actual experience with Taurus

[JohnKSa]

John-- I bet you could post this for any other brand and be very close to the same response level.

Why not try it as an experiment. I'd be interested to see the results.

Go to google and type in problems with ???? any other brand. You will find thousands and thousands of hits on all brands.

Of course, but that is VERY different from a poll like this one that provides a baseline to compare the problem reports.

When you can compare the number of unsatisfied owners who respond to the total number of owners that respond, you can get a feel for the percentage of unsatisfied owners.

When you look at search hits, you have no frame of reference to interpret the number of hits obtained. There could be literally millions of satisfied owners, but if you look for only problems you won't know how many there are. For example, if there were a million satisfied owners that would mean that even 10000 unsatisfied owners would amount to only 1% of the total.

[Niël .]

I live in South Africa and I really want a 1911 single-stack . I am going to take a chance and buy the PT1911 , as it seems like the only 1911 that I can purchase new here . I am prepared to send it to a private gunsmith for modifications if needed . It goes for about R8500-00 overhear .I hope that I am not going to make a mistake

[4runnerman]

That is probebly true John. What I see here is 85% of people here that have Taurus seem to be ok with them. They either have a flawless set up or the issues they have are so minor they are keeping them. The top 2 catigory's are to be throw out,as they mean nothing.
Also- Keep in mind the people in this forum are above and beyond normal people when it comes to fire arms. I have no idea what % of people on this forum would be compared to % of people that own fire arms,but i have to believe it is less than 1%. You know as well as me that a lot of people on this forum will trash a fire arm if it does not shoot bullseyes for them right away.

I just think a lot of over reacting goes on in here and you have to seperate that from reality. Case in point is the Hi-Point I keep mentioning. They take a beating in here from all. And In reality they are ugly and heavy, but performace wise they will run with the best and when the best die--they will keep running.

Every one is a pro on the internet.

I picked up my Taurus PT1911 out of the blue, At that time ( and still now) I know nothing of pistols and I will never claim to be a Pro as I have to many other things going on inmy life to care. I read no reviews or talked to any one before I purchased it. It was a very nice looking pistol with a good price. I held many different ones before i purchased it. Maybe I got a good one, maybe the talk in here is BS,I don't know. I have well over 5000 rounds down this thing and it just keeps on going. I did have one FTF,but that was my load with a 185gn SWC and i wrote it off. I will count my blessing on this purchase and go from there.

[MLeake]

4Runnerman, not to be a jerk, but 99 out of 153 is not 85%. It's 64.7%, or less than 2/3 satisfied owners, according to current numbers in the poll - and that is tossing out the top two categories.

This is consistent with the numbers in other Taurus polls on TFL; go ahead and do a search.

1/3 unsatisfied is high. Complaints about CS not paying for shipping, not returning firearms in a reasonable time, not answering phones, and not fixing the problems are consistent throughout such threads, among the unsatisfied owners.

I agree with JohnKSa, you should try starting similar polls for other brands, and see how the percentages compare.

[4runnerman]

MLeake- Im adding both lines here. If they still own it even with issues,,They must be minor???. I mean, why would you keep a pistol that does not work??.
That would border on---- Stup--- Not smart

[recon14]

I used to own a Model 66 .357 mag. Absolutely flawless through several thousand rounds. Only thing I ever did was put Pachmyr grips on it. Sold it before being stationed in NY with the USAF. Just not worth the aggrevation in NY.

sent from my S III using TapaTalk

[dalegribble]

"B) More than half a dozen firearms, that I have owned or been directly involved with.
For starters -
A .357 revolver that blew its barrel off with the first shot. (It had been over-torqued and cracked at the factory.)
A .38 Special revolver that unscrewed its barrel with 4 shots fired. (Under-torqued.)
A .357 revolver that had its timing so far off, it was striking the extreme edge of the cartridge primers and splitting bullets on the forcing cone. (Complete lack of quality control.)
A PT-138 that might let you get 2 shots off, before jamming, if you were very lucky - and that was only when light firing pin strikes were letting it fire at all. (Stupid design, and no quality control.)
A post-Taurus Rossi 62 "Gallery" that A) would barely feed and never eject, and B) fired any time the action closed. (Cheap parts, and no quality control. Before Rossi was eaten by Taurus, the 62s were good rifles.)"

it always interests me that some people keep buying a brand that does not work for them. i mean fool me once but fool me twice and i won't be fooled again (or whatever foolish quote gw bush said). i mean if i bought one gun with problems i probably would never buy another of that brand. yet some people keep buying and buying and buying and buying the same thing with the same results. it just doesn't sound quite right to me. now i have purchased 1 gun at a time 2 revolvers and 4 semi auto taurus guns. all have worked perfectly and i still have all 6 guns. if at anytime i would have gotten a lemon i would have stopped buying anyting taurus. since every taurus i bought has worked perfectly my next purchase will be a 22/22mag taurus revolver.

[xsquidgator]

Rossi/Taurus (it had the taurus name on the box) 357 snubnose.
Nice gun and great shooter, when it worked. The problem was it broke frequently, and unpredictably.
The same part failed 3x, the cylinder bolt. Cheap metal or poorly heat-treated, whatever, the same internal part kept cracking.
First time, after 50 rounds and 1 day after purchase.
Second failure, after maybe 500 rounds and 6 months after getting failure #1 fixed.
Third failure, after 6 rounds and 1 day after getting failure #2 fixed.

The gun was only $315 but i spent over $150 sending it back and forth to the factory for slow slow repairs (6+ weeks each time).
Sold that piece of crap and never looked back. Never again either. (Bought a Ruger and an S&W, and never again a problem. Too bad I didn't pay a little more at first)
There are some good tauri out there but something like 1/4 to 1/3 of them that I've seen, including mine, have serious quality problems for which there is no excuse. (Numbers apparently pretty close to the poll numbers here) Add poor customer service on top of that and you've got ... the Taurus experience.
Would you buy a cheaper seatbelt for your car, if so many of them had problems? Why do it with a gun? Go ahead, roll the dice, spend $75 less and see if you roll a "7" and get one that works and won't break. Get one if you like it, but I'm plugging my ears when and if it breaks, I don't wanna hear it. Consider yourself warned, take the advice or leave it...

[Gaerek]

I'm coming to this late, but you forgot an option.

Never owned one, but has seen problems first hand.

The problems I have seen from others (and from others guns I've shot), and they stories they tell me are why I will never own one.

You rarely see a story about someone having to send their Glock, Sig, XD, Ruger, etc, back to the factory. But it's almost normal to see people talk about how great the Taurus Customer Service was because they had to send their gun back to the factory to fix it.

Like all things in life, you get what you paid for. If you're OK with a Taurus, more power to you. But I won't trust my life to one.

[MLeake]

4Runnerman, at least a couple people in this thread indicated they had problems that would have made it unethical to sell their guns.

Also, there was no category option for "owned but had problems and got rid of at least one."

[MLeake]

dalegribble, the person you quoted did not say he bought multiples (though he may have done so), he said owned or been directly involved with.

Could be his relatives or friends had the other guns; could be he is an instructor or RO; could be he is an FFL of some sort.

[TennJed]

MLeake- Im adding both lines here. If they still own it even with issues,,They must be minor???. I mean, why would you keep a pistol that does not work??.
That would border on---- Stup--- Not smart

actually the option says owned/still own so it leaves it open to both those who do not and still own a taurus.

basically I wanted to get a feel of 2 things with the poll. How many people here have owned a Taurus and out of the owners, how many had problems. Not too concerned with if they kept them or not

[JohnKSa]

What I see here is 85% of people here that have Taurus seem to be ok with them.

MLeake is correct. Right now the poll is showing 164 Taurus owners or past owners of which 107 are satisfied and 57 own or have owned problem Taurus products.

That's 57 out of 164 (34.8%) who own or have owned problem guns and 107 out of 164 (65.2%) satisfied. Said another way, more than a third of the Taurus owners who responded to this poll have had problems with a Taurus product.

That's higher than I would have expected.

[warningshot]

Also, there was no category option for "owned but had problems and got rid of at least one."

What about this option:

"Owned one or more, got rid of it, never own another one due to poor QC".

[tristar viper]

Have 2 Tauruses, TCP and PT709. Both as reliable as any gun could ever be, and if you ask me my TCP blows any other tiny polymer 380 out of the water with it's accuracy and comfort.
What I do hate about Taurus is their false advertising, both on their website and in various magazines. As an example, they falsely advertised extended mags for both the TCP and the PT709. Well guess what? If you call Taurus they will tell you there's no plan to ever make those available, even though there were pictures of those item on their website, and in American Rifleman.

[tristar viper]

And how many of those problems were user induced? A lot of novice and first time shooters buy a Taurus because they are low cost, and you can't dis-count that as a contributing factor in at least a few cases I would bet.
How many of those problems were on guns that were never cleaned and lubed properly before shooting?
How many problems were from cheap garbage ammo?
All things to be considered IMO.

[2000ShadowACE]

I have two taurus 24/7 OSS 1 is a .45 and the other is a 9mm. The 9 likes to spit hot brass in your face which is downright disconcerting and painful, the .45 mags are crap. Both are amazingly accurate, but I would not rely on either in a life or death situation. They will soon be looking for new homes.

On the other hand, I had a taurus revolver in .38 special and wish I still had it. I do not remember what model it was, but it was a four inch model and it was one of the most reliable shooters I ever owned. Unfortunately it was sold when times got tight and I still have not found a suitable replacement for it.

[bigkrackers]

Owned a PT145. Liked the size and the 10 round's of .45 acp. I never had an issue with it but the more I read about Taurus and their CS issues I decided to sell it. Once I started to question the gun and it's pedigree, it had to go. I will not buy another. For a bit more money one can step up to a completely better class of gun.

[Cheapshooter]

That's 57 out of 164 (34.8%) who own or have owned problem guns and 107 out of 164 (65.2%) satisfied. Said another way, more than a third of the Taurus owners who responded to this poll have had problems with a Tauru

But what isn't shown in the poll is that of the 1/3 that own/have owned. a Taurus with a problem, how many of the "own" guns are still owned because the problem was fixed, and the owner is now satisfied with the gun.

[Ozzieman]

Anyone remember the American Rifleman magazine from the NRA last summer that they tested 3 guns from Taurus. PT 738, 809 and 740.
These were guns supplied to the NRA for testing. One had issues with feeding and another had numerous feeding failures caused by the magazine catch not keeping the mag in place.
And it had to go back to Taurus.
I don’t like Taurus’s quality but I do like some of their guns. One is the 445 which I own that had major problems when I purchased it.
I find it amazing that when people talk about Kimbers and there beak in period and that gets the Kimber “bashers” out in force but the article in the magazine talks about it just being a break in period causing the Taurus to fail and that’s OK.
I also find it amazing how Taurus fans sound just like Hi-point fans in that if you don’t care for the guns they make then you’re a basher.
Well call me a basher! I really don’t care.

http://www.americanrifleman.org/arti...iple-threat-3/

[Quincunx]

I've mentioned before that in 1994 I bought a 3" barrel Taurus 431 in .44 Special; I've not had thousands of rounds through it (probably 500-600, though) but have had nary a major problem. There has been the rare backwards spit of lead, and the cylinder latch came loose at one point; the former can happen with most any revolver, the latter was solved permanently with a drop of Loctite. The current Mrs. appropriated this gun from me, and carries it near-daily with confidence; about 4-5 years ago, I bought her an identical gun for home use, and aside from the cylinder latch also coming loose she has had no problems with it.

[recon14]

All brands have issues...a friend had a new ruger SR9 that went back to the factory three times before he finally got fed up and sold it.

sent from my S III using TapaTalk

[JohnKSa]

But what isn't shown in the poll is that of the 1/3 that own/have owned. a Taurus with a problem, how many of the "own" guns are still owned because the problem was fixed, and the owner is now satisfied with the gun.

That is correct. To get that information the poll would have had to be designed differently.

However, even without that information, we can still get a pretty decent picture of what the situation is in terms of how likely one is to get a Taurus with problems, assuming that we've gotten reasonably accurate responses to the poll questions.

[Cheapshooter]

Another point to be made that tends to skew the number of problematic firearms from Taurus can only be answered by the manufacturers them selves. But they are pretty much hush, hush about it. That is now many Taurus firearms are mnufactured, and sold in compairison to other makers. With increased production comes the increased possibility of a "lemon" getting out.

[James K]

Another issue not in the poll is the time frame of the problem(s). Taurus has claimed (within the last six months) that they are aware of the problems and have taken steps to correct them.

So, in fairness, did the problem(s) mentioned occur last week, a year ago, or ten or more years ago? I have seen the same problem with another make brought up time after time by the same person so that one problem has been reported a hundred times on a half dozen sites, making it look like that make and model was very bad, when in fact it is one of the most reliable and best made guns on the market.

Jim