Taurus Experience - Beware

K

kwiebe

Inactive
I bought my first Taurus firearm, 85 revolver, the first week of October. Getting familiar with it, dry-firing, I noticed occasionally it would lock up and not fire single-action. Oops, not good.

Had to send it back, they said six-week turnaround. I'm still waiting. Called them yesterday, they said it will "probably be a few more weeks..."

W T H?

Beware. Also their customer service during this time sucked exponentially. Despite having Facebook and twitter, you can only get them to respond by calling on the phone, and you will wait on the phone for at least 30 minutes (oftentimes much longer).

After you finally talk to someone, their shtick is to give you a bunch of excuses as to why it takes so long. Great, like I care about how inept your company is.

So if you want to invest your hard-earned money in a Taurus, keep in mind you're rolling the dice. And heaven help you if you roll craps and have to deal with their customer 'service'.
 
I bought a new Taurus .22 revolver a few years ago. Don't remember the model number. I had very frequent jams. I sent to back to Taurus, which took a long time. After it was returned, it still jammed. The gun was clearly a lemon, but the dealer would not take it back. I finally sold it back to the dealer at a big loss. I am unlikely to ever buy another Taurus.
 
I have never allowed it to be DRY FIRED.
Click to expand...
That's an interesting point. My initial impression was that dryfiring shouldn't be an issue. But there are a lot of different guns out there with a lot of different manufacturer recommendations so I thought it would be good to check.

Here's the manual for Taurus revolvers.

http://www.taurususa.com/pdf/revolver-manual.pdf

From Page 6:

"22. SAFETY FIRST: Dry firing is bad for this firearm, whether the hammer block is engaged or not."​
 
I always hated Taurus. Someone would always have one at the range and ask me to try it. All felt like gritty actions and didn't impress me.

My friend at the LGS called me up and told me to come in to look at a gun once. It was a Taurus 445. The action, finish and fit were great. Hard as I tried I could not find a reason to say no. Had that gun for 8 years without a problem. Stupidly sold it because it was a .44 Spl, and ammo was expensive.
 
I had a 24/7 that was a great functioning gun, had a great trigger and was accurate. I carried it for a few years. I got tired of not being able to find holsters that fit it specifically, so I started carrying something else.
 
Getting familiar with it, dry-firing,
Click to expand...
From Page 6:
"22. SAFETY FIRST: Dry firing is bad for this firearm, whether the hammer block is engaged or not."
Click to expand...
I don't know if dry firing caused the problem the OP's gun has but it does point out the fact that one should read and follow the owners manual... before using it.

Jim
 
I had a Taurus 94, 9 shot .22 for several years, after a minor trigger job it was fine, not a target pistil but good serviceable little gun, had to be kept clean though, if it got really ditry it would start to land bullets sideways, and enough gunk at end of cylinder it would begin to bind. Sold it to somebody who wanted it more than me. Recentry bought a Taurus 605 .357 snubbie. Love it, so far zero problems, except for my lack of ability.
 
Ive owned one Taurus, an M85 as well. It jammed often and had a forcing cone issue.

For the reasons you described, that was my first, and last, Taurus.
 
Maybe I have been lucky, I am very happy with my Taurus pistols. They all shoot fine, triggers excellent, no problems at all.


ihGgls8.jpg


3OHkYhD.jpg


8BIn9Dj.jpg


Unfortunate about the long time getting through to Customer Service. Corporations are consistently reducing staff to maximize profits. Soon you will be talking to a robot who won't have any real idea what your problem is.
 
Most Taurus guns work fine and will do so for many years. But their Quality Control has always been "iffy" and no one wants to learn the hard way that his gun is in the minority that will fail. I strongly suggest that, if price or some other factor (an unwanted safety mechanism, for example) leads to considering purchase of a Taurus, you learn the basic checks to avoid most problems. No gun shop will allow a customer to fire a hundred rounds just to check, but a clear understanding of warranty policy will help. Also a few basic checks (about one minute for a skilled person) will weed out 95+% of the problems and won't harm (or even fire) the gun.

Jim
 
I have several Taurus hand guns ...

605 -357mag
PT111 G2 - 9mm
PT709 -9mm
TCP 738 -380
TCP 738 SS -380

All function 100%

But Taurus is not known for stellar CS ...
 
Sorry to hear that. I've heard enough bad things about Taurus customer service to never buy a gun from them, nevermind the quality.

S&W 642s can be had for a little over $300 brand new, and you rarely if ever hear a bad thing about them. Even if you do, S&W customer service is usually very good, which I know personally as I've used it repair a used S&W I bought and they did a great job with a very short turnaround time.

But I guess if it saves a few bucks, the Taurus 85 is worth it... to some.
 
I bought a PT1911... it shot high and left. Even after a barrel switch it continued to do so. After reading about their mediocre CS, I just traded the pistol off...

I just traded into a different PT1911, one from a friend, that has decent accuracy... now that I have it, the rear firing pin retention plate seems to be peened into the slide... so I guess I'll have to deal with that.
 
Been there, done that and got the hat...TWICE.

But...NEVER...EVER...again.

Mess with the bull(Taurus)and you will get the horns.

Nowadays, I just laugh at folks that defend them...ha ha ha!
 
Not bashing Taurus but their designs seem to be poor copies of successful designs. I love revolvers and have dry fired them untold tens of thousands of times....but I Buy Smith and Wesson pistols, carried a Mod 19 in uniform and often target competition, a 36 off. Duty and backup, a Model 14 for bullseye shooting and a Mod 29 when I wanted my body to hurt. My local dealer refuses to stock Taurus revolvers because he got tired of disgruntled customers and sending pistols to Taurus repair center.
 
Not sure of what a revolver jam entails. Maybe it is the cylinder failing to rotate properly???
Click to expand...

Yes. Mine would bind because of the forcing cone being out of spec. Once it bound, you could not get the cylinder to rotate at all.

As many have said, Taurus can make a good gun. Mine shot well and had a good trigger, but after a couple of boxes of cartridges, the problems started and their customer service reputation, well, it's well earned.
 
I've had several Taurus guns. For the most part they are serviceable weapons. The one I had to return came back in two weeks. Right now they are all jacked up because of all the return guns they are getting (google "Taurus Settlement") which have to be processed.

I have less than I used too. I'll keep the three I have for now. When Taurus discontinues a gun they blow them out of their inventory at really low prices and destroy any value you may have. Two of my three are worth so little it's not worth selling them. I have five magazines for each and I could sell the mags for more than the gun. When they discontinue them mags get hard to find.

I'm waiting for the next panic and I'll dump them. They function fine, but their triggers are typically poor. They'd make a good platform for amateur gunsmithing.
 
I have 3 taurus firearms the 1st one being purchased back in 1982. They all eat what I feed them and ask for more. I've sold 3 glocks over the years because I didn't like the way they shot. But I will never sell my Taurus guns.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top