What's the Verdict on the Taurus 1911?

[Mainsail]

This is just my uninformed opinion since I’ve never owned a Taurus 1911, but it seems like simple economics to me. To make a good reliable pistol costs a certain amount of money. There’s parts and labor and those cost a certain amount, there’s no getting around that. To make a pistol that costs less than your competitors, you have to cut corners on either parts or labor (or both). Regardless of how much they love a good 1911, they aren’t going to give you the parts or the labor for free.

The reasonable average cost of a 1911 seems to be around $800 to $1000 for all the bells and whistles, or $400 to $600 for a basic one. It totally defies all logic to think that you are going to buy a 1911 with all the bells and whistles for $600, they have to either buy cheaper parts or pay for a less competent employee to put them together, or both.

So the Springfield model that’s just a copy of the basic level 1911 is going to be a great buy on a great gun, but you don’t get the bells and whistles. If you want those you have to pay more, no ifs ands or buts about it. Taurus is trying to offer the bells and whistles at the basic price, so they have to choose between two options if they want to make any profit at all; they can skimp on the parts or the labor.

 

[Storm]

The only other issue was that one of them, the lock in the hammer broke, rendering the gun nonfunctional. both guns got their hammers replaced after that little adventure.

That should never, ever, ever happen. I hope other PT1911 owners, or prospective owners, take note.

Between the finish/rust problems and the lock breaking, and the thumb saftety breakage and guns flying apart...oh never mind.

 

[KyJim]

When the Taurus 1911 first came out, I was interested in it as a budget 1911 even though I have other 1911s. I lost interest after reading enough posts about uneven quality and poor customer service.

Ask the owners who sing the praises of the 1911 and you'll find that most have only a few hundred rounds or perhaps a couple of thousand. Wait until they have 30,000 rounds and see how they are holding up.

 

[maconcop]

Results from my Taurus 1911

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Shot my Taurus 1911 for the first time last week. I was certainly satisfied with my results. I was shooting unbraced from about ten yards (not much I know but its just a backyard pistol range). I had a couple flyers but it was the shooter not the tool.
My only complaint is that my front sight screw worked loose, but that's easily fixed. That was after about 200-250 (I can't remember) rounds of military ball ammunition. I've got two targets on my original post in this forum under title "Results from my Taurus 1911" but I couldn't seem to attach them to this post for some reason.

 

[45auto]

I can't speak about the Taurus, in particular, but the "bells and whistles" as people refer to them don't necessarily cost much more than the GI IMO.

An extended thumb safety is probably no more expensive then a standard one.
Extended grip safety same as a standard GI style...probably. Is it more cost to fit these if the frames are machined accordingly from the start?

Sights are probably more on these "enhanced" models, but how much...$10, $20?

What's left since these aren't "fit" any better than GI types?

The Taurus is checkered so that's additional machine time.