Zt77:
I have heard from plenty of people who say they have had excellent service from Taurus guns, but nearly all the one’s I’ve used were duds.
A former employer got a security contract from a Brazilian CEO, and he stated he wanted to see Brazilian guns in our holsters. The boss bought 12 Taurus Model 92s. ALL malfed and were sent back to Hialeah FL. Twice. Still would not feed or extract reliably. He had a gunsmith whittle on the grips and fit them to Berettas. The customer never noticed.
I was given a Taurus 92 Compact. It worked perfectly from the first shot, though the former owner had broken it in. He did not say he ever had a problem with it. I turned down many offers for it.
With that success, I bought a Taurus Model 100 for under $100. Failure to feed and extract, and was wildly inaccurate. Sent it to Hialeah and to a local gunsmith a total of three times with no resolution. I sent it again to FL with a blistering letter. They replaced the barrel and unspecified internals and it has worked perfectly since, and is accurate, too. However, I’ll never trust it.
Then, our children lobbied strongly for .22 revolvers. The Taurus 94 was available locally at a VERY attractive price, and a Big Time Gunwriter in one of the magazines lavished praise on them. I sprung for 4.
First time at the range, the middle son says “Dad, I can’t see the sight.” I was about to say something cute when I noted that the rear sight was not ON the gun. Found it on the floor. I gave him mine to shoot. (All have been shooting since the age of 5, “owned” their own guns since age of 10, and became proficient with everything I ever owned as they were able to hold them. Oldest is now professional military, just returned from his fourth deployment to Iraq, youngest is LEO, middle one is Jujitsu and hand-weapons instructor.)
One by one, with less than 18 rounds through them, each gun became impossible to shoot. The cylinders would not turn, probably due to fouling. Sent them back to Taurus. Got them back with a Nasty Note saying they were fine. Long story short, I got some Rugers for the boys and dumped the Taurus’ ONLY to people who said they understood the POS, and at a substantial loss over the now-not-so-attractive price.
Last one was a 5-round .44 Special snubbie, from a colleague. He said it had a crappy trigger and was inaccurate. “Crappy” was a HUGE understatement. “Nearly Impossible To Pull” would better describe it, double-action. It was inaccurate because it was impossible to hold on target while crushing the gun in hand to be able to pull the trigger. Sent to Taurus. Came back with a butter-smooth trigger but would not fire two out of five rounds. Light primer strikes. Took it to local gunsmith. He gave up. Installed original style spring, slightly modified for lighter pull. Now it could be fired with some accuracy with less-crappy trigger, but still misfires one out of 6 to 10 rounds. It’s in the darkest corner of my safe because it makes a poor doorstop. I won’t expend the powder to blow it up.
Again, I know people who swear by Taurus, including some LEOs. However, you can’t GIVE me one. Well, OK, you can give me one so I can take it out of circulation, but I’ll never pay for one again.
- Backpacker