Opinion of Taurus?

What's your opinion of Taurus?

  • Own or owned one, loved it

    Votes: 93 29.2%

  • Own or owned one, disliked it

    Votes: 27 8.5%

  • Own or owned one, pretty neutral view of them

    Votes: 52 16.3%

  • Never owned one, loved it

    Votes: 3 0.9%

  • Never owned one, don't like them

    Votes: 34 10.7%

  • Never owned one, pretty neutral view of them

    Votes: 44 13.8%

  • My CC gun is a Taurus, trust my life with it

    Votes: 17 5.3%

  • Good plinking gun but wouldn't CC it

    Votes: 9 2.8%

  • All my guns are Taurus and I love them all!! Who needs another brand?

    Votes: 2 0.6%

  • Horrible experiences! Would never.. ever.. touch one again.

    Votes: 38 11.9%
  • Total voters
    319
  • Poll closed .
I own (4) Tauri at the moment. (2) by default that I've never fired. An Ultralite .38 snubby and a blued steel .38 snubby. Since I've never fired them I can claim "they've never failed me". And (2) .22lr rifles. A mod 62 and a mod 63, both in polished stainless. I've fired both, found them very agreeable, extremely well fitted and finished for their modest cost. Both true bargains.
 
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I had a stainless .357 similar to a K frame back around 88, it was a very good shooter and the quality was real nice. Cost $150 used(didn't look used) in a gun store, and that's all I know about Taurus.
 
riggins_83: I, for one, would like to thank you for posting this poll...it's been extremely enlightening...esp. in discerning the number of Taurus owners in relation to their reviews of Taurus products....thanks. :D
 
The real Taurus truth

First, I think it is a myth that quality control is a direct result of cost of a particular product. There are many examples out there of products with better quality than their higher priced competitive brands. Quality control has much more to do with company management than how much money is injected into their QC programs.

Having worked in large production industry, I can tell you that many at Taurus are probably aware that picking 100 Taurus pistols out of the box compared to 100 Glocks, then the Taurus would have many more QC defects. But I am guessing that in the typical engineering/sales meetings someone is pointing out that Taurus is selling a lot of guns and probably makes good profit. It is hard against this background to make big changes in a companies QC programs. Some companies simply put more emphasis on the sales side compared to the QC side. This is mostly to due to the business/manufacturing culture of a particular company. Companies like Glock are part of an industry and country that puts high emphasis on quality control. IMO, it's that simple.

My guess is that if you put Glock management in charge of Taurus, and did not change designs or materials, you would have pistols with a much lower rate of QC defects. I view Taurus as being on the edge. They have good designs with the potential of very good quality. But the key word (at times) is potential.
 
I would have voted loved some, neutral on others. Revolvers have been good guns. I do not own any now, but my M66 was awesome as was my M85UL. One was too big the other too small, sold both and bought a Ruger SP101 with a 3" barrel. Semi's have been ok. My 911(?) had some issues and my P22 had some FTF. I would not hesitate to try their revolvers, 1911 or 92 knock-off. S&W has priced themselves out of what I consider a fair price. Taurus offers many affordable, reliable firearms. May not be the "best" but for the money I couldn't complain.
 
I still think their pt92-101 series were their best Semi autos.
Click to expand...

Yes, and not as well known...the PT945/940 pistols. My PT945 has a mix of PT92 and Sig 220 type features. Beretta take down, frame mounted safety. DA/SA. Can be carried cocked & locked if desired. 27oz alloy frame, 4.25" barrel. Great external extractor (has extra large claw). Does not use locking block...has tilt barrel.

Despite my above post on general Taurus quality, my PT945 is one of the best pistols I own.
 
PT-745: As good as any gun I've ever owned, flawless
PT-22: Much maligned on the Internet, but works perfectly
M85 : Broke something by dryfiring it w/o snapcaps; Taurus sent me a new one.
 
Just based on the negative feedback on this and other forums, I'm going to take a pass at Taurus firearms. I'm just not that adventurous and do not want the hassle of a potential POS. I'll stick with CZ'z, Rugers and S&W's.
 
I have not owned one but I have taken my brother's 1911 apart several times. There sure were a lot of machine marks inside that poor thing. And I noticed that the edges of the dust cover weren't the same thickness. When it's visible to the naked eye like that it's pretty glaring. :eek:

So between that and their customer service reputation I won't be spending any of my own money on one.

It's a shame, really. Their prices are good. And some folks love them like their own children. But buying one feels too much like playing the lottery for my tastes.
 
Your opinion of gun manufacturers

If the same question was asked about Ruger, you would get uniformly positive reviews. There have been some recalls, but quality is still always excellent and their customer service is second to none.

If the same question were asked about Smith & Wesson, you would get a few more gripes than Ruger but generally the quality is still very good, despite some corner cutting the recent past. And their customer service is only second to Ruger.

If you really want to buy a Taurus, don't. Buy a new or used Ruger or S&W. The little extra you pay will be worth it in piece of mind. And if it breaks, they will fix it for free, usually within 2 weeks (as opposed to sending it on the slow boat to Brazil, as Taurus does).
 
Considering they bought the Beretta factory and kept on most of the Beretta engineers and smiths, spent $20,000,000 on state of the art CNC tooling and are now the number 1 producer of handguns in the world, I would expect you might hear more complaints. Go to taurus armed.net , a non company website and checkout the complaints section, then consider the number of pistols sent to the US , over one million in the past five years. Takeout the 45 acp magazine complaints[design flaw] and the ones whose problems originated with cosmoline related hangups, you will find that Taurus is one of the most reliable manufacturers in the world.Better yet google [insert your favorite brand] kabooms.. you will be amazed how poorly your baby does.Or read Chuck Hawks article on S&W. http://www.chuckhawks.com/smith-wesson_dark.htm I have a dozen different handguns, all different brands, the one that sits on my nitestand is a Taurus PT24/7 Pro Ds.....
 
Of all the modern gunmakers, Taurus seems to be on track with designs I'm interested in; IOW, if I walked into a gunshop not knowing anything about brands of guns, I would be most interested in things like the 24/7 and the Millenium Pro. They have an innovative trigger system (SA/DA) and extremely good ergonomics.

That said, our local super-gunshop (it's about 15k square feet and stocks thousands of firearms) reports that their on-site gunsmith spends about 80% of his time sorting out problems with brand new Taurus pistols, and 20% working on every other brand they sell.

This, combined with reports of systemic problems within certain lines (frames cracking on the original Milleniums, numerous FTF reports with the 24/7) make me question whether they are truly a 'first tier' gunmaker yet. And horror stories about two month turnarounds for warranty repairs seal the deal-I won't risk another Taurus.

Larry
 
My next gun purchase is going to be a PT1911 AL, the lightweight model.
I actually have a Springfield WWII repro I'm going to sell for it!
 
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