I spent 3 years managing the gun counter in a large sporting goods store, 2010-2013. After a few ridiculous rashes of guns coming back for repair, I went through our electronic A&D logs to run some numbers. Taurus handguns (I grouped both pistols and revolvers) had the highest rate of repair among the brands we carried. 1 in 9 guns on our handgun wall was a Taurus, and 1 in 3 of our handguns sent to the manufacturer for repair were Taurus. After Taurus, the ratio of returns vs guns sold was worst for S&W, then Sig (the majority of those were the polymer guns- p250 and the such), then Kimber, then Beretta (I included Stoeger in that), then Ruger, then HK. The rest were fairly negligible numbers either from lack of returns or because we just didn't carry/ sell that many. After that job I spent 4 more months working in a different store that sold guns, and of the new guns we carried, Kel-Tec blew Taurus out of the water for flawed out of the box returns, at almost double.
I will concede that the Taurus (Tauri?) we got back tended to be a few models in particular- the stupid polymer protector was just a joke of a gun. We sent FIVE back from an order of EIGHT we had at one time. Timing issues, freezing issues, a variety of trigger problems, and one that had a hammer stick at half cock the first time it was manually cocked. None of those were ever shot- we discovered those just by having them out on our wall. And the PT/ Millennium series were just terrible- and it wasn't any single thing. Almost every one sent back through us was a new, unique, and often baffling problem.
Blob of cosmoline interfering with the firing sequence? Check. Trigger that wasn't actually attached to the sear and flopped about impotently when you wiggled the gun? Check. Magazine falls out after every shot? Yep. And no, that wasn't user error- I tried it myself.
Then there is the fact that there are problems that aren't actually "defects" according to Taurus. I didn't keep track, but I know I had more than a handful of their semi-autos brought back because they didn't fire when the trigger was pulled- it was like a 4 stage trigger. After the break you had to continue to squeeze hard to get the thing to eventually go off. I don't think that was user error either, as we never had a single other brand with that problem, just a few models of Taurus.
Any manufacturing line will occasionally put out a lemon, that doesn't make them a bad company. But in my experience, Taurus is the opposite- once in a while someone is bound to get one that actually works.
I can say we never had issues with the PT1911s, so there is that. And we rarely had issues with the Trackers- I know we had at least two returned, one for being out of time and the other I strongly believe was just being operated by an idiot... I can't blame the company for that one. The trackers are a cool looking gun, no denying it. And the judge seems to be a well-made gun- I don't recall any issues with those (except the poly one, we had a few with those), or very few. But I would never be able to justify buying a Taurus when you can always get a Ruger of comparable frame size/ stats in the same price range for WAY higher quality and customer service which isn't even on the same charts as Taurus. I choose not to throw my money at a company that will use it to fund more shoddy, unsafe handguns.
Taurus has a "lifetime” warranty, but it doesn't matter if you've had the gun for a week before it exploded, I've seen many instances of them finding some stupid little detail that they use as "proof" that it wasn't a mfg defect, it had to be a user error of some kind. Compare that to a company like Ruger or FN or Springfield who may have limited warranties of a year or so, however if you find that your 20 year old gun suddenly isn't working the way it should they will take care of it because they have pride in their brand and products.
So yes, I think Taurus makes guns that are so low quality it is downright irresponsible. And it is a good thing this thread isn't about Kel-Tec... that's a rant for another day. This is not a mindless decision, it has nothing to do with price range, politics, or snobbery, and it is certainly not based on hearsay. I'm not an armorer or a gunsmith or an engineer, but I can count pretty well and the numbers are clear to me on this.
