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Taurus Troubles

chewy352

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2009
Messages
769
Location
Harrah, Oklahoma
I took the family to the range the other night and after shooting about 70 rounds my sister in law raises her weak hand. I approach and she says she pulled the trigger and nothing happened (first time shooting). So I have her put the safety on and I take the firearm. At this point I am thinking it is a hang fire as we were using reloads. I wait about 5 minutes and nothing happens. In that time I sent my wife to ask the Range Master what their procedures were for hang fires. She returned and told me so I pulled back on the slide and it wouldn't budge. I tried to get the slide back for several minutes to no avail. I tried pulling the trigger several times to get the round to fire and that didn't work either. By this time one of the Range Masters comes up and offers me a punch. I used the punch to make sure the round was seated properly and then pulled the trigger again and much to my relief the round finally the round went off.

After we got home it took me about an hour of tugging and pulling to get the slide off. I then gave my firearm a thorough cleaning and discovered a huge gouge on the leading edge of the slide rail (pardon my nomenclature).

The next day (Friday) I sent it in to Taurus as they have an unlimited lifetime repair policy. However, the cost of shipping to them is on the consumer and they pay to ship it back. So I went to UPS and $70 later with insurance (only like $5 more and I was kind of hoping no one would get hurt and the truck would burn up :cool:) my Taurus PT145 was on its way to Miami.

Today I received my firearm back from Taurus. Amazing turnaround. I open it up and the invoice states "Scratches on frame - Adjusted, Broken part - Replaced." That was it. So I broke down my firearm and saw that the gouge that I told them about was still there! I called Taurus up and the only information customer service had was what I had. I asked if they could find out from the gunsmith exactly what they adjusted, replaced, and why they didn't repair my slide. The customer service rep. said he could send the gunsmith an email and get back to me.

After four hours I called back and they had not received a response from the gunsmith.
I told them that this is ridiculous and that if the gunsmith had had questions they should have called me. In an effort to keep me happy the customer service rep. offered to arrange pickup on them to ship it back to Miami. I agreed and my firearm will be going back tomorrow. This time instead of just describing where the damage is I'm going to tape it off with masking tape and draw arrows to it.

I did thank them for finding the other problems but told them they should describe the repairs they do (they have spaces for such on their invoices) and contact the customer if they have any questions.

Has anyone had a similar experience with Taurus? BTW I am now in the market for a new firearm and am not going to make the same mistake of buying a cheap firearm again.

Oh and I'll have a beautiful Taurus PT145 with 2 OC fobus holsters (1 paddle 1 adjustable) and 1 double mag belt holster for sale in December for the wonderful price of $350. Less that 1000 rounds fired! LOL
 
Last edited:

George Mann

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2010
Messages
74
Location
Colorado Springs, CO
My old PT-145 suffered from intermittent failure-to-fire, but always fired on the second trigger pull.

I traded it for a SIG P220 Carry. No more problems.
 

45acpForMe

Newbie
Joined
Nov 21, 2008
Messages
2,805
Location
Yorktown, Virginia, USA
I use the PT145 for CC/BUG in a pocket holster. I would prefer to have a SIG that had the same capacity/size/thumb-safety but it doesn't exist. My slide catch would release too easily (especially while breaking the gun down) which was annoying. I called Taurus and they had a FedEx truck pick it up the next day and take it to Miami. It took about a month to get it back but it was fixed properly. Since mine was less than a year old they paid for the shipping too which made me happy.

I have been happy with my Taurus and I carry it almost every day. I know some people have had problems with them, especially the early models but I haven't had any issues other than the one above.

I figure as a CC/BUG it is a great gun. For OC and a primary gun I prefer Sig, H&K models.
 

chewy352

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2009
Messages
769
Location
Harrah, Oklahoma
I'm trying to figure this one out... What exactly did you do with the punch?

I was wondering why he got me a punch too. However, I was able to put it through the mag well to make sure the round was fully seated. After applying pressure towards the chamber I removed the punch, pulled the trigger and the round fired.

I don't know. I was at a loss what to do in that situation. I knew I had a live round in the chamber and at the time thought I had a hang fire therefore couldn't remove the firearm from a safe direction pointed down range to take it to a gunsmith.

All I know right now from Taurus is that something broke. When I had it back the fireing pin and spring looked brand new. So maybe I jared it back into place.
 

HvyMtl

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2010
Messages
271
Location
Tennessee
Hmm. Personally, I do not own a Taurus. Several of my friends do. They advise me that, typically, one would not have an issue with the firearm. But, if something pops up and you have to send it to Taurus, the service you receive is lackluster at best.

Double check the policy of UPS. If I remember correctly, the shipping policy for the stores (used to be called Mailboxes etc., here) differs from UPS. The store makes you declare it is a firearm, and forces you to pay overnight, plus insurance fees. I believe that is the store policy, not UPS. So, do double check, as you might be able to save on shipping costs next time... (this is off of old memory, for when I had to ship my Bersa out for repair a few years back...) Same supposedly goes for Fed Ex Office (formerly Kinko's.)

Please do not advise them you were shooting reloads, as, in general, most warranties are void if they remotely believe the issue was due to reloaded ammo.

Best of luck, hope they fix the issue, and you get a firearm back you can trust.
 
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GWbiker

Guest
Joined
Mar 21, 2008
Messages
958
Location
USA
IMHO, purchasing a fully functioning, reliable Taurus semi auto handgun is a crap shoot. You **MAY** get a good one, but on the other hand.....

I once owned two - PT709 and a PT745. Both had FTF issues and were sold off at a loss.

Anyone desiring to buy a Taurus should first Google - Taurus Armed.net - click on subforum "Complaints".
 

Citizen

Founder's Club Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2006
Messages
18,269
Location
Fairfax Co., VA
I've sent a firearm back to a manufacturer.

I took digital photos, printed them out, and drew arrows on the photo pointing to the trouble areas. I wrote a one or two word description beside each arrow to indicate what it was pointing to: "crack", "gouge in frame", etc.

My main purpose for the photos was to make it easy for the person inspecting the gun to find the problem places.
 

chewy352

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2009
Messages
769
Location
Harrah, Oklahoma
Sounds to me that what happened was you had a swelled case from an improperly reloaded round. The slide did not close all way because the round got stuck in the chamber (especially if the gun was dirty). The gun did what it was supposed to do and did not fire out of battery. Then sticking a punch up into the magazine well with a live round in the chamber?!? OMG! You probably did more damage to the gun by prying the slide closed with the punch than anything else.

I wouldn't blame the gun for this one. You're lucky Taurus fixed it for free. I'll bet if they knew you were shooting reloads and pried on the slide with a punch stuck up through the mag well they wouldn't have!

Next time check that the back of slide is completely lined up with the back of the frame of the gun. If it isn't, you have two choices: try to smack on the back of the slide with the heal of your hand to get it to close all the way OR try to force the slide open by turning the gun upside down with the front of the slide only, the part above the barrel against a table and pushing on the handgrip. Just don't obstruct the barrel and keep it pointed downrange in case the gun goes off - but it should not fire if it is out of battery. Also, the slide will not come open with the safety on, so you have to try to open the slide with the safety off.

I just checked my PT-145 and with the gun about 1/8 inch out of battery the safety will still go on. Also, I have to tug really hard to get the slide off, while pulling the trigger, on my PT-145 when disassembling.

Thanks for the advice. I have never had this scenario discussed with me and the range master seemed pretty useless throughout out our entire experience at this range so I was left to my own methods correct or not.

As far as I can remember the slide was all the way forward and I did have the safety off while trying to manipulate the slide.

Lessons learned: I will never use reloads again as I only saved $2/50 rounds and next time I have a malfunction that I cannot solve on my own I will swallow my pride and seek out professional assistance.
 

chewy352

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2009
Messages
769
Location
Harrah, Oklahoma
I've sent a firearm back to a manufacturer.

I took digital photos, printed them out, and drew arrows on the photo pointing to the trouble areas. I wrote a one or two word description beside each arrow to indicate what it was pointing to: "crack", "gouge in frame", etc.

My main purpose for the photos was to make it easy for the person inspecting the gun to find the problem places.

Great suggestion.

The second time I sent it back I used masking tape to tape off the area around the damage and drew arrows to it.
 

chewy352

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2009
Messages
769
Location
Harrah, Oklahoma
Sometimes my PT-145 will have a mis-fire. It won't fire the round until I eject the round and reload it back into the gun (not the round itself!). The ejected rounds that wouldn't fire always have a primer strike on them, so I have always assumed it was the magtech primers I was using for my reloads. Happens probably 1 in every 50 rounds or so. If you are going to shoot a lot of .45 (or other calibers), why not get into reloading? First setup costs about $300 for everything to get started. I like reloading almost as much as shooting.

If you reload, you can get a LEE factory crimp die that will resize the entire completed round to ensure it meets size specs.

After all the start up costs what is the cost per 50 rounds? How much space does the equipment take up?
 

chewy352

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2009
Messages
769
Location
Harrah, Oklahoma
So I got my firearm back today. The damage was filed down and they also filed down the leading edges of the frame rail so that it doesn't catch again. The first time I got it back it was literally dripping in oil, this time it's bone dry so I'll have to give it a good cleaning.

All in all Taurus had very fast service and the second trip could have been avoided if I had taken pictures like Citizen does. I'll be going hunting on Monday so I'll put 50 rounds through it so I have confidence its going to work when it matters.

I'm still going to sell though and purchase a firearm with a better reputation.
 

Joe Reeser

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 24, 2010
Messages
13
Location
SW Ohio
After all the start up costs what is the cost per 50 rounds? How much space does the equipment take up?

I spent about $470 initially in equipment. Some of that you really don't need like the chronograph. You can probably get a good start for $300 or a tad more. I bought the Lee Classic Turret and I really like it but there's plenty to choose from.

I reload .45 ACP with 200gr lead semi-wad cutters for my 1911. If I don't buy brass then it costs me $6.60 per fifty rounds. Even when I pick up my brass I always lose some so if I have to buy brass, it runs about $7.05 per fifty rounds. Still, the cheapest I can get store-bought around here is about $17.00 per fifty for WWB. I figure the equipment will pay for itself in less than a year.
 

chewy352

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2009
Messages
769
Location
Harrah, Oklahoma
So I just got the chance today to put 50 rounds through my PT145. It worked just fine. After I broke it down and there was a ton on metal shavings. I'm very disapointed and will be selling in December.
 

confedneck

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2010
Messages
47
Location
LA
IMHO, purchasing a fully functioning, reliable Taurus semi auto handgun is a crap shoot. You **MAY** get a good one, but on the other hand.....

I once owned two - PT709 and a PT745. Both had FTF issues and were sold off at a loss.

Anyone desiring to buy a Taurus should first Google - Taurus Armed.net - click on subforum "Complaints".

crapping on a fine company again, with no anecdotal evidence... the only gun i ever owned that had an issue not feeding or firing was a 1911, that doesn't make them, or all springfields junk
 

GWbiker

Guest
Joined
Mar 21, 2008
Messages
958
Location
USA
crapping on a fine company again, with no anecdotal evidence... the only gun i ever owned that had an issue not feeding or firing was a 1911, that doesn't make them, or all springfields junk

I disagree: Beretta, H&K, Glock, Sig, Colt, RIA, Walther, CZ and S&W are FINE gun companies. Taurus is just a wanna be gun company who relies on a customer base to screen quality control.
 

Don Barnett

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
451
Location
, ,
My Taurus 1911

I relayed this story on another thread, but I'll do it again.

In February, I bought a 1911 at a gun show and took it to the range the next Monday. One magazine fed fine, then the extractor started slipping over the rim leaving the empty case stuck in the ejection port. The next round would not feed causing a serious jam. To clear it required dropping the magazine, pulling the slide back to release the empty case, reinserting the magazine then racking the slide to chamber another round.

After searching, it appears to be a bad, or maladjusted extractor. It seemed like a simple fix, so I thought I would take it to a gunsmith rather than send it back to Taurus. Someone told me to take it to one in Manassas, VA; I found out that he used to carry Taurus but stopped as there were too many faulty guns and he was losing money having to send them back all the time. He will NOT work on Taurus guns because of liability issues.

To make a long story shorter...I have not yet done anything to get it fixed...my neighbor is an armor for Homeland Security and said he would try to fix it...and maybe even buy the gun (I bought another extractor...apparently they are "touchy" to adjust and a maladjusted extractor accounts for 99.9% of jams in a 1911).

Meanwhile I bought a Kimber, which shoots fine. I should have paid the extra $300 and bought one in the first place.

My advice...stay away from Taurus...I have heard good things about them, but if you get a bummer...you are stuck with it.
 
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