Taurus: your verdict on Taurus auto-loaders.

[The Lone Haranguer]

I won't give a "verdict" on their currently produced guns, but the memory of my egregiously dreadful lemon PT945 from 1996 is still fresh. Perhaps it is unfair of me, but I tend to hold grudges.

 

[jwsracin]

Originally Posted by el Godfather
Also 2 malfunctions in 1000 rounds is simply not accpetable. In my Glock 19 I have had ZERO malfunctions even after 20k rounds. A firearm that malfunctions is just not worth keeping. Its value is no more then dead paper weight.

This has got to be one of the bigger piles of horse puckey I've seen anyone post in a good while.

Complete and utter nonsense

i agree completely EXTANK

 

[kokapelli]

Getting stuck up within 300 rounds is just pathetic. Should not happen, and if it was a life threatening situation, then, you sir, probably won't be here to relate this to us.

Also 2 malfunctions in 1000 rounds is simply not accpetable. In my Glock 19 I have had ZERO malfunctions even after 20k rounds. A firearm that malfunctions is just not worth keeping. Its value is no more then dead paper weight.

And of course all Glocks are perfect.

 

[wickedsprint]

Even though I like them, glocks are not perfect. In a recent firearms qualification, two of the range glocks experienced some sort of failure involving the trigger reset. Granted these guns probably see thousands of rounds per month.

 

[JR47]

Anyone who has decided that a less than .2% failure rate is the only acceptable one needs to actually go shooting somewhere besides his key-board.

I have to agree with those who said that this was a fantasy, rather than reality.

Glocks, according to Police Armorers, fail with more than a little regularity. Some of it can be traced to improper handling, but much more has to do with wear and parts failures.

Using you own scenario:

2 malfunctions in 1000 rounds is simply not accpetable.

How often do you trade in guns?

As mentioned, I have Glock 17. It's been nowhere near that reliable. Neither are those of the local Sheriff's Department, or the City Police.

I might have actually believed some of what you posted, until that exaggerated claim.

 

[ExTank]

Did I hallucinate a certain exchange?

 

[el Godfather]

I was wondering if Beretta and Taurus ever got into any litigation over the PT92 design. Although PT92 safety is frame mounted, but that design is also available in beretta 92 Combat Combo model.

 

[JR47]

When Beretta sold the plant, they also sold all of the tooling, and Taurus was licensed by them to build the guns. That lapsed as soon as Beretta entered the US trials, and moved the safety location.

 

[el Godfather]

You mean that the license was revoked by beretta, and also that afterwards Taurus moved sfaety to frame?

 

[LawScholar]

The Taurus purchase of Beretta 92 machinery was fully legitimate, but it was a while ago and now the PT92 is built on Taurus equipment, not Beretta.

 

[Gladius]

My PT1911 has swallowed everything it's been fed, ball, JHP, flat nose, and more, many of them dirty old handloads (many of which were out of spec), about 400 or so rounds total so far. It is more accurate than I can demonstrate. The slide action is as slick as ice, the trigger light (but could be crisper).

This is only one pistol, but I'm very impressed so far. I don't know if this is indicative of Taurus quality nowadays or if I got lucky, all I know is I got a real good gun for a good price.

 

[MisterNoisy]

My Taurus experience consists of my own PT92 and 3 Taurus revolvers my father owns (which I get to shoot on a fairly regular basis).

Any of them are 'SHTF'-type guns - they go bang and shoot to POA every time. I shoot a lot more than he does and in over 8K fed into it, the PT92 has yet to do anything untoward. The only downer to the 92 is that it sprays the cases everywhere - you never know where the brass will end up.

 

[el Godfather]

I am glad to see that lot of good experience with Taurus is showing up finally.

Does it mean that Taurus is improving quality? I say this because similar poll questions were held over past years with very different results.

 

[MisterMike]

I am glad to see that lot of good experience with Taurus is showing up finally.

Does it mean that Taurus is improving quality? I say this because similar poll questions were held over past years with very different results.

I think you need to keep anything gleaned from an on-line forum or a non-scientific poll in perspective. If you peruse any discussion board for opinions on pretty much any product, you'll find people who are hellbent on disliking that product. Issues are often magnified and someone who feels aggrieved by a bad product experience will often engage in a protracted and heated attack on that brand.

Places like this may be a good way to catch the general drift, but you have to take opinions here with a grain (or maybe a spoonful) of salt, trying to separate those with informed opinions from the those who may express strong opinions, but have little, or no, basis for those opinions.

 

[ExTank]

+1 to what Mike said.

I think it's indisputable that Taurus has had both quality issues as well as customer service issues. There's just been too many reports from people to that effect to ignore. But the scope of those issues ("a few bad seeds," "a minor and unfortunate trend," "slight yet persistent issue," or "they're crap") can be argued ad infitum ad nauseum.

Someone said in another thread words to the effect that any Taurus firearm made right before, during, or after Carnivale is most likely to have...issues...... and I think there's more thana grain of truth to that.

Unfortunately, there's no readily identifiable "made on this date" stamp for a prospective buyer to check against.

And there's been too may reports from people who have had zero problems with Taurus firearms to completely assign them to the scrap-heap of "trash guns."

My only experiences with Taurus guns have been:

1) the PT-99 I sold a year or so back. I just got bored with it, never any problem with it at all, wish I'd kept it;

2) a Raging Bull .44 I picked up cheap at a gun show. It was "fired once and immediately put down." The owner, who it turned out was not a big fan of big recoil, sold it as-is plus a 50-round box of .44 Mag ammo with 49 rounds in it. 200 rounds downrange so far (.44 Mag ain't cheap) without a single hiccup;

3) a PT-92AF (that someone had after-marketed a set of adjustable sights onto) in rough shape going cheap at Cabela's. I looked it over, bought it, cleaned it (it cleaned up very nice, just needed some basic TLC), and it's a danged nail-driver.

None of these have been used as GOTH guns (or SHTF as some would say). None were ever really driven hard. The worst was the PT-99 had 300 rounds go through it one fine day at the range, sharing with friends and family, without a single feed jam, failure to extract, misfire, etc.

I feel confident that I could pull any one of them out of the gun safe if needed and shoo some uninvited unfriendly out of my house, or put them down if came to that.

That's three rolls of the dice. Am I really just that lucky? Or are some people overstating the case against Taurus?

All told I've paid considerable less buying these Taurus' than having bought comparable models from other manufacturers. I feel I've realized good value out of them.

 

[JC98]

Lot of negative experiences.....
I have a 24/7 in 9mm. One jam in who knows how many thousands of rounds. I would buy another Taurus and am actually looking at their 1911's. My Dad has an old .22 from Taurus and sent it back to them a few months ago as it was no longer firing, they shipped him a brand new one back. I would call that good customer service considering the gun was 10+ years old.

 

[Stooges]

I had a very bad experience with a Taurus 1911. Now, Taurus did eventually fix the gun, but it was three months of the world's worst nightmare getting there. Which brings me to my point. I'm far more concerned with a company's customer service than I am with the perceived "quality" of their guns. Yes, quality control does vary from company to company and some companies tend to turn out more lemons than others. And I do think that Taurus has had a bad reputation in that area. But even the best gun makers can turn out lemons. I think as long as you stick with any of the main stream gun makers, you have a good chance of getting a good gun. What concerns me is what happens if I do get a bad one. A friend of mine bought a Hi-Point. Now, if you want to find one of most maligned guns on the planet, its Hi-Point. His was a jam-o-matic. But when he called their customer service, they sent him a pre-paid overnight shipping label to send it back in. He got it back in less than two weeks, and it hasn't experienced a failure since. And they threw in two new magazine for his trouble. Now THAT is customer service. Taurus, on the other hand. My experience with their customer service, as I said, was a nightmare. And I know more than a few people with similar experiences. That is why I dislike Taurus. Not someone else's perception of the quality of their guns.

Now, I have also heard that Taurus' new CEO is working to improve the company's customer service and their quality control. Has he succeeded? Or will he? Only time will tell.

 

[diesel]

taurus customer service

hi guys
i own 3 taurus hand guns 1raging bull44mag stainless mod444 i think
1 pt1911ss and 1 pt92afs 9mm
i only had one encounter with taurus customer service, a falty mag in my pt1911. i called taurus and they shiped me a new mag right away
i know this was not a serious prob but they were very quick to make me happy
the prob with the mag was i could only load 3 rds in the mag then the follower would lock up on the inside of the mag body
the 2 factory mags i have for my 45 run fine but i would never buy a taurus mag i just purchased 4 kimber mags much better quality
i prob have close to 1k rds through my pt92 never a malf of any kind
about 500rds through my pt1911 exelent 1911 for the money 525+tax
i love it

 

[Doug S]

I didn't vote, because I haven't had enough experience with the semi-autos to really know, but the one I owned (a NIB PT111) broke on the 65th shot of the first range session. The trigger mechanism broke. I've not bought another.

 

[el Godfather]

At 327 votes
140 votes are for Good-Excellant
99 votes for Below Average-Pathetic
Whereas 88 folks have said Average and nothing speicial about Taurus.

This shows that up to this point about 43% are in favor and about 30% are not in favor of Taurus. Pretty wide split in they way people think about Taurus. About 27% that have said Average also qualified that statment there is nothing special about Taurus. How is that interperated is subjective. I say its negative.

 

[oldfool]

I noticed you do a lot of polls el Godfather

a suggestion, if it strikes your fancy
too generic a poll here - one brand (no matter the brand), over a whole class of guns (like autoloaders), is simply too broad to do much more than ignite flame wars
barely better than unlimited "brand only" warz

if looking at NIB current manufacture only,
(that at least takes out the whole "nothing new is good" and/or "nothing old is good" distortions... yesterday is gone, whether it was the good old days or the bad old days)

ask folks which brand they would buy, limited to a more specific size/type/caliber gun
strive for gun on gun head-to-head as similar as can selections
What would they shuck up their bucks for today, next gun ?

doesn't actually matter what their choice is based on
price, value
quality
reputation
reliability
sales pitch
tacticool
cuteness
politics, peevishness, personality, or personal experience
whatever

the count is ultimately about what they would pull their own wallet out of pocket for their "next" of that specific type
one poll like that over on the revolver forum now, classification NIB 38 snubbies
pretty clear gun category, some few brands listed, some fared very poorly
but may have fared much better in a different category

say "full size hi-cap 9 autoloaders"
list a dozen brands, see which way the wind blows
edit... duh.. yeah ok, there 'tis, 9mm workhorses... but you could have tossed Taurus 92 in there you know
besides , Glocksters are a foregone conclusion on that, no poll required, whether you like 'em or hate 'em)

or 32 acp pocket pistolas
or 380 acp pocket pistolas
or compact 45 acp pistolas
or whatever, but a narrower specific category

unless you limit it to only 2 or 3 brand choices, I bet there will be quite a lot of scatter, no overwhelming winner.. because there are a whole bunch of autoloader brands out there that are in no real danger of closing up shop tomorrow
(alas, in revolvers, the brand list tends to get a lot shorter)

I think you may already have one something like running on THR now, but still somewhat broader, more about the brand than about the gun, IIRC ??

but that, I think better reflects what gun owners think about brand X vs Y vs Z, when it really actually matters
because a mighty lot of us are not wedded to one brand, our choices vary quite a lot by type/size/caliber
me, I own only 40 firearms, but that is 17 brands, lots of reasons why "for me"
(and all 40 are, in some way or other, a "favorite")

gun on gun, moreso than brand vs brand
and hopefully a lot less "he said/she said", "he/she touched me first !"


PS
these excellent, good, average, poor polls don't mean much...
as you said yourself. people don't even agree on what "average" means; no good reason why they should

 

[el Godfather]

Oldfool, good suggestion. However work horse poll is reflection of my inventory or guns I considered at some point. Its stated in the OP

 

[premier1]

good question

The fact of the matter is that Taurus couldn't possibly stay in business this long if all the made was crap.The facts are that every company whether they make guns,TV sets,cars or guitar amplifiers has an acceptable failure rate.You only hear from those who had a bad expierance with their product. Taurus is one of the top selling lines of handguns out there. I personally own 2 and love them. I also own several other makes and love them. I can tell you all about a Kahr that a friend of mine bought and had to send it back.But one fact remains in anything you can't stay in business making anything if all you make is crap.

 

[diesel]

i could,nt agree more im happy with my taurus purchases

 

[Outlaw Man]

I had a 24/7 in .45 that jammed all the time. Customer service was great and shipped me a couple replacement mags, which helped a little. I'm confident they'd have eventually fixed it. It was an early model, and I've heard they fixed them. When it DID work, it was very accurate.

I had a PT1911 that functioned flawlessly, but I couldn't get used to the Heinie sights. I was too cheap to change them out.

I now have a PT92 that works for me.

For the price, I wouldn't hesitate to get one.