Taurus handguns.

[stiab]

The broken trigger guard bow is something of a puzzle.

It's all a puzzle to me. There have been references made to the "dust cover", but if you look closely the fracture reaches back to the controls area of the frame.

 

[Kendal Black]

So maybe...the locking block drifts out of its place due to the cracking, the breech opens early on account of it, gas gets vented into the already compromised frame and...and...and I dunno! The fine folks at Taurus are going to have to be the ones to Sherlock this one, for they have gun in hand, so to speak, and can look at it from all angles.

Of course, if someone pried the thing apart with a vise it would look sort of like that, too... But again, where is the motive? If it is already cracking, you put it in the mail to Taurus. If it is not, well then, why crack it?

The Taurus Unlimited Lifetime Repair Policy™ is just that. The lifetime of the gun...not the buyer.

 

[stiab]

But again, where is the motive?

Agreed, lack of an expressed (so far) motive is what makes the intentional damage theory seem unlikely. But anything is possible I suppose.

 

[Ed Ames]

But I still don't understand in your vise theory what the person had to gain by damaging the gun and returning it on day two of ownership? Do you think he may of done that it seeking a refund?

They may have been trying for a refund. They may have thought there was something they didn't like about that particular pistol which wouldn't justify a replacement. They may have decided to sell and thought reselling a NIB unfired gun would net them a few dollars more than a used one. It may be that they thought a developing stress crack (legitimate defect) wasn't obvious enough and enhanced the damage to make sure it wouldn't be missed.

These are the same sort of people who caused hard drive manufacturers to build in shock sensors, phone/laptop manufacturers to build in water sensors, and so on.

I'll give you an example of something that made me quit a job once: This was in the 1990s when hard drives were very expensive. My employer had just purchased a stack of 4GB (that is gigabyte, not terabyte) hard drives for about $1000 each, in order to build up a large (for the day) server. One of the server techs dropped one of those $1000 drives. He went ahead and installed it anyway, and it worked, but he reported the drop to the company owner.

The company owner proceeded to pull the drive from service, damage the circuitry so that it wouldn't work at all, and return it for replacement.

Why? The drive was working. He didn't gain a single byte of capacity, and it guaranteed work as opposed to waiting to see if the drive eventually failed. It was part of a RAID array so no data would be lost.

Who can say how such people really think? I just know that they do that stuff all the time.

None, don't know what caused it, and have drawn no personal conclusions about it. Same with the American Eagle reference. Just posting an original picture and telling the forum everything I knew about it.

Well I won't keep looping around. Instead I'll just point out that - because of the context - what you posted was guaranteed to be interpreted as offering evidence of quality issues. You may have been naive about that, I can't say, but now you know.

 

[stiab]

You may have been naive about that, I can't say, but now you know.

What I know is it's my picture of a gun with a problem (source unknown), about which I am unwilling to speculate, and people on the forum are entitled to see the picture and come to their own conclusions.

 

[RX-79G]

I don't understand the big mystery. The locking block is alternately slammed front and rear from locking and unlocking. It causes the frame to crack. Then the trigger guard is the only thing holding it together, and that cracks.

 

[badkarmamib]

And in response to the OP, pages 2-4 sum it up; there is a lot of "enthusiasm" that comes out when discussing Taurus. A whole lot of accusation and justification, and most of it based on hearsay. Yes, I have had a poor track record with Taurus, but all of mine were Gen 1 guns. Some good friends have had nothing but good luck with their Taurus products. Every company makes lemons, but, with Taurus' price point, they are going to sell a lot, which makes for a lot of customers' voices and opinions. Are there better offerings for more money? Obviously. Are there worse options? Certainly. Buy what you like. If later you don't like it, move on.

 

[stiab]

I don't understand the big mystery. The locking block is alternately slammed front and rear from locking and unlocking. It causes the frame to crack. Then the trigger guard is the only thing holding it together, and that cracks.

Could be, if so it was not from long term wear and tear. As previously stated, gun came back on day 2, purchaser told FFL it happened on first mag.

 

[RX-79G]

No, it wasn't from long term anything. Things like this happen sometimes because a marginal design is combined with poorly quality parts and things go south in a spectacular way. Glock had locking block problems, too, but the design and execution of a Glock didn't lead to as a notable a failure.

Is there anyone who looks at that cracked PT-111 and doesn't wonder what the engineer was thinking thinning the sidewall that much to dovetail the block in, instead of just using a couple plastic pins?

 

[stchman]

I don't own any plastic Taurus handguns. I own 3 revolvers and a PT1911, all steel.

 

[Confederate]

I've said it before, but I love the stainless PT92 9mm with rail. It's as reliable as a Beretta, as accurate as a Beretta and I like the Taurus' safety better. I also don't like the two-tone finish of the Beretta, but I love flashy TV guns like the S&W 659 and, for those of you with Amazon Prime accounts, the Taurus stainless 9mm starred in the series Under The Dome, in which a small urban community suddenly finds that an impenetrable dome has dropped over it.

 

[Cocked & Locked]

The only Taurus gun I've ever owned is this early PT 92 AF made prior to the ones with a de-cocker.

I've not had any problems with it but I've not given it the Ames Vise Test often mentioned in this thread. :banghead:

 

[Schwing]

My Rossi M92 (made by Taurus). Came with stripped screws and a feed tube that wasn't installed snugly. After reading thread after thread about all of the long wait times to get things back from them, I fixed it myself.

Now, having said that, I love the gun. The action is smooth and it is accurate. It just always bothered me that it had some pretty visually serious issues with it right out of the box.

 

[stiab]

I've not had any problems with it but I've not given it the Ames Vise Test often mentioned in this thread.

I seriously doubt if anybody else has put their Taurus in a vise either!! That's a nice looking gun C&L, yours too Confederate.

 

[Elm Creek Smith]

Just my opinion...

I had a Taurus 66 .357 Magnum so old that the right recoil shield was part of the side plate. Accurate, durable, and half the price of a S&W Model 19 at the time (late 1970's). Sold it to a reenlistment NCO.

I also had a Taurus 85SSUL bought in the late 1990's after I retired from the army. Again, accurate, durable, and half the price of a S&W Airweight J-frame at the time. Sold it to fund a "justgottahaveit!" that I no longer have.

I replaced the Taurus 85SSUL with another one a couple of years later. Again, accurate, durable, and about 80% of the price of a S&W Airweight J-frame. A few years back, my older daughter "borrowed" it since she and her husband (at the time) couldn't afford a home defense gun. I don't think I'll get it back. Both 85SSULs were heavier than the S&W Airweights and had the crane lock with full length ejector rods. They handled anything I fed them, up to and including +P+ .38 loads.

The Tauri I have had were great tools for the money. I don't doubt that other people have had trouble with them, but I had a S&W 4 inch Model 629 that the barrel turned the first time I shot it (1982 after S&W stopped pinning the barrels). Now that S&W has lowered the prices of their J-frame Airweights to reasonable prices, I don't think I'll buy another Taurus, but ya never know.

My current carry battery is a S&W Model 686-6 (issued duty revolver), a S&W Model 13-3 (primary concealed carry), a S&W Model 10-5 (primary open carry), S&W Model 12-2 (secondary concealed carry moving into the lead due to the weight and cool differential), and a S&W Model 642-2 (backup to everything else).

Heck, I don't even bash Hi-Points anymore.

 

[stiab]

I had a S&W 4 inch Model 629 that the barrel turned the first time I shot it...

That was a S&W problem for sure. The NC DOC turned in all their M65's for that reason, and Smith replaced them for free with the M&P .40. I was not previously aware of that problem, but it became big news around these parts a few years ago.

 

[hdwhit]

I have a Taurus PT111 G2 that eats all the commercial ammunition I run through it. I haven't managed to find a powder, bullet, and seating depth combination that it likes, so for now I can't feed it reloads.

 

[montanaoffroader]

My personal experience with Taurus pistols has been positive. I have purchased 2 TCP models and 1 Millennium G2. None have had problems of any kind. Also a good friend owns a Tracker .357 that has been trouble free.

I did research the pistols before I bought them and found that they are considered to be among Taurus' better offerings, so I may have stacked the deck a bit. But so far, so good.

YMMV

 

[PuddleMonkey]

Garbage in my opinion. I had a Taurus snub nose revolver that would completely lock up after about 20-25 rounds fired. Gunsmith and hammers type lock up, gun was about worthless, sold it to a friend for $20.

 

[Levan9X19]

Taurus handguns are junk. I had three revolvers, several handguns. The one I bought used was Model 85, it had light strikes and locked up during firing. The other was stainless 3 inch .357 magnum revolver. Model 66 I guess. Again light strikes, trigger bar broken after 40 rounds fired. Taurus 96 Target was OK but it was not very accurate.

Brand new PT1911, extractor broken after 20 rounds fired.

Pt92 was ok BUT it was not as refined as M92, the accuracy was average, sights where horrible, to narrow front sight, to wide notch on the rear sight. otherwise the gun was OK. the PT92 is the only Taurus I would recommend.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

Meh, Taurus for me is at 50%. I have a PT-22 that I dearly love, that was originally bought for the wife, so she wouldn't have to rack the slide. Alas, she couldn't even manipulate the gun properly with her destroyed hands, so it became a "fun" gun, a job at which it excels. Never a failure. But I also sold a Millennium PT-111, years ago, due to it's underwhelming performance, and it's penchant for releasing the magazine in my offhand with it's too-touchy mag release. Don't miss it at all and it was replaced by a far superior Glock 26.

Would I still buy Taurus if one struck my fancy? Sure.

 

[countryflyer]

I owned a Taurus put 709'slim as my first concealed carry weapon. Liked the size of the gun' and it was relaible, but could not get the gun to not shoot ridiculously low. I adjusted the rear sight as far as it would go, and it still shot 6 inches low at 20 feet. I changed the front sight to the lowest one Taurus offered, and still no help. I even tried different loads and weights of bullets, but nothing would bring it even close to point of aim being anywhere close to point of impact. After all this, Taurus said that I should just aim 6 inches high. Um, no, that isn't what the fix should be. They refused to fix or replace the gun, so I traded it in on a Shield, and have never considered another Taurus handgun since, no matter the price.

 

[Old Dog]

Eh, the Taurus threads resurrect themselves every few months on every firearms forum on the net.

I've bought, carried and shot Taurus products since the late '80s and have no problems with the brand. Well-made, reliable and good-to-go for years. Any manufacturer that sells more product than its rivals put-together (see also, Kimber) is gonna garner some criticism.

I've had stellar versions of the Model 85, the 908, the PT-92, the PT-111 and the Pt-145.

 

[Rubber_Duck]

I had a Taurus PT145 Pro that would fire while on "SAFE". I like to give the benefit of the doubt because every company will put out a lemon (though how many and how often is dependent on their QC) but Taurus is on my "do not buy" list. Reputations are earned.

 

[Yo Mama]

I like my PT1911AR and PT145. My son likes his M66 .357. No problems with any, except the PT145 is a bugger to shoot as accurately as I'd like. Need more range time with it, I guess!

Pt145 is recalled and they won't give it back. They will however pay you 200 dollars or under depending on how many people turn theirs in. WORSE CS EVER ON THIS RECALL. Since the pt145 was also previously discontinued they have no replacement option.

After this i was done with them. Sold it and went with paying more to get into a SA XD mod2 and thank the heavens i made the move.

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