PT 145 misfires & jams

[barbart]

Hi -

I bought a PT 145 today, took it to the range immediately, fired 100 rounds. I had one misfire and two jams - very disappointing. Is it my gun or have any of you experienced this with a PT 145?

I also have an XD-45 - we've fired close to 2000 rounds thru that with no jams or misfires....

I look forward to hearing from you -

Barbara

 

[Jamie C.]

3 possibly-ammo-related malfunctions in the first 100 rounds, with a brand new auto loader, is hardly grounds for being "very disappointing".

Here's the questions that immediately come to mind:
Did you clean the gun before you shot it?
What brand/type of ammo were you using?
What type of "jams" did you have?
Did the mis-fire go off on a second try?

Fire another 300 rounds through it using at least a couple of different types and brands of ammo, and see if the problems continue. If they do, then it's probably the gun and not the ammo.


J.C.

 

[CWL]

Welcome to THR!

Take your PT145 home to clean & lube first. Then take it back to the range and put another 400 rounds through it, keeping track every 100 rounds for FTF/FTEs.

It may just need some breaking-in.

I am curious about the misfire though, was there a firing pin mark on the back of the cartridge? Did you try to shoot that round again and what happened?

What ammo were you using?

What do you mean by "jams"? Stovepipe? Empty cartridge not ejecting? Live round getting caught somewhere? Please explain.

 

[BoneDigger]

PT145

Sorry to hear of your problems.

Before I took my PT145 to the range for the first time (today), I cleaned it thoroughly to make sure I got all of the shipping grease out of the slide. I fired about 150 rounds today and did not have a single problem. I was shooting WWB hard nose bullets.

I wou8ld try some different ammo and give it a good cleaning. If you still have problems, take the gun back to the place you bought it and have THEM ship it to taurus for you so you do not have to pay the cost of shipping.

Todd

 

[barbart]

PT 145 misfires etc

Thanks both for such quick responses - and encouraging ones.

1.The misfire was a light strike from the firing pin. I didn't try to fire that round again.
2. The ammo is Winchester 45ACP FMJ - we use it in the XD just fine.
3. The jams were both the casing not ejecting properly.

At the moment I'm ready to blame it all on not cleaning the gun first - which I'll do tomorrow. I'll go to the range Saturday if we don't get snowed in and try it again full report to follow...

Barbara

 

[wally]

Keep the firing pin (striker) channel clean and dry, oil or grease in there can cushion the strike and trap dirt which will do an even better job of the same

It the ejection failures had the brass out of the chamber and the empties caught between the barrel and slide while the next round is trying to feed could be you need a firmer grip -- small heavy recoiling autoloaders are prone to doing this without a firm grip, its often called "limpwristing" and the failure a "stovepipe" (because of the way the empty sticks out the port).

--wally.

Edit: Cold weather often interferes with having a firm grip.

 

[KaliS-Pugilist]

hey barbara, i would do as the other posters have suggested. i have not had a problem out of mine at all. about 300 rounds in and one light primer strike on a single reload i bought at the gunshow. this gun is reliable and shoots fairly accurately too, although i have not tried to focus on accuracy much with it at this point. when i first went to shoot i lightly oiled the frame slide groves only, no cleaning. the gun was flawless in its maiden shooting. so i would also suggest the light cleaning first and foremost, then a firmer grip.

the pt145 pro doesnt necessarily toss the brass out pretty far, and it also tosses it all around (wear a good collar, lol). if you have a bullet in the chamber and take out the mag, pull the slide back to eject the round...it should fall straight through the mag well or just barely fall to the right. with my XD the round would be tossed to the right and ejected pretty good. i would think that this would be a problem if some was limpwristing. maybe in the 4th generation of this gun taurus will do something about that as well...

this is piston has become one of the finest small .45's on the market...possibly the finest, which is quite amazing given its price. it has become a RARE thing to find someone having a problem with it in 3rd generation models and the 2nd generations are pretty good too from what i have read.

let us know how it does after you shoot again...im curious to know.

shoot safe....

 

[Dave R]

Welcome to THR, barbart!

Some good advice hear. Eager to hear how your 2nd session goes. My PT-145 has over 1k rounds through it, and has not had a misfeed, yet. Hope yours does as well.

 

[dafitch]

Although I've never had any problems with my PT-145, duing a detailed cleaning I did find quite a bit of metal fragments left from the machining process in the firing pin channel. I'm talking about 4 small pieces left from ID boring. I swabbed out the channel with a q-tip and was really surprised at all the stuff that was in there. Overall, I thought there were quite a bit of machining scraps left in the pistol, but I guess any being left is too much. My trigger feel improved after the detail cleaning as well.

 

[Manedwolf]

At the moment I'm ready to blame it all on not cleaning the gun first

That's a big one, yes. Though those are known for being great out of the box, as my PT745 was, they don't mean LITERALLY out of the box!

They're shipped with grease meant to protect it in transit, not the sort best for operation, and some parts might not have enough of a film at all on them. It also picks up dust, and some tiny metal shavings from manufacture might be left.

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS disassemble, clean and lubricate a gun before taking it to shoot the first time. I've always used Break Free on mine.

 

[DawgFvr]

Thoroughly clean every new weapon prior to initial firing...SOP. Lightly "grease" the rails instead of using oil. I have the second generation DAO and you can pull the trigger again on light strikes which has always solved my problem by going bang. Take a mental note on the ammo...never use it again. Find ammo that your gun likes. Me...I use the all-copper DPX which was designed just for these short barreled pocket cannons. I use them for practice...and for carry. I clean my weapon after firing every 50 rounds...and have never had a malfunction of any kind. By Jove...firing a DAO Tarus Millennium Pro PT-145, following the above instructions, is like firing a revolver...every time you pull the trigger, it goes bang.

 

[ZeSpectre]

Lubed for shipping NOT shooting

As the others have said, you need to give the gun a good cleaning and re-lube with something appropriate like Breakfree CLP. The factory lubes up a gun for shipping not shooting.

Another issue to check for is an incorrectly inserted spring.

I have seen no less than two NIB Millennum Pro pistols with the spring installed in the wrong direction. As I understand it Taurus is making a very slight change in design to prevent this but I don't know if they've started doing it yet or not.

 

[barbart]

Cleaned the gun today

wow - thanks for all of the replies. I'm quite encouraged that it's the lack of cleaning and not the gun. I cleaned it real good today and it was real dirty and had gunky stuff on the slides so it seems more than likely that that's the problem. I hope to get to the range tomorrow with it...

Barbara

 

[ulflyer]

3th Generation was mentioned above: how does one tell
when they were made?

 

[SouthpawShootr]

Generations in this case can be hard to define. I've been watching these guns since they were introduced. Here's what I've seen:

- Very early guns looked very much like the original PT-111s and PT-140s, a decidedly different look than current.

- Very soon after introduction, the Millenium PT-145 was redone to look much the same as it does now, just without the frame rail. These guns guns frequently generated complaints of frame cracking and shearing off of the safety. Apparently the safety lever wasn't all that positive and it was possible to have it partially up but not engaged - the gun would fire and shear the safety lever right off.

- A polymer reformulation was done and the frame cracking problem was eliminated. I don't have my notes on this, but it seems to me that this was done somewhere around December 2002. My own PT-145 was manufactured during this era just before the Pro model was available. Works fine. Trigger isn't as nice as the Pros.

- Introduction of the Millenium Pro models. All three Millenium models were based on an updated PT-145 frame. Improvements on triggerpull and a more positive safety is introduced. Still no accessory rail.

- Introduction of an accessory rail. Probably about 6 months after introduction of the Pro models.

- Change sights to front and rear dovetail and introduction of DA/SA. As far as I know this is the latest revision. Original sights were held in place on the top of the slide by prongs and screw. Not even windage adjustable. Suited me just fine b/c my gun show to point of aim out of the box. Some people didn't get along well with this.

I've been thinking of updating my PT-145 to a Pro model (in other words getting another one), but haven't gotten around to it yet. My PT-145 is a gun I have with me most of the time when I'm out. Not particularly good looking, but it works.

 

[ZeSpectre]

As I understand it...

Generation 1 (Taurus Millennium) Slide says Taurus Millennium (not pro) on one side. These were the troubled childern with pins that came out and subframes that cracked. DAO trigger

Generation 2 (Taurus Millennium Pro) Slide says "Millennium Pro" on one side and the model number on the other (PT-140 or whatever). DAO triggers

Generation 3 (Taurus Millennium Pro) Slide sayd "Millennium" on one side and "Pro" plus the model number on the other side. SA/DA trigger