First day out with Taurus Pt709 "Slim"

I've been wanting a single stack, subcompact 9mm for awhile. I went in to my LGS determined to buy one and ended up with the pt709. I did look at the Kahr CW9, Ruger LC9, Baretta Nano, and the XDs. There was just something about the Taurus that I liked. The 709 fits in my hand nicely, it had excellent fit and finish, the single action trigger felt just like my Glock. It was also a full featured little gun complete with slide stop and adjustable sights. It was between this and the XDs, I liked the 709 better and it was about $270 cheaper.

I did know that I was taking a chance with the Taurus. I've seen some Taurus guns that were outstanding firearms and others that were complete junk. The risk seems to have paid off.

Today I put about 200 rounds of various ammunition through this little gun and I LOVE IT. I shot an assortment of Federal FMJ, Tulammo, Winchester White Box, and Hornady Critical Defense. Only problem was that a Tulammo casing got stuck in the chamber. I was pretty worried that I wouldn't be able to get it out, however, I managed to get it field stripped. The barrel was jammed in to the slide because of the shell casing which the extractor had a death grip on. Once I got the barrel out I was able to get the casing out of the chamber by prying it with a knife. No harm done. After this I shot the remaining 45 rounds of Tulammo and 100 assorted rounds with no problems. I'm not sure if I blame the gun or the ammo for this.

Early on I had some problems with the slide holding open on the second to last round and not holding open after the last round. This stopped after about 120 rounds.

Overall my particular 709 seems to be extremely well made. There really isn't anything "cheap" about it. It still hasn't proven itself like my Glock 22 has but that takes a few years of use. I like my new EDC

Please chime in with any insight you may have on my little FTE. It concerned me a little bit but I shot almost 150 rounds after that with no repeat.

I got in the nasty habit of buying Tulammo because of my Glock 22. My Glock loves the stuff.

The slide was holding open with one round left in the mag with all the ammo I tried except for Hornady. The problem was more frequent early on and it stopped entirely before the 120 round mark. I figure it's just a teething problem.

I don't know when the next time I'll get to take it out and sling that amount of lead will be. 9mm doesn't last long on the shelves here (still). All in all, I'm quite impressed with this gun. I don't think a brand new S&W or XDs would be as likely to have these teething problems but they do seem to have worked themselves out. Also, before I took the 709 out I did a pretty detailed cleaning and removed a lot of factory gunk. After my little range trip more gunk appeared which could have caused my few problems.

Yes, I would recommend this pistol to a friend.