Here's a review I did after Christmas 06 of the PT1911.
Got a Taurus PT 1911 on 12/27/06 and it's a very nice pistol for the money.
Field stripped it, cleaned and oiled it when I got it home. Their ads say they are hand fitted. I could tell from looking over the parts that this one was hand fitted. The extractor, barrel hood, slide stop, and slide showed filing and polishing marks.
The fit and finish are very good. Not quite as good as my Kimber Pro Carry II, but very nice. The checkering is machine cut and a little uneven on the front of the grip but not bad enough to send it back to Taurus. The slide is tight and doesn't rattle. There is very very slight movement of the barrel when in lock and pushing down on the barrel hood. The trigger measured 4 1/4 lbs (out of the box) with about 1/16 in take up and slight creep, crisp release. The pistol comes with two mags, brush, and a barrel wrench. Didn't need the barrel wrench as the barrel bushing moved easily with hand pressure. Because it has a full length guide rod the spring plug has a hole thru it. I used the base of one of the mags to depress the spring plug.
Took it to the range today and fired 250 rnds thru it. It fed Independence 230 grn FMJ just fine. I used some HSM 230 grn JHP and it choked on it some. As I shot more it seemed to have less of a problem. But the JHPs were not reliable at this point. Will try some better JHP after a few hundred more rounds of FMJ. My best group was 4 shots into 1.5 in at 35 ft two handed grip. For comparison my best group with the same ammo out of my Kimber is about 1.25 in.
All things considered I am very pleased with the PT 1911. Well worth the $540 that I paid for it. It is a big step up from the RIA, SA, Charles Daly, Hi Standards that I looked at. There are cheaper prices out there if you look hard enough. This was my first Internet purchase. I usually like to purchase locally, so I can fondle the gun before buying it. But couldn't find any local dealer that could keep one in stock long enough for me to buy it. I got mine thru Red's Trading Post in Twin Falls, ID. I highly recommend them, quick and very good service.
http://www.redstradingpost.com/
UPDATE
Since I did this review about 3 weeks ago; I have run 400 more rounds thru the Taurus. Remington UMC 230 grn JHP feed reliably. WWB 230 grn JHP will feed reliably if I only load 7 rnds in the 47D or Taurus mags. It doesn't like my HSM 230grn JHPs at all, they are loaded shorter than the other ammo I've tried. Just have to find out what the Taurus likes.
Since I did this review I sent my PT1911 back to Taurus because the primers on the casings from my gun had a unusual ring around the firing pin indentation. Some of the posters on the net recommended that anyone with that problem send their guns back to Taurus for repair or replacement. So I sent mine to Taurus. Taurus shipped me a new pistol in 2 1/2 wks. I'd say their customer service is excellent!!
After I got my new PT1911 from them, I found out why the firing pin hole is chamfered. It's to impove reliability, so the casing won't catch on the firing pin hole. A number of gunsmiths do this as part of their reliability packages. Looks like Taurus just chamferes it more than some of the smiths do. So this was a lot of concern over nothing, that's what I get for listening to some of the know-it-alls on the web! I should know better by this time.
The new pistol looks great. The checkering on the front strap is even and just fine. The trigger pull on this one is 5 lbs out of the box. There's no creep in this pistols trigger and it has a crisp break with no overtravel. So I'll probably do some fluff and buff to get it down to about 4 lbs. By the way, if you take the firing pin block parts out of the slide the pull will drop about 1 lb and it works just fine. Pushing down on the barrel hood results in NO movement, tighter than my first PT1911. Slide fit is just fine with no rattle when shaken. Accuracy is very good, the best I can do is 1.5 in four shot groups at 35-45 ft. That's the same as I can do with my Kimber Pro Carry. Like I said in my original review it's not quite up to Kimber standards but it's not very far away from them. Not bad for the $540 that I paid for mine. And the price is going up quickly as people find out how good they are. YMMV