I was surprised to see this thread when I signed on as ZI was about to post some comments about Taurus tonight. Well, here are my personal observations.

I have been a firearms instructor since 1971. I rarely saw a Taurus when in law enforcement because most police officers and police departments won't touch them. But those I did see that were privately owned were more often than not troublesome. I rarely saw one that didn't have some kind of problem. Other major brands that have been tested in the field can break and fail from time to time but it is a rarity.

After I retired and started training security officers and civilians I started seeing a few Taurus show up in my classes. I can tell you unequivocally that I have seen more malfunctions in Taurus pistols and revolvers than with all the other pistols combined. One security company issued revolvers to their people and two students who came through my classes had repeated misfires with brand new Taurus service revolvers. Fortunately they have since dumped them and issued Glocks. When shooting CAS, I have seen people with Gaucho's that would not fire, period. One security officer student showed up to a class with a 24/7 and it was so unstable I made him put it back in his car. Then yesterday I had a student show up with a Taurus .45 for an intermediate course and it failed to feed or failed to eject on EVERY string, with 4 different magazines, even after we stripped and lubed it. Of course we had to stop and wait to get the gun cleared to the inconvenience of the other students on the line.

I have not allowed Taurus 27/7 pistols on my range for years because of their safety problems but I have finally come to the decision to prohibit all Taurus products in my classes. If you want a really cheap pistol, then they have that going for them but that is about all. I concede you might find one that works, but they are fraught with far too many problems to be used for serious purposes and you damn sure don't want to stake your life on one. I am disappointed in my LGS for even carrying them. For a couple hundred dollars more you can have a pistol of proven reliability so why buy this junk?

^^^^^^^ I can see where your are coming from. I by no means feel that Taurus handguns are up there in quality compared to say a Glock or Sig, and even after having a good experience with mine thus far I’m not ready to carry it or use it for HD. I’m just elated that a cheaper pistol from a make that I previously wrote off as all garbage, actually impressed me and worked so well. I like the feel of it and enjoy shooting it just a a range toy. I have a lot of other pistols for serious roles that are higher quality and much more expensive. It’s just nice to see a gun that’s two hundred bucks do so well. Like I said though, let’s see after a thousand rounds how she is holding up.