Probable new gun owners, a tale of two firearm manufacturers

In the last year or so I had to send two firearms back to their company for repair. Both were 22 caliber handguns. The 1st was a Taurus TX22. The second was a Ruger SR22. The Taurus TX22 was purchased new. The Ruger SR22 was purchased used and was four years old.

The Taurus was three months old, had about 4500 rds fired when the front of the slide cracked caused by the recoil spring assembly which gauged away the aluminum where it rode in the front of the slide. It also had a lot of chatter marks in the barrel. Was sent to Taurus with a explanation of the problems. After 12 WEEKS it was returned. Taurus replaced the slide, did nothing about the recoil assembly or the chattered barrel. The description from Taurus was replaced slide & fired 32 rds. Upon inspection the newly replaced slide already had gauge marks from the non replaced recoil assembly.

The Ruger was sent in for a broken slide lock which was caused by me, not the guns fault. Being 4 yrs old & used, I had fired over 5000 rds through it and since I didn't know how much use it got from the previous owner, I requested that Ruger replace any worn parts and that I would cover the cost of any parts that were replaced. I received the SR22 back from Ruger in 10 DAYS. The description from Ruger was replaced the entire slide and all its components, the slide stop, slide stop spring and the ENTIRE frame assembly. Fired 30 rds. I basically received a brand new firearm and the charge from Ruger, $0. Completely covered under their warranty.

If you looking for a new firearm or you're a 1st time buyer the difference between what company you're buying from should be given serious consideration.

PS - The TX22 was sent back pre covid19 - The SR22 was sent back 11 days ago.

 

Thank you for the info. Hopefully Taurus will get to the level of Ruger one day.

 

If more manufacturers were like Ruger in that regard, many wouldn't have the problems and reputation that they do....

 

Never have had to use it but I believe Ruger's Customer service is second to none in the firearms industry.

 

comparing prices for NIB on GB

Ruger SR22 $490
Taurus TX22 $330

non-cynical evaluation
You get what you pay for and quality and CS cost real money.

cynical evaluation
Someone paid for the CS and replacement slide at the time of purchase, whether they needed it or not.

But seriously... why even bother comparing top shelf quality like Ruger to bottom shelf discount cheapo guns like Taurus? I'd rather live in a world where we have choices and guns are withing the economic reach of people with less discretionary income.

 

Ok, how about we compare Taurus with Hi-Point. Hi Point's customer service is right up there with Ruger & there firearms are a hell of a lot cheaper than Taurus. It's all about a company caring and having respect for people that buy your product.

 

Customer service is a major factor for repeat business from me.

Yeah...product quality is an obvious one. But a company which WANTS to fix the problems you are having is well worth paying more for, initially.

My Colt 1991A1 had a minor problem shortly after I bought it in 1991. I contacted an authorized Colt service center and they said "No problem. It's a Colt, we'll fix it." (By error on the Gun Shop, they shipped it to the Colt factory instead...when I found out and called them, they verified they had received the gun, fixed it, and express shipped it back the next day.)

That was 31 years ago.

Our computers at home are all HP for the same reason...HP just FIXES any problems. They even fixed stuff that was out of warranty at no charge.

 

Good on Ruger! They have been very good to me as well. Glock is excellent too...if you are ever by the Smyrna GA. Location, drop off your gun before lunch, go back in a few hours, and they will inspect, clean, and replace the internals and fix any issues free of charge.

 

I've only sent 2 guns back to their maker. One was a Colt Defender, the other a Ruger M77 varmint in 220 Swift. Neither were bought new but were like new when I got them. Didn't make a bit of difference to either company though. Colt did take about a month, but a local smith had it 3 times in a month and didn't fix it. Ruger had the swift back to me in about 3 weeks with a new barrel.

 

Quality shouldn't stop at the firearm. I have known about Ruger's excellent service.

 

I like to buy things that won't have to be fixed.

Buddy of mine was bragging about great his Chevy dealership was and that they had free donuts in the waiting area and nice loaner cars. I told him that I had no idea how nice my Toyota Dealer's service lounge was since I never had to take it there for repairs.

Same concept with firearms. I have no idea how good Glock's customer service is since I've never used it in 20+ years of shooting Glocks.

 

‘This ^^^^ is the reason I do not buy Taurus products. Not because I think that they are junk or because they come from Brazil, or me being snobbish, but because of their lack of customer service.

 

Yeah.

Ruger's got a couple decades of CS Reputation; their support is part of their appeal.

Taurus is an el cheapo manufacturing conglomerate in Brazil, exporting cut rate arms to the US since '68. Their customers buy despite their well earned reputation.

 

https://www.gunsamerica.com/digest/taurus-usa-firearm-factory-miami-florida/

When I got an invite to the factory at Taurus Firearms, I thought I had just scored a free trip to Brazil! But little did I know, Taurus makes many of their guns right here in the USA, near my stomping grounds in Miami.

 

They got close to S&W level of quality for a while there, back in the late '80s, early '90s. Since Braztech came along, their QC has been in freefall.

 

I worked at the LGS for a while. We would neither sell Taurus nor take them on trade. This was early 2000’s

 

No one I know wants to buy things that break. The Ruger didn't fail, the owner who accidently broke it (me) failed. Ruger made it right because they care about the people that own their products. Never owned a Glock, just not for me, but I believe that the Glock company, like any other company that stands behind their product, bends over backwards to put out a high quality flaw free product into the hands of their consumers. Glock isn't perfect, Ruger isn't perfect but companies like these CARE about you and me, the ones that purchase their product. That's what makes the difference between a great company and a not so great one.

 

@triplebike: Thank you for taking the time to post this. It is useful information (to me).

 

Keep in mind this is one person's experience with a new to market gun, and I believe Triplebike has been repeating this same experience several times over since the beginning of the year. Can't say that I blame him, but I mention this only to make a point. Like they say, bad news travels fast and far. It's also regurgitated and repeated often in the age of the internet and social media especially when someone feels they've been burnt. I believe in another thread, he and another member had an issue with their examples of the TX22 and there was a debate vs several other members had nothing but positive experience. Triplebike explicitly expressed frustration over other long time forum members defending Taurus.



Google Walther PPS M2 Barrel Peening. Walther says there's nothing wrong and it's normal.



I've been a member of the S&W forum for years. It's filled with complaints from members who had tons of issues with S&W revolvers and the M&P line. People who said they sent their gun back, and the issue still exist or S&W stated they didn't find anything wrong. The same stories from Kimber, Sig, Beretta, and even some on the Ruger forum. AR15.com, Reddit, and Ruger's forum have many post about people who complain about Ruger's QC. Basically it's the same complaint you hear about S&W abd Colt which is QC was better in the past. Oh, and I need not bring up Sig do I and them knowingly ignoring a safety issue, only fixing it the the military version and not the civilian version, the lawsuit they lost, and them only offering a "voluntary upgrade" to fix it.

I had a NIB first trip to the range Ruger LC9s Pro basically have every time of feeding and extracting failure you can think of before the trigger just went dead out of the blue. I can't say that I've heard many stories about Glocks, Springfields, and CZs though to be honest. With all that said, these companies, Ruger, Glock, Taurus, and Sig, literally manufacture close to one million firearms each and every year. There has to be tens of millions of pistols from each of those manufacturers in circulation. I do not and have not seen in any significant numbers or trends of people having issues with Taurus pistols. What I do see is a random complaint here and there, and then everyone jumps on the Taurus bashing bandwagon. They seem to be making decent and reliable firearms at affordable prices that the overwhelming number of owners from casual shooters to the more experienced seem to like. The only issues I see that Taurus currently suffers from that other manufacturers do not is the lead time on their warranty service; however, that's an issue the their CEO publicly stated he's going to fix.

 

Today I fired 200+ rds through the SR22. It ran flawlessly, felt like a brand new gun, which it practically is. It also looks brand new. I thoroughly enjoy shooting it, always did. The new rear sight was adjusted perfectly and its POI was dead on.

 

Hey Styx, we're talking about a company that ACUALLY cares about the people that buy their products. There is no perfect company or perfect product. It's about what the company does to solve the problem. It's about how a company treats its consumers. Buy all the Taurus firearms you want. Preach to all your buddies how marvelous the Taurus firearms are. Recommend them to everyone that asks you what gun to buy. It's a free country. Nobody's stopping you. I believe that Taurus doesn't give a rats ass about its consumers and there's plenty of proof of that. If you can't see that fine. I will never recommend Taurus to a fellow gun owner, tere are way too many better options, way to many gun companies that care a heck of a lot more than Taurus.

 

The only thing you posted that's different than what I heard about Ruger and other manufacturers is the twelve week lead time. Lead times seems to be a common issue with Taurus. Ruger had my pistol back to me in three weeks from the time I dropped it off to be shipped, so I give them credit for that. Everything else that you had an issue with, I can cite Ruger, S&W, etc owners who had a similar issue with the manufacturer saying something that's clearly an issue is normal or returning a firearm without the actual core issue being solved. This is not something that's unique to Taurus is what I'm trying to say, and compared to the number of pistols they're producing, it does not seem to be a common among Taurus owners.

 

Ok you believe that Taurus's only fault is their 12 week turnaround, otherwise they equal to Ruger, S&W, Glock , CZ and the rest of the major companies. I don't. You can help & recommend fellow gun owners any way you want. I will do the same.