore, my 905 and 608 have been perfect from day one.

Fact is, don't believe everything you read on the interwebz.

If you do you might start boiling your Glocks (http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=643968)
 
Wow, those poll results are about as perfect a bell curve as you could find (as of right now, anyway.) Average being the most numerous assessment, and good/bad being evenly distributed.

I've only purchased one new Taurus semi-auto, so my results would be far from conclusive, but here's my experience:

Bought a new PT-22 from a LGS because I liked the tip-up barrel design idea. The initial performance of the gun was unusual compared to other new handguns I've purchased. It barely worked new out of the box, even though I tried to polish and buff the feed ramp and internals first to avoid problems. Jammed every second or third round, and had two or three light strikes every mag. Might've been an ammo related issue to SOME degree, but I tried several different brands.

Instead of sending it back for warranty, I decided to keep shooting it to see if it would smooth out. IT DID. Eventually got to the point where I'd have few or no jams or light strikes during a 100 round shooting session. But it took, by my count, close to 500 rounds to get things smoothed out to that point. I think keepin it clean is important, too.

Last time I shot the gun (about 70 or 80 rounds) I think I had 2 light strikes, but they don't bother me so much now, as a second pull of the trigger sets off the round 95% of the time. (It's DAO.) That makes it, practically speaking, a more-or-less reliable gun, since I don't see a short barrelled .22 as a defense gun, or at least a primary defense gun.

Do I like the gun? Actually, yes...it truly is fun to shoot and surprisingly accurate for it's size. Also looks really good (for the price.)

But does my experience with this one Taurus make me want to buy another? Not exactly.

Would I feel confident buying a Taurus that was intended for primary defense instead of plinking? Not exactly and then some.

True, the gun isn't expensive, but my S&W 22A was FAR more reliable with a wider range of ammo brands, and it cost less than the PT-22. To be fair, I've read that the Beretta .22 (the gun that the PT-22 is based on) has it's share of complaints about reliability, as well. ALSO, I've had both a new Smith and Wesson 9mm and a new Ruger 9mm fail on me recently, too, so why should I pick on the Taurus?

But I'm also kind of surprised that so many Taurus guns are sold, given the 50/50 internet opinions about them. They ARE nice looking guns at an affordable price, and their marketting is extensive, so I guess that has a lot to do with it.

I gave it an "average" rating.
 
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My friend many years ago received a Taurus Millenium .380. The trigger took an act of God to pull. There's no way there wasn't something wrong with it. It wasn't just a heavy trigger. A friend who was a corrections officer at the time had a 92sf (9mm I think). He couldn't fire a full magazine without at least 2 failures. I was at the range and the guy beside me had a Tuarus 45 acp. It was jamming every 2 to 3 shots. I asked him what he was shooting. He said it was a Taurus 45, didn't say what model. I was there for these three experiences. They range over a 10 year period. I have never been beside someone not having problems with a semi auto Taurus. So for me from what I have personally seen. I have to steer clear of them.That being said I have a Taurus model 65 .357 that I love and have had zero problems out of. I love the design of Taurus revolvers. Until I quit reading about the failures people are having, I won't buy one. There's no excuse for so many people having to send new guns in for repair. Doesn't matter how good they are about repairing them. They shouldn't have to send them in the first place. My opinion only on the matter.
 
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