Taurus PT99AF...hmmmm...

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whughett said:
In the early 90’s I received the 92 as a Christmas gift from the three sons. Pickled or In the white, not sure what to call it, with walnut grips it’s a pretty thing. As a hand loader and bullet caster I kept trying to shoot lead 9’s and it just didn’t work, key-holing, barrel leading up, ach, Taurus even installed a new barrel on no dice, won’t shoot lead bullets. Good with jacketed no good with lead. So now when I shoot it it’s Berrys 115 grain plated bullets. I don’t know, will any 9MM handle cast bullets. ??
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My 9mms shoot very well with .358”-.359” small ball from MBC. They both slugged .357” bores though. Maybe slug yours and see if it’s larger than expected?
 
larryh1108 said:
Not the difference between polygonal and standard barrels (though I have a harder time understanding why a barrel that is not cut
and has a smoother bore is more prone to leading) but between barrels that are cut the same way (standard lands and grooves). Why
would his 92 barrel lead but not another 9mm barrel?
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Polygonal rifling another trip down frustration lane,
I jumped on the Glock bandwagon early on, first the 17, still in the safe and then the 21 the moment it came out. Not only did Glock claim to void warranties if one used lead bullets I couldn’t get it to group well with my then standard 45ACP 200 grain SWC. Paid full MSRP to get the 21 then dumped it a few years later down the road.
 
IIRC, Taurus bought the Brazilian Beretta factory when Beretta's government contract was up.

I always figured that the 92 copies, the 80 series copy (I think it's the PT58), and the tip-up copies would generally be okay, since when they started they were basically just cranking out Berettas on Berretta machinery. I didn't care for the Taurus tip-up 22lr pistol that I had - they made the poor choice of giving it a stiff DAO trigger, but I wouldn't mind having a PT58 one day.
 
I'm not a Taurus fan but several months ago I got to see my father PT99 when I went through his collection and did a much needed cleaning. He said he bought his in the late '80s/early '90s.

I was pretty impressed with everything about it.
 
Reinz said:
I don’t trust Taurus at all, but I’ve only heard good things about the 92 copies. That 92 copy is the only Taurus I would even consider owning.
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That's kind of how I feel. I've been hem hawing around about buying a Beretta 92 because I feel like I would never "luck out" and get a good 99 again.
 
Good Ol' Boy said:
I'm not a Taurus fan but several months ago I got to see my father PT99 when I went through his collection and did a much needed cleaning. He said he bought his in the late '80s/early '90s.

I was pretty impressed with everything about it.
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Try shooting it and I'll bet you are even more impressed.
 
Since some of you mentioned the fragility of the adjustable rear sight and the unavailability of spare parts...

1.) I never knew the rear sight was a problem. Once again, I "lucked out" with mine I guess.

2.) Just how much of the Taurus 99 parts are interchangeable with the Beretta 92? Obviously the slide and frame are now because of the safety, what about everything else? (springs, hammer, guide rod, trigger etc.)

And 3.) While we're on THAT subject, has anyone modified a Beretta 92 magazine to work in reliably in a PT92/99? I understand they don't interchange, but I never understood why not. As I recall, the magazine catch is the same on both guns, so the slot in the magazine should be in the same place.
 
And my NEXT question is how would a modern PT92 compare to an early 90s model? I ask because GunBroker has a bunch of used models in the $300-400 range, but my local Sportsman's Warehouse has new PT92s for $420. (And 92FS for $600)
 
D.B. Cooper said:
So...in an completely unrelated discussion, @larryh1108 asked:



and that has been food for thought.

I once owned (around 1997 or 98) a Taurus PT99AF (Beretta 92 FS knock-off, stainless steel with adjustable rear sight) and sold it in 2003. I mostly like the gun. It was very accurate with WWB 115 grn FMJ, never ever jammed, and I used it as my practice gun when I was on my squadron's pistol team. (Couldn't afford a Beretta at the time.) I also preferred the frame mounted safety over Beretta's slide mounted safety.

Now, I've trash talked Taurus as much as the next guy, probably more, so this is difficult, but I'm thinking about owning another one. (I've pretty much swore off Taurus.)

Taurus has a well earned reputation for, at best, inconsistent quality. What are the odds that any PT99AF I buy on gun broker (They're out of production now; only the PT92 (fixed sights) is available new.) will be as good as the one I owned twenty years ago? I often wonder if I just lucked out with that gun, and any other gun I may have received would have been junk. Plus there is the issue of buying a used gun online is like buying a mystery grab bag; who knows what's in the sock drawer.
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Buy blued, not parkerized is my only advice in pt99af pistols. The blued frames are a bit older than the parkerized ones and are typically from the best era of the 92 variants coming from. Brazil. I don’t know what to tell you if you want stainless though. I have owned 4 pt99af pistols over the years. One traded into a motorcycle, one was sold to fund a “real 92” which I comparatively hated, one was traded heads up for another one because I dislike railed full size pistols. What I can tell you with certainty is that they are not picky about modified beretta mags, the blued ones have a smoother trigger, the parked ones show wear faster, and they ALL have issues with the locking blocks. Accuracy among them was all comparable, but the first one I had was the best. The current one is the next best, both are blued, and the parkerized ones are next on the list.
 
D.B. Cooper said:
And 3.) While we're on THAT subject, has anyone modified a Beretta 92 magazine to work in reliably in a PT92/99? I understand they don't interchange, but I never understood why not. As I recall, the magazine catch is the same on both guns, so the slot in the magazine should be in the same place.
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the magazine catch is in the right spot but the magazine catch itself is made differently. They are interchangeable, but it’s easier to just modify a beretta mag. The Taurus requires a larger opening for the magazine catch. In fact there’s a modified mag on my nightstand right now.

It took about 5 minutes to strip a half dozen mags, use a pneumatic cutoff tool to enlarge the hole, test fit the mag bodies in the gun to make sure they lock in properly, deburr them and reassemble the mags.
 

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D.B. Cooper said:
And my NEXT question is how would a modern PT92 compare to an early 90s model? I ask because GunBroker has a bunch of used models in the $300-400 range, but my local Sportsman's Warehouse has new PT92s for $420. (And 92FS for $600)
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Forget that altogether. I have handled a few of the newer guns and they are not nearly as smooth as the old ones. I would t say they are not worth the money, or that they wouldn’t work, but I can’t say that I would recommend a newer gun when a used gun is 2/3 the price and is typically of better quality. I shopped hard for one for my dad a year or so ago and he ended up settling on a used Tisas 1911 commander frame pistol because we couldn’t find a good new 92.
 
WestKentucky said:
the magazine catch is in the right spot but the magazine catch itself is made differently. They are interchangeable, but it’s easier to just modify a beretta mag. The Taurus requires a larger opening for the magazine catch. In fact there’s a modified mag on my nightstand right now.

It took about 5 minutes to strip a half dozen mags, use a pneumatic cutoff tool to enlarge the hole, test fit the mag bodies in the gun to make sure they lock in properly, deburr them and reassemble the mags.
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Yeah. I can see your handy-work in the cut out on the one in your photo. I suspected it was something like that.
 
WestKentucky said:
Forget that altogether. I have handled a few of the newer guns and they are not nearly as smooth as the old ones. I would t say they are not worth the money, or that they wouldn’t work, but I can’t say that I would recommend a newer gun when a used gun is 2/3 the price and is typically of better quality. I shopped hard for one for my dad a year or so ago and he ended up settling on a used Tisas 1911 commander frame pistol because we couldn’t find a good new 92.
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Except that a used gun isn't 2/3 the price, 3/4 to 80% of the price.
 
I would still get a gently used one from the late 80's or early 90's instead of a new one. The same goes for the Model 66 and 85 revolvers.
 
The weak part on the Beretta 92 design is the locking block.

Beretta is on their 3rd generation of the locking block, each a functional/durability improvement on the previous generation, while Taurus is still using the original locking block design.
 
"Beretta is on their 3rd generation of the locking block, each a functional/durability improvement on the previous generation..."

Does anyone know if you can stick one of those into an old Taurus or Beretta? I maybe read that you could.

NBD, as I have shot tens of thousands of rounds through my 1989/90 Model PT99 with no problems. I generally use mild target ammo and keep them clean. Maybe that's all it takes, or maybe I got lucky.
 
Tallball said:
I would still get a gently used one from the late 80's or early 90's instead of a new one. The same goes for the Model 66 and 85 revolvers.
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I don't want any Taurus revolvers. I've personally seen too many problems with those things. Even "way back when."
 
So I've been watching gunbroker for a few days, and I've been looking at ended auctions.

What I've noticed is that rarely does a PT 92/99 sell for over $300. I see a few completed sales (guns with more than 1 bid) right at that 300 mark. I see a lot of ended auctions with zero bits with opening bids over $300. (One seller listed the same gun 3 different times in a month with a starting bid at $260 with zero bids every time.)

What I don't understand, then, is that, if you look today, there are a bunch of these guns, all of them with $400 starting bids. Doesn't make sense. If almost no guns are selling over $300, how are all these guns being priced at $400 and up when they're out for bid?
 
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