objective reviews of the Taurus PT111 gen 2?

T

tahunua001

New member
hello all,
I have a question. I posted a writeup i made regarding several different budget brand handguns I've purchased over the years on another forum, and in typical fashion I've got a ton of guys telling me that I have left out their ideas of the best budget brand handguns. well ignoring the fact that I don't have 5 grand to go out and buy an example of every cheap gun out there, and another couple thousand to spend on ammo to make reviews of said guns, I get where they're coming from.

one gun that is constantly being brought up is the Taurus PT111 Gen 2. now I've grown curious. on one hand it's cheaper than any of the guns on my list (at least according to youtube personalities) by a fair amount, but on the other hand even the most positive youtube reviews tend to have negatives, especially in the trigger department which is usually the most crucial area (at least in my opinion) when determining whether you like a handgun. mrguns&gear(AKA Ploughdaddy here on TFL) also suffered a few failures to enter battery on his review, but still claimed it was a decent value in the end. personally, any failure to enter battery is a serious concern and I would not recommend any handgun that had those issues, but still, for $250 you can't get the same quality as a glock, springfield, or S&W.

so my questions for people with personal experience with the taurus PT111 gen 2 are as follows:

1. How many rounds do you have through your PT111? how many basic range ammo? how much defense ammo? +P? +P+?

2. if you completely ignore price point, or better yet, if you were to jack up the price to be more in line with a berreta PX4, springfield XD, FNS, M&P, glock, etc, would you still consider recommending the taurus to other people or would you tell them to look somewhere else?

3. ignoring price point, and justifications that follow, how many failures have you experienced with your taurus pt111 and how many rounds between failures?

4. has your taurus had to be sent back for service since you bought it and how many rounds were through it before service and how many since?

5. ignoring price point, what is your favorite feature on the pt111?

6. ignoring price point, what is your least favorite feature on the pt111?

7. (flame suit on), if you have suffered malfunctions(failure to eject, failure to feed, failure to enter battery, failure to reset, failure to fire, light strikes, etc), and continue to recommend them for any purposes other than a range toy, what is your reasoning/justification for doing so?

now before letting this thing into the wild, let me say that I really am considering getting one of these pistols. I'm not going to be encouraged or discouraged by single sentence responses or sentence fragments. I'm not going to be encouraged by price point or discouraged by brand name. what I am really looking for is logical reasoning, and fact based input.
 
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I've had 2. And still have 1. I carry a g.26 or a g19 daily now but I did carry it for a while. The one that I still have, has somewhere around 600 rounds. If it were the same price as a glock or s&w I would recommend the glock or the s&w. It's not a bad gun at all. But it's not a 500$ gun either. I the only failure I have had was with the rsa. I think that when I was putting back together one day, I didn't have it completely seated in its groove. When I pulled the slide back it got stuck. After some forceful tinkering, I got it apart but broke the rsa in the process. Called taurus and the sent me a new one that week. I have shot hornady critical defense, Winchester white box , perfecta and some other cheap ammo brands. Not once did I have any issues.
I'd say the worse part of the gun is the sights. And the long travel in the trigger. I recommend it to anyone looking for a cheap gun. It's better than a sccy or highpoint IMO.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk
 
My PT111 G2 is my daily carry. As such, I make sure to practice with it every time I go to the range, so it has a lot of rounds through it. I am not a meticulous round counter, but with range time almost every week since I got it in Jan 2015, I would estimate the count somewhere upwards of 3700. Most of that is fmj, of course, with assorted brands and weights. Probably about 150 of that number is jhp - all critical defense. I have had one FTE in all of that, and it was from a box of cheap steel cased fmj that produced FTEs in a couple of other otherwise flawless guns, so I'm comfortable saying it was an ammo issue.

I have no hesitation to recommend it. If it were the same price as a Glock or S&W, I would say to pass on it, though - mostly because the fit and finish is not what you get from one of the more expensive guns.

My favorite feature is the capacity to size/weight ratio - only .25 inches wider and a few ounces heavier than a Shield, but it holds 12+1 instead of 7+1.

Least favorite is that it doesn't have an option for no manual safety.
 
I have a couple of them - a blue (black) and a stainless slide model. Bought both for a little over $200. Not a Taurus fan but have to admit they've both been flawless thru 600 & 900 rounds, respectively - over the course of 4-5 years. Put a talon grip on them and they feel great in your hand. Sig 226 mags give them additional capacity. Not found anything comparable for anywhere near the money. Some do seem to have recoil spring issues but an aftermarket solution exists for that problem + Taurus' normally sketchy service department will replace defective springs without complaint. You could do much worse with regard to an economical pistol.
 
a friend just got one and was recently dry firing it a few times to get the feel of the trigger (loooong). I SLOWLY pulled the trigger a few times and each time it appeared as if the front sight was moving or the slide was rotating at the point of trigger break. I wasn't jerking the trigger, either. The same happened with him. He's a serious gun guy who has plenty of experience working with/on guns and he furrowed his brow a bit. That's the only time I've handled one. I HAVE heard very good things about the gun, though.
 
I have to agree with BigMikey. I also own one that I carry daily. I didn't respond initially because my round count no way near approachs what he is doing. I am slightly embarrassed that I've only ran a 200-300 or so rounds thru it. I carried the mouse guns, but could never find one that was comfortable enough to shoot often. I went on a quest to find the smallest pistol I could shoot for extended practice periods and still conceal. For me it was the PT111 gen 2. It has been absolutely reliable. I believe(personal thought only) that they built it in wake of the lawsuit over the previous model. As such, they intentionally made it better than the price point would suggest. I think Taurus was attempting to do damage control by offering much more than your monies worth. They succeeded. The sub frame is all steel , where the earlier models were aluminum alloy. The only down side to the pistol is the trigger reset IMO. It breaks so close to the frame that you can easily pull your shots low-left because to often your finger pad will contact the frame before it breaks, causing your shots to go lo-left. You do have to work at getting a clean break. Some people have broken the center trigger safety . I think the reset is responsible for this also, although every thing you can imagine gets the blame on other forums. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking with the PT111 Gen2 Taurus.:)
 
My G2 is my M-F gun since my hospital requires me to leave it in my car.

I have around 2k rounds of reloads down the throat of my G2, zero failures so far. It's reliable as the day is long...I don't have but 50 HST rounds down the tube and now carry 124g HST's.

Least favorite is the plastic sights, but it's nice that they're adjustable. When I first started shooting it I jacked the sight to make up for my poor aim. As the rounds and trips went up I kept adjusting the sight and it's now basically back to factory point.

As for jacking up the price to Sig,M&P,Glock I can say this, thanks to it's size I love it much better than I ever did my M&P 9c, Sig 229, or G26. It's only a little thicker than my Shield and that's one of the reasons I love it.

As for range toys....those should all be full sized, compacts and sub compacts aren't toys, that's CZ75 and Sig 220 territory. IF a conceal carry pistol isn't uber reliable it's going away.


The G2 Taurus isn't a junk toy, don't mistake it's price point and manufacture cause you to feel substandard.
 
I don't have a PT111 G2, I do have an actual 2nd gen PT140 (the 40 version). I'm not sure why they call the current gun the 2nd generation, since it is the 4th generation PT111 and 3rd generation for the PT111 Millennium Pro.

First, there was the PT111/140/145 Millennium. It was a DAO pistol, the 9mm and .40 were on a smaller frame than the .45. They had frame cracking issues, and the 9mm and .40 also had pins break, and Taurus eventually gave up on them.

The next generation added the Pro to the name and beefed up the frames. I have one of these P140 Millennium Pros (2nd gen Millennium, 1st gen Millennium Pro). They were all on the same size frame as the .45 version and had a true DAO trigger.

Then came the version with the SA/DA trigger that Taurus seems to be pretending is the first generation. It (along with earlier generations as well as the 24/7) had the issues that led to the class action lawsuit and the G2 redesign.

That all said, my actual 2nd gen PT140 was a good gun for a while. It did lose its rear sight, and I had a smith put on some night sights. Mine is currently out of commission with a problem with the firing pin being stuck, it is stuck in the extended position. I have a couple thousand rounds through it, some FMJ but much of it was JHP defensive ammo (I got a good deal some years ago).

I know mine isn't the generation you are asking about. The current issue I'm having does make me a little nervous about trusting it or other Millenniums, and I'm not sure I'd buy the current gun after the issues Taurus has had with all previous generations as well. Then again, the price is tempting, and I used to love my PT 140. So, at the price I'm tempted to give one a chance, but if it was priced the same as the competition, no way (I'd go Glock 26/27, XD, XDm, or SIG P250 Subcompact or P320 Subcompact first and even with the price differences, I probably still will go with one of those ).
 
First let me say this, I use nothing but my hand loads and can pretty much trace any malfunctions to my loads. I have that all ironed out now by going to an undersize sizing die, since doing this absolutely no issues whatsoever. To me this gun is the perfect size and the ergonomics are fantastic. At first I didn't care for the sights but the more I shoot it the better it gets and I think I'll just leave the stock sights for now. Also at first it was impossible to get 12 rounds in the mags but they loosened up quickly and it's easy to fill them now. The more I shoot it the more I like the trigger as well. If I had one beef it would be the shape of the slide, I wish it was as smooth and comfy to carry as my LC9s, but this is a very minor thing and the more I get used to carrying it the less it bothers me. I have about 500 rounds through it and love it more and more.
 
Probably not much help, but I had a PT-111 1st gen for over 15 years. While I didn't shoot it a ton, I never had a single malfunction of any kind. Solid gun, and super duper cheap. I bought it because I'd leave it in my car. Didn't want to leave a pricey gun in the car.
 
mine works...that's all...maybe 3-400 thru it ...was daily carrying it and the finish on it is crap. wore off the muzzle in less than a few months. I carry in a fobus appendix area

I typically carry a j frame...I just could not get used to carrying the Taurus. I have no faults with the gun..

I keep thinkin im gonna trade it but then I always pass and keep it.

my 10 yr old loves to shoot it since its kinda small..and hold 12 so he doesn't need to reload as often.

other than the poor finish wearing off I think its decent..well worth the 199 I paid for it on sale.
 
I have a G2...

1: I have close to 1000 rounds through mine. I have shot Herters, Blazer Brass, Freedom Munitions, PPU, Winchester NATO, Hornady 135gr defense, ... probably others that I don't remember. I don't think I've ever shot any steel case stuff yet. I've shot 115, 124, 135, and 147gr ammo.

2: Yes, I would still recommend it, because it is just that good of a gun. The low price is just a gift.

3: Failures? Honestly, I don't remember ANY failures, of any kind. There may have been one failure to feed, but I don't remember if that was in the G2 or my Canik... The G2 is basically been flawless.

4: No, it has not needed to be sent back for any reason.

5: Difficult to decide. Trigger is pretty nice, reset distance is excellent. Accuracy is better than expected.... it's an intangible, but I'd have to say my favorite feature is the "feel". It just fits my hand like it belongs there.

6: Again, difficult to decide. The only thing I don't like about it is the difficulty in getting the 12th round in the magazine.

7: Not applicable to my experience.

I studied quite a bit on the interweb before going for the G2.. in fact, I went to a gunshow looking to get a Ruger 9E, but found the G2 for about $40 less than the Ruger, so I went with it. I haven't regretted it at all. I still might get the Ruger, but I've got the two 9's right now, and don't really "need" another one.... right, what does "need" have to do with it...:rolleyes:
 
I have 2 of them. One I haven't shot yet, but the other one has about 1200 rounds through it.

It jammed on the third shot. it might have been my finger riding the slide, since once it was cleared, it ran through everything I put through it. Between the WWB, Perfecta, S&B, Win 147gr, and some mixed stuff of all 3 regular bullet weights, FMJ, JHP's, they all run fine, not a single issue. They don't even seem to feel all that much different when I shoot them.

It has not been sent back.

Feature I like best? It feels good in the hand, better than a lot of small guns do.

Worst thing? The stock sights. I replaced the front sight with a green fiber optic, which helped a bit. The 12th round was hard to get into the mags at first, but they are ok now. The rough parts of the grip are a little too "much", IMHO. I would prefer grooving instead of the sandpaperish feel.

Other than the jam on the first mag, it's been a great little gun. All three mags work perfectly and it's just a home run, that's why I bought a second one when some place had it for $184. I have the fiber optic sight to put on once I get a couple of hundred rounds through it.
 
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