PT145 is a jam-o-matic!

[longhorngunman]

Recently bought a Taurus PT145 NIB that I was hoping to become my new CCW piece. Did a lot of research here and on other sights and the reviews were quite favorable. I took it to the range today to put some rounds through it. Total jamomatic! It fed the first three rounds I put through it and then it was a constant Failure to feed. The rounds wanted to stovepipe into the top of the barrel chamber and seem to get stuck on the lower part of the breechface. 230gr FMJ ball, 200gr TAP, 185gr HP's, Speer GD's, 200gr LSWC, didn't matter it jammed on all. Surprisingly when it did feed, the Speer GD's were more constant than FMJ ammo. Totally disappointed in this gun.

And I don't want to hear the "Taurus is always crap" line either. After being dismayed with the PT145 I immediately put a bunch of rounds through my PT1911 without a hitch, that gun will eat anything. I dissasembled the 145 and cleaned it up, did not see anything out of the ordinary. Guess I'm going to find out soon whether that Taurus Lifetime warranty and Customer service is any good or not.

 

[model4006]

my buddy just got a taurus 9mm millenium pro or whatever. same thing. you were very lucky to get two rounds through it in a row. its back at taurus right now. from the first round it was like that. shame for a brand new gun.

 

[jeepmor]

Wow, that's the first one I've heard of being a lemon. Is it the third generation model? Sounds more like my 10mm Witness to me, I know what you are going through in regards to the frustration.

Try another magazine before you send it back to rule that out. And if you know anyone with another, you might swap the recoil spring with them just to test run it that way too.

In regards to warranty work, I suggest you follow their methodology to a tee. Seems that stuff that gets in the return departments without the proper path being taken just gets your item set aside and they take the "he'll call us when he wants to straighten things out" type of attitude. Meanwhile, you may think things are fine and they haven't even started on it or put it in their repair que yet.

 

[BigO01]

Do you have more than one magazine to try in it before you send it back ?

 

[TimboKhan]

I would say try a different magazine as well. A bad mag can positively ruin an otherwise good gun, and it is about as easy a fix as you will ever find. Also, make sure that the mag is seated fully. Past that, send it back to Taurus, as I am sure they will make it right.

As an aside, I have been totally impressed by my PT1911 as well. It has thus far proved to be as unpicky about what I feed it as my P90 has been, which is quite a compliment.

 

[fattsgalore]

Dose the round stay in the chamber half seated or is it a true stove pipe. You may need a break in period or just keep the slide in the rear locked back position till the spring is broken in. Try everything before sending it out. I would. Who knows how long it'll be before it's returned. But since you have more than one firearm you shouldn't be worried though.

 

[longhorngunman]

It's the latest third-generation model with the rail and Heinie sights. Bought it brand new from Sportsmans Warehouse. It came with two magazines and it jammed with both. I swapped them both out and it didn't make a dang difference. Made sure the rounds were seated properly and the top one was back against the backside of the mag as designed, made sure mags were properly seated in the grip. I had kept the mags loaded for nearly two weeks so the spring pressure wouldn't be to much being new.No luck. And I ain't buying another $37 dollar mag for a gun that's already told me it's a lemon. Already filled out Taurus's warranty card and sent it to them when I first got it, can't believe I'm putting it to use this soon .

Only reason I paid extra for one at Sportsmans was that the salesman told me they would take care of the return and recieving of the gun if it needed to go to Taurus, so I shouldn't be out of pocket for shipping, so we'll see how that works out and I'll let ya'll know if Sportsman's is good to their word as well.

Sigh, I ain't totally discounting the PT 145, Taurus mass produces guns, there are going to be lemons sometimes that's how it works, I'm in a similar industry and it's part of manufacturing. Hopefully it gets fixed, I run hundreds of rounds through it and get my confidence back with it. I hope so because the initial qualities of the 145 are outstanding: good grip feel, hicapacity .45acp in a small package, the SA/DA trigger is very nice, cocked and locked, and it seemed pretty accurate when it actually shot.

BTW: yes I did check and make sure I put the recoil spring in the right way, some have apparently put it in backwards. I can afford to send it away because I still have a G23 and a gem in a Kel-tec P3AT for CCW.

 

[weregunner]

Did you go over to www.taurusarmed.net and check recent threads or do a search over there on this problem. If there is a problem these guys in the PT145 club over there can help. Ask or put the problem to them and see what they say. Collectively there's very little they haven't come up against.

 

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

Hmmm. I would bet it was a fluke with just that particular gun or mag. I have a PT140, and it's tough as nails. I carry it everywhere.

 

[ZeSpectre]

Okay, let's be somewhat methodical about this.

1) Did you disassemble, clean/degrease and then re-lube EVERYTHING before you started shooting? Taurus lubes it's guns for shipping NOT shooting. My PT-140 was surprisingly dirty from the factory and I seriously doubt it would have worked well had I tried to shoot it right out of the box.

2) The sort of jams you are describing sound like the recoil spring may be in backwards. I have personally seen TWO new-in-box Millennium Pro guns with the springs installed backwards. You get one or two good rounds and the jam-o-matics start.



3) When you clean the pistol look at the rear, rightmost quadrant of the slide rails and see if there are any brass bits in that area. Also check the same area of the frame rails. For the first 80+ rounds I kept finding tiny bits of brass in that area that I'm sure would have eventually started binding up the slide. After about 100 rounds that phenomenon stopped happening.

4) Check the rivets at the very back of the frame rails. Are they flush? One of four on mine wasn't. It never caused me a problem and now is worn smooth but I remember thinking "hrmm, that could cause a lot of drag".

 

[slow944]

That's Amazing!! I bought a PT145 a month ago and didn't even clean it , but went straight to the range with 100rds of CCI Blazer, didn't have any failures at all. Put another 200rds thru getting ready to Re-Qualify for my CHL and then another 50 for the shooting test, still no failures. I've cleaned the gun once since I bought it the end of January. Sounds like you got a lemon from Taurus. Send it back to them and let them fix it under warranty.

 

[DawgFvr]

I think ZeSpectre might be on to something. The spring is probably installed wrong...very easy to do. Clean it, reassembe it and try it again. I have never had a stove pipe in my life from my second generation PT145. I have had a couple of mis-fires on some very hard primers...nice thing about DAO pistols is that you just pull the trigger again and it goes boom with those hard primers. I found that my pistol likes Corbon DPX all copper bullets...never has a problem with those...and I trust this Taurus to be my carry weapon.

 

[bigmike45]

Mine must be a Generation 2 model as it does not have the Heine sights. Anyway it has been flawless in it's operation for over 3000 rounds. I honestly think it would feed rocks if I could get them in the magazine.



The advice about the return spring possibly being installed backwards is definately a possible cause. My buddy bought one like mine, was having similar problems and when re reversed the return spring, all problems ceased. It is his only CCW and he is darn proud of it.

 

[tango3065]

I had one also and it went back and still came back just as bad as it was before, I have had 3 of their guns and I now own 0 and plan on keeping it that way.

 

[torpid]

For what it's worth, I own both a second and a third generation PT-145 Pro with no problems (so far).

 

[model4006]

this almost sounds like a hi point thread, its too bad taurus doesnt have better qc, shame that nice guns can get a bad rap on the internet and some people might not buy them.

 

[DawgFvr]

Look...the Taurus Millennium PT145 is a fabulously designed weapon. To date...the Tarui auto problems which people had, that I personally knew, resulted from "operator error". Many on these forums, who have never even owned a Taurus, give that company a bad rap. Of all my weapons, I can honestly say I really got my money's worth out of this pocket cannon. Am I saying that Taurus cannot have a lemmon...nope. Every weapon maker...as well as any mechanical device can have problems. First...lets rule out human error before we start slinging stones...eh?

 

[ZeSpectre]

this almost sounds like a hi point thread, its too bad taurus doesnt have better qc, shame that nice guns can get a bad rap on the internet and some people might not buy them.

I've had quite a bit of experience with Taurus pistols in the past year and it does seem that the good ones, the majority, are really first rate BUT the lemons are so bad that they really ought to be put back in the smelter and recycled for the metal.

I just don't understand how the same company can make such excellence and such crap out of the same damn production lines.

 

[nelson133]

I have a 9mm and .40 S&W and a friend has a .40 S&W and neither of us has had a single problems with several hundred rounds in each gun. Oh wait, a squib load stuck a bullet in the barrel of my friends gun Sunday at the range. Taurus must be junk.

 

[Devonai]

Still no problems with mine after a few hundred rounds of FMJ and a several dozen of 185gr JHP.

 

[davhina]

Have the pt111 9mm 3rd gen. Put 200 rounds thru it right out of the box. No trouble. Love it! Carry it everyday, without exception.

ZeSpectre,
Good point on the spring placement photo.

 

[michiganfan]

I have two Taurus'. One was an early PT 145 and my present is a Tracker 44. Both had to go back for repair. Both came back very reliable. I was pleased with the service. Just sort of peeved they didnt get it right the first time.

 

[marksman13]

Not a single failure with my PT111. Still have powder residue on my hands from today's outing actually. This truly is a great little pistol. Give Taurus a chance to make it right before you count them out. I hope you will be as pleased as I am.

 

[longhorngunman]

How the hell did this become a "Bash Taurus, now jump on and defend Taurus" thread? Who's bashing them? I certainly am not. I was just posting that this particular Taurus gun I bought is a lemon, my PT1911 on the other hand is an absolute terrific gun and I've praised it here many a time.. And if this is operator error then please enlighten me. Yes the recoil spring is in correctly just like I stated in an earlier post, in fact I don't see how you can put it in backwards, I tried to do it in mine and it won't go. I'm posting some pics of the slide, breechface( there does seem to be some abnormal wear below the extractor, and a pic of the feed ramp(which is finely polished BTW) .

I've owned or own Sigs(got a nice P226 for sale right now ), Glocks, Ruger, S&W, Steyr, Hipowers, Kel-tec, and another Taurus, never had any that jam like this little sucker does. Again I ain't bashing Taurus, just stating that this particular gun is a lemon and now I'll see if Taurus and for that matter SW's customer service is worth a dang. If they fix it and it runs like it should I will be a very happy and satisfied camper and post it here.

 

[longhorngunman]

BTW: I did field strip it down and clean all the parts and then greased the friction points with TW25 lube. Only part that I was concerned that I didn't clean well was the striker channel. And this was no concern very deep positive strike on the rounds WHEN it did chamber them!