Well it’s been a while since the PT arrived and I must say I was very pleased, but yet left disappointed. Let’s start with a review.
Here is the good. Finish is nice and fit is very good. Slide to frame and slide to barrel bushing fit is on par with Colt. Trigger is WOW . . . never imagined that a $350 pistol would have this nice and clean of a break. So my issue now is whether I even install the Ed Brown action kit or leave it as is. That is to be determined. Barrel bushing fit is good but I will still order an EGW custom fit. Barrel is OK and appears shot peened. Safety is large and a weird shape, but clicks on and off as it should with no sear movement. However the frame hole is exposed when engaged. Sights are mini Novak 3 dot which I am use to, but at some point I want to try night sights. Novak makes an adjustable direct replacement, but they are half the price of the gun. This thing will have to be 110% before spending a $150 on sights.
Now the bad and the ugly. Pistol arrives and first thing I noticed was my pistol was only shipped with one mag. I am disappointed by this but oh well I have plenty. It is soaked in grease . . . not a bad thing but super dirty. I mean kid in a sand pile dirty. No way any one could shoot a straight from the factory PT. So a good cleaning is needed. I decided to not detail strip the frame, but rather to spray it with break free. This worked pretty well, but on the slide I decided to detail strip it.
Here is the first problem. The firing pin stop is a stippled type and it was hammered in. It was tilted to the side so rather than file the high edge off the assembler took his hammer and beat it down. So there is a nice dent in the back of the slide.
Second problem. I decided to fit the FPS properly and as a result the side to side play is too great so the extractor is now loose. There is no bend so there is no tension on it or the shell casing. Yes this could be adjusted easily, but fixing this doesn’t support the case I am building for a new pistol. Upon further inspection there is way more than the spec allowable space between the breech face and extractor hook. This is going to cause a problem . . . we will get to that. I already have a EGW oversized stop to fit once it returns.
Third problem. The frame is damaged from the assembler dropping the hammer repeatedly with the slide off.
Fourth problem. The barrel link appears to have been reamed with a dull drill bit. Jagged ragged hole. My God!
This is just too much. Not even going to address all these issues on a gun that will not function. We will get to that. So a quick call to Taurus and a very nice lady answered in about 45 seconds. I explained everything and that basically I wanted a new gun. So off the pistols goes for round 3.
Now back to FTF and FTE issues. Round one off of a full mag with the slide closed and a quick rack of the slide results in a nose diving jam. Doesn’t happen with the slide open. Last casing will not clear the gun. Also the casings eject everywhere. The loose extractor is causing this I know. I fear there is more to it, failure to feed is a feed ramp issue . . . most likely angle. The space between the extractor hook and breech face really bothers me. I really think based on using another extractor and measuring that the slide was mismachined.
OK OK . . . you told me so, but if I get the pistol or at least the slide and barrel replaced and properly fitted, this will be a nice gun. Besides the learning aspect is worth the trouble . . . at least to me. Stay tuned.
still 1911 green, I have only been messing with them about 3 years so plenty to learn.
