[palerider1775]

So I finally got around to picking up one of my own. Been hearing good (enough) things about Taurus' 1911, and after handling one for a bit I thought I'd pull the trigger on it.

One of the complaints I heard the most about this firearm is about its fit and finish, in that it doesn't match the fit and finish of 1911's from manufacturers like Kimber, Colt, or Springfield. I own a Springfield, and after breaking the Taurus down I have to say that I agree! Am I really bummed about it? Not so much. You get what you pay for, right?

The slide cycles nice and smooth (the slide isn't curved as seen in that picture, my lens does this weird, semi-fish eye thing for some reason), the trigger breaks very cleanly (and feels a pound or two lighter than my Springfield), the safety snaps on and off crisply (I know others have had issues with theirs not doing so) and I'm kinda surprised to see it has genuine Novak sights. When I ordered this I thought it would come with Heine straight 8 sights, and was even kinda looking forward to learning how to use those, but I guess I won't have to!

My dislikes, aside from the machining and finish, are; the full length guide rod (adds weight, makes take down and reassembly a little more difficult, and I don't really care for it), the thinness of the grip panels (I'll fix that soon enough), and that the grip safety feels a little tight, although I'm learning that it doesn't need to be depressed all of the way in for it to be actuated.

I'll be hitting the range with it tomorrow, and will post short range reports (unless there are major malfunctions, then they'll be long!) all the way until I get at least 500 rounds through it. :thumsup

 

[bladenbullet]

my pt1911 was a great gun...loved it to death...the finish doesnt bother me as a kind of rough with my guns anyway...to me they are tools and i dont baby them...

i installed a set of pachmyr american legend rubber and wood grips n mine and loved the feel they gave it...

the sights were a surprise for me also..i was used to the straight eights from my pt111 mil pro...but i like the 3 dots so it wasnt a big deal...

 

[palerider1775]

my pt1911 was a great gun...loved it to death...the finish doesnt bother me as a kind of rough with my guns anyway...to me they are tools and i dont baby them...

i installed a set of pachmyr american legend rubber and wood grips n mine and loved the feel they gave it...

the sights were a surprise for me also..i was used to the straight eights from my pt111 mil pro...but i like the 3 dots so it wasnt a big deal...

I've handled a 1911 or two with Pachmayr grips and they feel awesome! Thanks for reminding me, I'm on their website right now! :dancingbanana

 

[bladenbullet]

free ground shipping...

http://www.opticsplanet.com/s/1911+grips/brand~yr

 

[palerider1775]

free ground shipping...

http://www.opticsplanet.com/s/1911+grips/brand~yr

How would that fare with the ambi safety on the PT1911?



So, quick range report! I hit the range early morning yesterday and took a friend to shoot with me. I also brought my Springfield 1911, and my friend wanted to try that one as well (I don't thing his soft palms liked the aggressive checkering on the Taurus ), so I wasn't quite able to get all 100 rounds that I wanted to get through the Taurus.

I had him be the first one to fire it (just in case it blew up. Great friend I am, huh? Kidding, kidding!) annnnndddd...we had a malf. In the pistol's defense, my friend slowly adjusted his grip everytime he shot it, from the decent grip I got him into, to the sh: censoredty one that he had by the time he shot the last round, at which time we got the stovepipe. I'm pretty sure he was limp wristing it, plus I bet the slight amount of pain from the checkering on his soft hands (this kid is a bit spoiled. 20 and he's never worked a day in his life...) had some effect on him, too. He got less and less accurate as we continued shooting, but I got him to at least hold on to the damn thing after that first malfunction.

So yeah. That's what I'm attributing this one malf to. (I checked the tension on the extractor and it's fine)

The rest of the 84 shots we put through it were problem free, with 9 of them being from my +P defensive ammo, and the majority of them shot through rapidly. Will update the next time I put more rounds through!

 

[bladenbullet]

How would that fare with the ambi safety on the PT1911?

the right grip has to be undercut in the area where the ambi safety rides in a cut in the grip...i did it with an exacto knife and it looked like it came that way when i was done....

 

[Rvrctyrngr]

My dislikes, aside from the machining and finish, are; the full length guide rod (adds weight, makes take down and reassembly a little more difficult, and I don't really care for it),

So, if you order your grips from someone like Brownell's or Midway, that also sells 1911 parts, grab a GI recoil spring guide and plug...like $12. All my FLGRs are sitting in a drawer, somewhere. I have no idea who thought that would be a good idea for a 1911. He should be flogged. :grin

Hope the new addition keeps on ticking for you.

 

[palerider1775]

the right grip has to be undercut in the area where the ambi safety rides in a cut in the grip...i did it with an exacto knife and it looked like it came that way when i was done....

I think I have one of those floating around in my school art kit, so that's good to go. I'll just make sure to make my cuts match as closely as possible to those on the stock Taurus grips.

So, if you order your grips from someone like Brownell's or Midway, that also sells 1911 parts, grab a GI recoil spring guide and plug...like $12. All my FLGRs are sitting in a drawer, somewhere. I have no idea who thought that would be a good idea for a 1911. He should be flogged. :grin

Hope the new addition keeps on ticking for you.

I'm planning to! I don't believe one should need a "take-down tool" for a fighting pistol. How am I supposed to use the brass from a spent round as an improvised recoil spring plug if the damn pistol is using a full length guide rod??? :laughing

 

[palerider1775]

I remember saying I'd keep updating this as I got more rounds downrange through my PT1911, so here I go!

Any shooting that I do is currently mandated by the availability of .45 ACP's and money, so I don't got as often as I would like (but don't worry, I have enough hollow points on hand for when I carry). Two weeks ago I was able to stop by the range. Aside from whining about sweaty (everything, including my) palms, I got all 100 rounds through without any malfunctions.

I was able to go again earlier today with a friend, and we had a blast! The sights on this pistol are spot on. I'm not gonna give any "MOA" numbers, because I'm not measuring for that kind of stuff, but I'm hitting what I aim at.....we did have some issues though. So, I found that the top round in the factory Taurus mags started becoming slightly dislodged when I would seat them into place with a modest level of aggressiveness with the slide locked open. I'm assuming the issue is with these Taurus mags themselves, as I've pretty much always read that it's one of the first thing people get rid of, and I've never had the issue with my other 1911 mags. The issue basically kept the slide from moving all of the way forward and stripping the round when I would reload a fresh mag, so it was easy to pin point.

Starting tonight though, I'm gonna start drip feeding (money is always an issue for a full time art student. Broken record player here..) myself some quality mags. Ordered myself a Novak/Act-Mag magazine just a little while ago. Aside from that, the pistol was issue free. No malfs of any kind (once the first round was in the chamber. Haha). Put 150 rounds through it tonight, and in enough of a short period of time to get it pretty damn hot. Still, nothing fell off, so that's a good sign! :rofl

Round count at this time; 335.

 

[brownie]

So, if you order your grips from someone like Brownell's or Midway, that also sells 1911 parts, grab a GI recoil spring guide and plug...like $12. All my FLGRs are sitting in a drawer, somewhere. I have no idea who thought that would be a good idea for a 1911. He should be flogged. :grin

Hope the new addition keeps on ticking for you.

Bingo, Thank goodness the Ed Brown came with the GI recoil spring guide and plug system. :clap

palerider1775;

Glad you like your 1911. Seems it's running pretty well for you. :thumsup

 

[Senior Chief]

Palerider,

If you are looking for 1911 mags, go to Tripp research and buy their Cobra mags. Brownie mentioned these awhile back and they are the best, and cured a few woe's I had with some other well know brands.

 

[bladenbullet]

i used mecgar mags in mine...although i never had a problem with the taurus mags either....

 

[palerider1775]

Bingo, Thank goodness the Ed Brown came with the GI recoil spring guide and plug system. :clap

palerider1775;

Glad you like your 1911. Seems it's running pretty well for you. :thumsup

Yes sir. I've read several stories on forums about things like sights or ambi-safeties falling off during a moderate amount of shooting. I figure I'd post something positive, if I found it, and I'm glad I have (I bought the thing, after all). I'll probably update 'til I get a total of 500 FMJ's through, and past that only if there is some catastrophic failure or something breaks.

Palerider,

If you are looking for 1911 mags, go to Tripp research and buy their Cobra mags. Brownie mentioned these awhile back and they are the best, and cured a few woe's I had with some other well know brands.

I've read reports of the PT1911 acting up when fed certain types of mags, so I went to the Taurus forum and saw that these Novak/Act-mags are recommended often. I haven't read anything about how the PT1911 likes or dislikes Tripp Research mags, so I'll go back and ask. Thanks for the tip.

 

[palerider1775]

I hit the range with my PT1911 again, yesterday, with two friends this time. Had even more of a blast!

Before shooting I gave its feeding ramp and top end of the mag well a quick wipe down, since I'd fired 250 since it was last cleaned. I also gave the two Taurus mags a quick wipe down. It helped! By the time I was done shooting on Wednesday night, the mags weren't exactly dropping as freely as they usually do upon pressing the mag release, and I think I was correct in assuming that getting the fouling off and freeing up their travel would alleviate the issue a bit. I've taken these guys shooting before, and I've taught them not to p***y foot around with working the pistol, so they were reasonably aggressive, as they usually are, with loading the magazines, and the issue from the other night (the top round in a fully loaded 8 round mag dislodging slightly when loaded into the pistol with the slide locked open and getting caught on the feed lips by the rim of the casing upon the release of the slide) did not happen.

Actually, the pistol (and mags) ran flawlessly through all 170 rounds (would have shot the last 30, but one of my friends had to leave and we all rode in the same vehicle). I'm still gonna continue drip feeding myself mags, but I guess I can at least keep these Taurus mags for the range! :grin

The round count is now at 505. This means mission accomplished on my confidence break-in of the pistol. :thumsup

 

[Rvrctyrngr]

Sounds like a good day, 'rider. :thumsup Glad you're enjoying the new pistol.

I gotta ask, though....how does one 'aggressively' load a magazine? :grin

 

[palerider1775]

Sounds like a good day, 'rider. :thumsup Glad you're enjoying the new pistol.

I gotta ask, though....how does one 'aggressively' load a magazine? :grin

Opposite of how they would do it back when I first started taking them shooting.

Basically, back then they would start sliding it in with such a lack of velocity and forte, that the mag would stop at the point in which it meets resistance from the magazine catch and they would stop and look at me as if they broke something. So after a little bit of name calling :smack (I'm gentler about it with the girls, promise), and explaining that the pistol is made of steel and they're not going to break it, they got used to pushing the magazine in with enough force to not have to push more than once for it to seat fully (one might not be able to afford the extra moment to give a mag a second push to have it seat fully in a real life scenario. We fight how we train).

So that is what I mean by (reasonably) aggressively. Haha.

 

[Rvrctyrngr]

Sorry, bro...misunderstood. I thought you meant 'aggressively loading rounds into the magazine', and I just got this weird mental image of two brutes stuffing 45rnds into magazines and working up a sweat....not forcefully seating a mag in the gun. :grin

I think I need to have my meds adjusted again. :rolf

 

[palerider1775]

Sorry, bro...misunderstood. I thought you meant 'aggressively loading rounds into the magazine', and I just got this weird mental image of two brutes stuffing 45rnds into magazines and working up a sweat....not forcefully seating a mag in the gun. :grin

I think I need to have my meds adjusted again. :rolf

AHAHAHA!:rofl:rofl:rofl

That gets the good laugh award of the day from me!:thumsup