Aguila Blanca
Staff
I have personally owned three Taurus firearms, and tried to repair another. With my experience, I would never buy another Taurus, and I would never recommend that anyone else do so.Cheapshooter said:Maybe because they are tired of seeing a brand demonized because it isn't some charished approved brand. Or because the company isn't from the United States.
Maybe because they haven't experienced any of the claimed problems, and look at the attacks as overblown. Probably overblown because of the first reason I mentioned.
I personally only have two guns from Taurus. One revolver, one semi-auto. With my experience there is no reason to not buy another.
My first is a 942. I needed something in a .22 LR for use in teaching NRA Basic Pistol classes, and the Taurus was about a hundred bucks cheaper than a Charter Arms, so I bought the Taurus. That one has been okay.
Second up was a Model 63, which I bought because it was a near copy of my grandfather's Winchester 1903, the gun on which I learned to shoot. I own the 1903, but (for those who aren't familiar with it) it takes a proprietary .22 Winchester Automatic cartridge that doesn't fit any other firearm -- and for the longest time nobody made ammo for it. So I bought the Taurus. Then along came Aguila, and they started offering .22 WA. It's pricey, but I could once again shoot my grandfather''s rifle. I took both to the range one day and shot them side by side. The old Winchester made the Taurus look like a shotgun. I sold the Taurus soon after.
Third up was a .327 Magnum (I don't recall the model number). It's built on the same small frame as the 942, but there was a major difference -- it didn't work out of the box. In DA mode you couldn't pull the trigger, and in single action mode you couldn't cock the hammer. I bought it on a close-out from CDNN and I didn't trust Taurus customer service, so I decided to deal with it. The gunsmith at the range took pity on me and took it in -- he gave up. I took it home, disassembled it, and started removing casting flash from here and there throughout the frame with a set of jewelers files. After a lot of filing, assembling, testing, disassembling, more filing, more testing, and more reassembling I finally got it to where it works 100% of the time in SA mode and maybe 90% in DA mode. I didn't keep track, but I'd estimate that I put maybe 20 hours (no less) into it, and I don't know how many hours the gunsmith spent on it.
Last up, the range had a Taurus 1911 as a range rental. Something in the firing pin safety system broke. The range owner knows that 1911s are my specialty so he asked me if I could try to fix it. Sure, no problem (I thought, naively). I took it home. First clue that all was not right was that the extractor didn't come out like any other Series 80 pistol I had ever seen. I got it out, I installed a new (Colt) plunger and spring, reassembled it, and it hand cycled and passed all tests on the bench. I took it back to the range. A week later the owner told me the first person who rented it had it lock up after about five shots. The firing pin safety plunger fell half out during the recoil cycle, and the slide wouldn't close. At that point, the owner got on the phone to Taurus. Turns out their Series 80 system is proprietary, and Colt parts won't work in a Taurus 1911. (Which we had proved, conclusively.) So he asked them to send him the parts. Oh, no -- he had to send them the gun so they could install the parts. Twelve weeks later the gun came back. I believe he sold it at that point -- I know it's not in the rental case any more.
There's a reason why people say, "Friends don't let friends buy Taurus."