Taurus PT-92 at the Range

[bullseye717]

I got my Taurus PT-92 SPL for a while and never got to shoot. Apprently, the range I visit had just been sold and they were taking a while to reorganize. Yesterday, I finally got to the range to test it. Mixed bag to say the least. To be fair, I might have reinstalled the slide catch spring incorrectly, but when I removed it, the gun shot fine. Anyway, the sights didn't seem tight in that there seems to be a lot of space between the two white dots in the rear and the orange one in the front. The double action was horrendous.
Though it might from the before mentioned slide catch spring, the gun kept on locking the slide back on the third round. It did it 4 times, and it was only on the third round of a ten round magazine. It also didn't lock the slide back once on an empty magazine. I was a little disappointed as my last gun was a P89 and it was reliable to a fault. I also felt more comfortable shooting the P89 than the Taurus. To me, the P89 put holes on paper where I wanted better than the Taurus.
One positive note about this experience was I rented a Bul M-5. I never shot a gun without dots before and I thought I'd be all over the place. When I shot it, it felt like my arm just reached out there and punched holes wherever I wanted. Also, it didn't jam once. Though it was only 50 rounds, it was a pleasant experience.
To sum up: good, possibly great experience with the M-5. So-so with the Taurus. I'll do some more shooting to see if I can smooth out my own kinks.

 

[SouthpawShootr]

I don't think I've read a bad review about a PT-92 before. Were you using factory mags? I've never detail stripped either of my PT92s so I can offer any troubleshooting about the position of the slide stop spring. Seems to me somebody had an online detailed disassembly procedure for Beretta 92s with pics (this part should be the same between the two models). I'll have to check at home and see if I have the link saved somewhere.

 

[bullseye717]

I was using the factory 10 rounder. The thing about the slide stop spring was that it just fell out when I field stripped the gun. It would be great if you can send me the link about installing it correctly. It wasn't a bad gun, but the trigger felt awkward for me, as there were times when I thought I pulled the trigger all the way, but I didn't. It felt like I did pull. In terms of accuracy, I don't think it's the gun, but it's just I'm not use to the Beretta style of handguns, since I haven't shot one since I was 11.

 

[SouthpawShootr]

Here we go. Took me a while to find it.

www.geocities.com/Yosemite/6078/mainten.htm

As far as the trigger goes, you could lighten it a bit by installing a Beretta 92D hammer spring in place of the factory one. I'm told by the people over at the Beretta forum that this will work, although I've not tried it myself (thinking about it, though). The 92D spring is available from Langdon tactical and Brownells (last I checked). This is a common mod. for Beretta 92FS owners, it will only improve the trigger so much, which is to say "not a whole heck of a lot."

Hope this helps.

 

[Bainx]

Sounds to me like you got a bum PT92.

 

[SouthpawShootr]

Piddle with it a little. If you can't get the slide release to work properly, then send it back to Taurus for warranty repair. They'll fix it (you may need to pester them a bit to get a timely turnaround). Really though, I can't imagine how that spring could have come out. I once had a trigger bar spring pop out when I had the grips off the gun. Luckily, I had a second PT92 sitting around, but never had the slide release spring come out on it's own. Something definitely up here. You may want to send it in for a checkup just in case.

 

[bullseye717]

Hey Bainx, where in East Tennessee are you? I'm in Knoxville. Anyway, it could be the case. More than anything, I'm not as comfortable with it as other guns I've shot. As I said before, when I field stripped it, the slide stop spring just popped out. I thought that was unusual as that's never happened on any other gun I've stripped. Let me see if I can reinstall it properly and I'll update.