Taurus Quality: Objective Opinions...?

A

Aristides

New member
My Guns & Ammo magazine arrived today, and it contained a good interview with the Taurus President/CEO. He made a convincing case for Taurus being a different company today compared to where it might have been some years ago. He said all the right things about their commitment to quality. It's what you would expect a CEO to say about his company, but at least knows what he wants and where he's headed.

I often see negative innuendos about Taurus in these forums. Do those attitudes reflect present-day products, or is that "old" stuff that doesn't apply anymore? For those of you who have ACTUAL, recent experience with Taurus, what think ye?
 
I purchased a Taurus PT145 Millennium Pro in 2008...I did NOT do the appropriate research on the pistol and bought it on 3 factors...A.) 45ACP B.) Size (subcompact) C.) Price (new $400)

I shot 50 rounds through it the same day without a problem...took it home and came back to the range 6 days later with 2 boxes of .45 (100 rounds)..I got off 3 rounds and then just "click"...I pulled the trigger again..."click"...again..."click"click"click"...I racked the slide ejected the round thinking it was just a bad round and tried again "click"...racked, ejected and tried..."click"

Ok so looking at the ejected rounds you can see the impression on the primer from the striker but no ignitions "light strikes" as Taurus called it...I sent it back to Taurus after 2 weeks and 53 rounds of ownership.

Taurus had it for 9 1/2 weeks they sent it back and the service slip said "Trigger Bar Replaced"

If the trigger bar breaks after 2 weeks there was NO WAY IN HELL i could EVER trust my life to that firearm...so to answer your question

if 2008 doesn't qualify as recent or "present day" then I don't know what does

And yes you are absolutely correct...a CEO HAS to say his products are good even if he's lying
 
The last Taurus I had was the PT1911. Looks good from the distance, but total disappointment at a close examination of lacking finish in detail.
 
Its been over 10 years since I shot a Taurus. One of my ffl dealers has a new judge that is broken. He's also a gunsmith last time I talked to him he was going to fix it himself if Taurus would send him the part.
 
old and new

I have a Taurus PT 99F that I bought 20 years ago. It has always worked well, I've not had much problem with it.

I have a Taurus Model 94 .22 that I bought new last year (2009). After less than a box of ammo shot through it, the trigger was grinding, the cylinder was binding, and extracting the spent cartridges required sufficient force to draw blood. Sent it back to Taurus; it was repaired and returned. After less than 50 rounds it was in the same bad shape as when it was sent for repair.

It takes years to build a reputation, seconds to lose one. Mine is not the only report of Taurus revolvers behaving as mine does. This is personal experience, not second-hand reporting.
 
Everyone has an opinion on Taurus, most have never owned one but still have the opinion. I have have had two, one I still own and carry. From what I have gathered, Taurus is hit or miss. You either get an amazing weapon like my second generation PT-145, or a piece of crap. Both that I have owned were perfect (the other was the PT-111 which I sold two a friend who still has it). The autos are OK to excellent depending on which one you get, the revolvers I have heard are junk (never owned one but I read postings all the time). Maybe I'm just lucky and have the best one ever made because I have torture tested the PT 145 and I could not break it, much less get it to hiccup. I ran over 800 rounds of any 45 ammo I could get, old, new, +p, hollow points, ball, reloads and not one problem. I didn't even clean the weapon and it kept firing. I trust it as much as any other firearm that I own and carry it often. If your looking at an auto, go for it. A revolver you might want to look elsewhere. Just my 2 cents.
 
I've had experience with several revolvers and also the PT145. To be honest, every Taurus I've used has performed well. My buddy had a PT1911, and it was also very dependable. I've never had a chance to use Taurus customer service until just a few weeks ago. I lost a small spring after disassembly, so I had to order one. Well, it's already been a few weeks, and the spring I paid for is not yet here. I'd have to rank this as poor service, at least compared to Ruger. Even though losing the spring was my fault, they really ought to be able to get me one much faster than my current wait. Aside from this, though, I give their products high marks.
 
I have had Taurus semi auto through the last 10 years. They all worked fine for me. I traded them off and moved on. I never heard anything bad about the company till I started reading on line. I did have a PT145 crack a frame. Sent it in, Taurus paid both ways, 4 weeks like new gun. They even replaced a front site that I broke off the little gun.

I have 14 hand guns now, none Taurus, my taste have changed.
 
I had a few Taurus revolvers and each one had problems that required repair. The worst case was my first Taurus, the model 617 seven shot .357 revolver. It seized up the first day out and I sent it to Taurus. After four months I received the pistol in the same condition I sent it in, broken. I ended up taking it to a local smith and paying for it to be fixed. When they worked, the Taurus revolvers were pretty good but nothing compared to a Ruger or Smith. Taurus sells a poorly made product at very high prices. I'm always confused when people refer to Taurus as a affordable handgun, who can afford to have a handgun that doesn't work when you need it?

My opinion? Skip the Taurus no matter which model it is.
 
My wife and I have 6 recent Taurii. With the exception of one, they have all been reliable shooters. The one was a Model 94 that had to go back to Taurus and have the firing pin replaced. My experience with Taurus CS and their warranty/repair department was most satisfying. They were polite, helpful and returned my gun in about a month - completely repaired.

Taurus guns don't have the fit and finish of S&W, but they're about $200 cheaper across the board, too.

IMO, they're reliable, accurate guns that will serve well in a carry/HD situation.
 
Depends....if 09 is new...then no.

Decent products for the price. But Customer Service sucks.....(9 months waiting for a rear sight)
 
I bought a NIB Taurus M85. The trigger was good, the finish wasn't bad and I liked how it fit my hand so I bought it. Plus, while I had my doubts about Taurus, I'd read a lot of positive reviews from owners on this board (I'm not pointing fingers :)) so I figured I'd give them a try with an open mind.

It shot well up until about 250 rounds. At that point, the gun froze up solid and when it wasn't froze solid, the cylinder rotated freely. I was pretty disappointed to say the least.

A little research after the fact and I found that my experience with the M85 wasn't out of the norm. Taurus's customer service left a lot to be desired too.

I no longer own that M85 and that was my first and last Taurus. While I replaced the Taurus with a S&W, I condsider it a valuable (and costly) lesson learned.

Take a gun model with a history of issues, from a company with poor customer service and you get a Taurus. I'm not saying all Taurus guns are lemons, but I certainly think that Taurus puts out more than an acceptable amount of junk guns.
 
I've owned a dozen or so-
Only one i had a real problem with was a new 85 :barf:
I still have a early mdl 94 & a new mdl 94 :)
 
I have owned (3) two PT1911 and a PT-145 Millennium Pro. Never any issues with any of them. The trigger on the PT-145 is one of the best of all I own.


Doug
 
You know in that article where he says something like "if it says Taurus on it we guarantee it for life"? Don't believe that. My Taurus "warranty" experience consisted of many months of lies saying my gun was being repaired under "lifetime warranty" and ended up costing me $200 to get a replacement. Once you factor in the $50 or so I spent to ship the original junk I ended up paying $250 for a gun that could be bought "street price" for $300 or less. On top of the cost of the original gun of course. And the worst part was actually the lies and outright hostility from the "custome service" people. Now this was 3 or 4 years ago so things may have improved at Taurus but I doubt it
 
I've owned 4 different Taurus guns; PT22, P911, M85UL and an M66. The M66, 7 shot 357 was one of the smoothest revolvers I have ever owned. Both the M85 and M66 were replaced by a Ruger SP101 3". Looking back I wish I still had the M66 and M85 combo.
 
Taurus first broke into the U.S. market in a big way back in the 80s when they made Beretta 92 clones from machinery Beretta had owned. I bought one of these (PT99) 20+ years ago and it always functioned fine. I traded it in only because the grip was always a bit thick for my hands.

However, I have always passed on buying additional handguns from them, not because of quality concerns, but because of their poor reputation for customer service. It would be one thing to get a gun that needed repairs, especially since I have others. It's quite another not to be able to get it fixed in a reasonable time and with minimal hassle.
 
I have mixed opinions. The first gun in the family was a Taurus Millinium Pro 24/7 in 9mm. My mother bought it for price, caliber and the shiny slide (go figure) She let me borrow it for my CHL exam and while it does shoot reliably with easily managable reecoil, it's not the most accurate gun and just feels wierd. I don't like the trigger at all or the grips. Feels like a tinkertoy.

Last week, a friend invited me out to his ranch to go plinking. Among his collection was a Taurus PT1911. I REALLY liked this gun for the same reasons people become 1911 lovers. In addition, the gun was VERY accurate and had very smooth action in both the trigger and slide.

I think like cars, just judging a car by the manufacturer is hardly an accurate assesment. Remember Chevy made the chevette, but it also makes the Corvette.
 
My Taurus was good....but

My overall view of Taurus quality is not good. I say this even though my one Taurus (PT945) I owned for years was very good for reliability.

First the negative exaggerations:
1) Taurus is made from pot metal or other below standard materials.
Simply not true. Taurus uses reasonably good materials. Their alloy is at least T6 6061 grade aluminum, and they use 416 stainless steel. Their other parts are also good materials.

2) Taurus is low cost, so you get what you pay for. Never convince me of that theory. I paid $37.50 for my new Ruger .22 standard back in the late 50's. That's when Colt .22 semi cost over $100.00. Still shooting my Ruger standard to this day.

I believe Taurus main issue is poor quality control. The evidence of this is the mixed reviews Taurus always gets. If you get a Taurus that was built using parts that meet their own specifications, and if the Assembly was correct, then you will probably have a good experience with that particular firearm. If not, then you will have a bad experience. No gun maker has perfect QC complaints but it appears Taurus always runs a higher percentage of rejects than most other main line gun manufactures.

I think if you turned over a Taurus factory to a group of engineers from a Glock factory, and kept all materials and designs un-changed, I bet there would be a big improvement in the customer reject rate for pistols out of that same factory.
 
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