Taurus TCP Surprise

[schmeky]

Bought a NIB TCP with some degree of trepidation. Have had Taurus' in the past and some were good, some were not as good. Not a Taurus fan at all.

So I bought a TCP. Must have gotten a good one. Smooth feeding, will chamber just like a "real" gun by hitting the slide stop, very smooth and relatively lite DA, and very accurate for a such a small gun. Primers exhibit perfectly centered FP hits, and the impact is deep and positive.

The biggest surprise for me was how comfortable it was to shoot. I was expecting a vampire bite; in reality it was almost pleasant.

I know there are some unhappy TCP owners out there, but mine is impressive so far.

 

[jon86]

Just to piggyback, my buddy brought his TCP to the range the other day. It shoots very nicely. Easy to hit stuff out as far as 20 yards. We didn't try any further than that. It's much easier to shoot accurately than my smith and wesson 38 snubbie. It's got a very decent trigger on it. No problems to feed or anything. The only problem I had was that for some reason, every time I shot it with two hands I accidentally kept pressing the magazine release. Shooting it one handed eliminated the problem. My buddy did not have that same problem. It's my mistake, not the gun. Nice little gun.

 

[ET]

I've had my TCP for 5 months now and it really is a good shooting gun. It has been 100% reliable with every type of ammo except Speer Lawman fmj. It hates them. Jambs every 2 or 3 rounds. I just stay away from Lawman ammo and all is good.

 

[schmeky]

A friend of mine has a Kel-tec and he uses the Corbon DPX, so I may buy a box to run through mine, if they run 100%, I'll get a second box.

 

[anelon]

TCP is a step up from my Kel-Tec

I sold my Kel-Tec and bought a Taurus TCP ... a very good trade in my opinion. The Taurus just feels better ( and shoots better in my opinion ) ...

 

[Janos Dracwlya]

I bought a Taurus TCP back at the beginning of July. I had no malfunctions in the first ~250 rounds; that included some Remington Golden Saber JHP's. In the second 250 rounds, I had two malfunctions, one FTE (which occurred early on and may have been from inadequate cleaning) and one FTF (which may have been user error). I'm still having trouble getting used to the sights, but I'll get there.

I'm very happy with the gun.

I particularly liked that it, unlike many others, came with two magazines (I just picked up a third yesterday), and I love the belt pouch (I added a label from a famous luggage-maker to mine for added camouflage).

Another thing I really like about the gun is that I can put a couple of hundred rounds through it without any pain. My wife's NAA Guardian - which is a great gun - hurts me after about 25 rounds.

I think Taurus has a winner with this new gun, and I might get one of their compact 9mm's eventually.

 

[harmon rabb]

I think Taurus has a winner with this new gun, and I might get one of their compact 9mm's eventually.

The 709 is a winner as well. Same size as the PF-9, far better trigger, much more comfortable to shoot, comes with two mags.

I like it so much it makes me want to check out the 24/7 G2's.

 

[schmeky]

There is no doubt there were and perhaps still may be some issues with the TCP. From what I gather, the early magazines have been improved. The early versions supposedly had a loose fitting follower that could shift from side to side. This caused problems with the slide lock.

Also the indent for the mag catch on the mag body was problematic. The edges of this indent radiused inward, causing the mags to drop out. Supposedly the newer mags address these issues. My mags do not display any of the aforementioned problems, locking in tight and reliably locking the slide back.

Lastly, after I shot my TCP w/o incidence, I noticed a very sharp edge on the barrels chamber throat during cleaning. I could potentially see this causing feed problems with certain bullet types. I gently radiused this throat edge and polished it, just for good measure. My guess is this may be what Taurus does with guns that are returned, plus supplying the newer mags.

 

[kokapelli]

I must have gotten a good one too because mine has been perfect as well.
In my opinion the TCP is a better pistol than either the P-3AT or the LCP.

 

[GMHAYESUSN]

ive been looking @ one of these in .40 ive got a 9mm millenium pro and love it.

 

[AJChenMPH]

I also have a TCP and it's my discreet carry gun (for the times I really need to deep-conceal). Trigger's great and it's accurate enough for me.

Mine had a problem where it would "light-strike" and not fire the round, and still retain the ability to "second-strike". When it's functioning normally, firing on a dud or dry-firing will not allow "second-strike" type firing. I sent it back to Taurus, and they were able to turn it around in 2 weeks. It's been ever since.

Traded a 709 for the TCP...so far, no regrets!

 

[Bayrat]

I am considering a 738 for the wife's CC and am a bit concerned with the lack of a safety on this weapon. Any feedback re this? I realize the 38 revolver we are also considering does not have a safety so perhaps this is just in my mind.

 

[Gord]

Bayrat,

I just bought a TCP (will paste my range report/impressions in a moment). The trigger pull is long but fairly light; you definitely want a holster that fully covers the trigger guard.

 

[Gord]

Range report and follow-up comments

Okay, range report.

Standout impressions:

There's a fairly large (compared to the other pocket guns') gap between the gun frame and the mag baseplates. This is a very finger-pinching arrangement while firing, and also allows the mag to rebound in the magwell some - for my first few shots I thought the mag was blowing out of the gun.

The slide release seems to be on a hair trigger, and since loaded magazines won't seat with the slide forward, this might be a reason to send the gun back to Taurus.

I can't believe I didn't notice it during the in-shop inspection, but the breech face has a large divot and some chatter marks just below the firing pin hole. Doesn't appear to affect function, but this might also warrant sending the gun back.

I really suck at shooting this thing right now. At a measured 30 feet, out of 68 rounds fired, a grand total of thirteen landed on my 9" Shoot-n-C stick-on. Maybe five of those were anywhere near the ten-ring. Perhaps on a related note, Weaver feels weird with such a light gun. Most of my hits were strung low (down to about 18" below the target) and slightly to the target's 7:00. I flinch to the right, so at least it's not that.

Now on to the shooting log. I alternated between magazines, and FTF here is failures to feed:

BLAZER BRASS
==========

MAG 1
Mag will not seat on closed slide. No malfs.

MAG 2
Slide locked open @ round 5. T-R-B rectified.

MAG 1
FTF @ rounds 2 and 6.

MAG 2
Slide closed upon mag insertion. No malfs.

MAG 1
No malfs.

MAG 2
Double taps - no malfs.
Slide closed upon setting gun down after shooting.

MAG 1
Double taps - no malfs.
Slide closed upon mag removal.

MAG 2
1H mag dump (RH).
FTF @ round 3, probably limpwristing.

MAG 1
Slide closed while gun was lying on hood(!) while loading mag.
1H mag dump (LH) with final two rounds. No malfs.

TOTAL ROUNDS FIRED: 50
TOTAL MALFS: 3
FAILURE RATE: 6%


REM UMC
==========

MAG 1
FTF @ round 2 - multiple FTFs, discarded round. No other malfs.

MAG 2
No malfs.

MAG 1
Initial chambering noticeably sluggish. No malfs.
Slide closed upon mag removal and again upon gun being set down on car.

MAG 2
Near FTF @ round 2; FTF @ round 6.

TOTAL ROUNDS FIRED: 18
TOTAL MALFS: 2
FAILURE RATE: 11.1%


==========
COMBINED ROUNDS FIRED: 68
COMBINED MALFS: 5
COMBINED FAILURE RATE: 7.35(?)%
==========


At this point, the wind was really kicking up; I had some fairly serious eye fatigue; my first thumb knuckle was starting to blister from recoil (need to Dremel that corner down - sharp points!) and I was just generally tired of trying to keep control of a mousegun while keeping myself upright and steady in the wind, so I called it a day.

A failure rate over 7% doesn't sound particularly rosy, until you consider that I ran the gun completely and totally dry. I field-stripped it last night, dropped it into near-boiling water, blew it out with a compressor and patted it dry, and reassembled. I was halfway to the range today before I realized I'd forgotten to lube it, and decided to just go ahead with the test anyway:

- I'm not overly fond of slathering my guns in lube anyhow, and it seems like a particularly bad idea to do more than lightly grease the rails on a pocket pistol whose secondary purpose is to gather lint all day.
- The TCP seems to have a reputation over at TaurusArmed for being persnickety when it gets dirty, and I may as well test for worst-case-scenario, right?

I figure this is a worst-case scenario for how I can expect the thing to run, which will help make the decision as to whether it's worth keeping and carrying that much easier. Honestly, I'm actually pretty impressed that it managed to do 70 bone-dry rounds before it started complaining about it.

I'm starting to suspect that either my mags or my mag catch are out of spec, because almost every pic of the TCP on Google Image shows closely-fitted baseplates. This could be causing FTFs by slightly increasing the feed angle, which already looks pretty steep. I was able to get two of those FTFs to rechamber just fine by pressing up on the mag as I let the slide back into battery.

The gun was a lot more well-behaved in live fire than I thought it was going to be from hand-cycling, where I was having tons of FTFs (on the order of 30% or so).

All in all, I think the best course of action now is to take advantage of my all-expenses-paid warranty period, send the gun back to Taurus with a note about the slide stop (which definitely needs to be fixed), the breech face (which should probably result in a new slide, because the divot and chatter marks can't be doing me any favors for smooth feeding/seating) and the mags (which, besides having more than a 1/16" gap, are being inconsistent about tripping the slide stop and/or ejecting under spring pressure vs. just sitting there waiting to be manually yanked out of the magwell).

And then shoot the snot out of it, properly lubed, when I get it back.

I really like this little gun.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the gun throws brass almost directly to the rear - actually a couple shells landed slightly to the left of me by some miracle of physics (the wind was blowing left to right).

After seeing how low I was shooting I tried adjusting my aim/hold so that the front sight was still at 6:00 on-target, but the rear of the gun was canted down such that the top of the rear sight was level with the front of the slide (if this makes any sense). This rewarded me with two UMC shells bouncing squarely off my forehead before I decided to abandon that bright idea.

 

[W L Johnson]

It's refreshing to see a non-bashing Taurus thread.

I've had the 738 about a year now and it cause me to sale my Kel-Tec. Looks like Taurus hit a home run with this one.
Just in case some don't know, it's made in the U.S. of A.

 

[kokapelli]

That's a lot of criticism on a pocket pistol that has less than 150 rounds through it.

My TCP has been flawless but I only fired 50 rounds a session until it had 200 rounds through it.

 

[Gord]

That's a lot of criticism

Was that directed at me?

 

[kokapelli]

Yes , I just thought you were not giving the pistol a chance to break in.

 

[hawkeye10]

Glad to hear the good reports. I bought a 738 on GB last night and it's on the way. Don

 

[Bayrat]

Thanks for the feedback and test report Ninja. I went to Gander Mountain and paid for a Kimber Ultra Carry II with Crimson Trace grips and a Taurus TCP. Both were on sale, which ended today, so in total I saved $250 by jumping on them. I can still change the Taurus out for something else since I have not submitted the cumbersome NY paperwork yet. Out of all the reviews I have read about both weapons over the past week, I have found far more negative about the Kimber than the Taurus, go figure.

 

[schmeky]

A failure rate over 7% doesn't sound particularly rosy, until you consider that I ran the gun completely and totally dry.

Just curious why anyone run a semi-auto totally dry, especially a new one?

 

[Gord]

Just curious why anyone run a semi-auto totally dry, especially a new one?

Mainly because, as mentioned in my post (which no one seems to have read in its entirety) I was halfway to the range before I remembered that I'd forgotten to lube it. I figured it'd be a good test, anyway, and I was right. I'm not calling the gun junk by any means - as also mentioned, I'm pretty impressed that it went 70 rounds bone-dry.

Yes , I just thought you were not giving the pistol a chance to break in.

All I'm doing is posting my experiences thus far for others to see; I'm not trying to hide anything (like the gun being unlubricated) nor am I trying to condemn the gun or make a judgment call on it as of yet - not planning on doing that until I have at least 500 rounds through the gun. At least one of those FTFs was almost certainly my fault (as noted).

Beyond that, none of the issues I'm having with the gun can be attributed to a break-in period. There is something up with the slide stop, and though the TaurusArmed guys are recommending I just grind on it until it works (apparently it's a common issue with the TCP) I'd rather just send it back to Taurus and let them take care of it, as they should be doing before the guns are ever shipped to distributors, IMO.

Anyway, bottom line: I'm not trying to bash, just be honest. I like the gun a lot!
It is what it is; IMO people forget that cramming a gun into a package the size and weight of these little pocket pistols is just inherently going to introduce a greater likelihood (and range) of issues compared to a full-sized gun.

 

[Bayrat]

Just showed the wife a side by side of the Glock 26 and the TCP and she still likes the clean look and size of the Taurus so I guess that is the one. Kinda wished she liked the Glock for the extra trigger safety.

 

[Gord]

As long as you keep it in a holster, you should be good to go; the trigger's just not heavy enough to stuff the gun in a pocket and call it good, as is possible with a J-Frame. Besides, the G26 is way bigger than the TCP.

 

[lagnaf311]

Bayrat,

I have had mine for several months now. I have put around 500 rounds though it with no problems yet. As far as the safety, it has a pretty long 5-7 pound trigger pull on it. I think it would be hard to accidently pull it to fire.