JR47,
Tinygnat purports to have bought SEVEN.
Yup I am a glutton for punishment. Before this sounds like a complete Taurus bashing, I like their style, their ability to innovate, and their prices. I kept thinking that the next one could never be as bad as the last one. I was surprised at how wrong I was. Here's my experience below with each model that I have personally owned:
Taurus 94 .22 LR Revolver
My wife liked this one, and the price was right at $350.00. Constant misfires, misaligned cylinder, and horrible DA Trigger pull right out of the box. The action binded after a while, so I took off the sideplate and metal shavings were all over the action. I blew them out with compressed air and spent another 2 hours with tweezers pulling the smaller shards out. It worked for a bit, but bound up again this time with fewer metal shavings. I sent it to Taurus who fixed the other major issues, but it still misfired constantly so I sold it for $150.00
Gaucho in 357 with a 4.75 inch barrel
Looked pretty, felt nice, had a nice "4 click" hammer system. I loved the way these looked. However, the hammersprings kept giving light primer strikes every third cylinder of ammo. It didn't matter what the ammo was, it wouldn't light it off after the third cylinderful. Returned it to Taurus, who couldn't find anything wrong, but the problem persisted. I got rid of it. Bought it for 400, sold it for 300.00
Gaucho in 357 with a 5.5 inch barrel
Same loves and looks as the previous one. This one had the same problem as the other one, but also developed a "trigger slap" where the trigger would rebound and actually pinch the finger holding the trigger. Sent it back to Taurus. Their sheet literally said: "Fixed problem" I called and asked for an explanation of what work was done and the reps couldn't tell me. Only thing was, the problem wasn't fixed. It still had that slap. I got rid of it as well. Bought it for 400 sold it for 250.00 this was when CDNN got most of the rest of the Taurus inventory and the NIB Gauchos were going for 300.
Taurus 905 9MM Revolver
Ok, I got into the 9MM Revolver phase and except for an SP101 made by Ruger that couldn't be found anywhere, or a $1000 model 940 S&W Snub, this was the only choice. I picked it up, it looked fine and it felt fine. It even fired the first 20 rounds with no problems. The SA and DA triggers were superb. I thought I had found a real gun. At round 21, I close the cylinder, and it won't lockup, it was free-spinning in the cylinder. I pry loose the sideplate and Woohoo! More metal shavings. Cursing at this point, I blow the shavings out with compressed air, and send it back to Taurus. To their credit, they actually fixed this one, at least it didn't have the same problem after 50 more rounds. I didn't want to experience another go around with another failure, so I sold mine. Bought for 450, sold for 200
Taurus PT22 .22LR Semiauto pistol
This was my first handgun I ever purchased and I have to wonder why. DAO trigger, wide grip, short barrel. The 2nd time I ever had this on the range, the firing pin busted. I found two pieces inside the gun. Sent it back to Taurus, it was fixed and sent back 2 months later. The safety later broke on it as well, sent it back again. Got it back 4 weeks later. Sold it shortly thereafter. Bought for 185, sold for 125
Taurus Milennium Pro 745 (2nd Generation DAO) in .45ACP
Overall, probably my best Taurus. It gave me the least problems, the only real one was constantly shooting 6 inches low, and an occasional failure to return to battery. I traded this one in on the 145 which was SA/DA, and held 10 rounds of .45 ACP to the 7 in this pistol. Bought for 300, sold for 300.
Taurus Milennium Pro 145 (SA/DA) in .45 ACP.
Probably my biggest disappointment and the gun that finally allowed me to make the decision to give up on Taurus completely. I loved the styling, the trigger, the mag capacity, the compactness, and the thumb safety. Only problem was after 50 rounds, the guide rod, mainspring assembly started coming out from underneath the barrel. The Spring had been compressed and was making its way over the plunger. This was causing it to not return to battery. Called Taurus and stated the problem. They said to send it in. I said I know what the problem is, just send me the part and I can fix it. Shoot, I even offered to pay for the $4.85 part. I didn't see the need to spend 65 dollars shipping the gun overnight for them to replace the part. They told me they were out of stock and that it would take 2 weeks for replacements to come in. This carried on for 4 months until I finally got the part I needed. I installed the part and damn if it wouldn't go into battery. This happened a lot fewer times before I switched parts, but it was still annoying. I sold mine for 200 bucks with a custom holster I had made for it. Bought for 425, sold for 200.
I have sworn off Taurus products ever since and will recommend that others do so as well. They have serious QC issues, and their reliability is questionable at best.
