Taurus PT1911, feasible 1911 for defense?

[C4IGrant]

I must respectfully disagree because I've owned a couple of them...and no matter what I did to them I could not make them function properly. I finally ended up selling them at a considerable loss.

DITTO.


C4

[Mr. Smith]

Some of the 1911s on the market have things wrong with them you cannot fix like a mag funnel in the wrong location or pin holes you can not fit any pin into because they are too big.

[tracker722]

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[Outlander Systems]

I'm in a similar boat as SW-Shooter.

I bought one in 2007, before ever finding this forum. My original goal was to play with it to see if I even liked the platform, and to treat it like a base-gun for upgrades.

For me, personally, the 1911 is the most ergonomic pistol I've laid hands on. That is a big plus.

Here's the skinny:

I've got one. Before I had the opportunity to take the POS to the range, my brother pulled the slide back and the ambi-safety snapped in two. The damned thing hasn't been fired. That was approximately a year ago.

Rather than sell it, I'd prefer to keep it as a truck pistol.

Since I still need to replace the safety (after the incident, my motivation to do ANYTHING with this pistol went into the shitter), I'm considering replacing everything but the frame. At the very least, just dropping some decent guts into it.

At the time I bought it, and even to this day, I know very little about 1911s, except that about 7 years ago I had a Kimber that totally sucked balls, and turned me off of the platform until I bought this Taurus that snapped a safety with something as simple as pulling back the slide. I don't plan on doing any high-volume shooting with the Taurus.

Other than the safety, what parts should I replace and in what order?

I figure this'll be a great way to get started on knowing how to work on a 1911. The beauty of this situation is that if I **** it up, I absolutely do not care.

[Shawn.L]

I took a class with Giles Stock.

When someone would have a POS gun or one he simply did not aprove of (RE: anything DA/SA) he would say

"We could have a little work done on that gun. What you do is have your smith remove the sights, then have him install them on a new gun. Now you can just get rid of that those old parts."

or something to that effect

[jaydoc1]

There is no such thing as a bad 1911 or 1991A1.

This isn't true even for the major 1911 brands. My first 1911 was a Colt Combat Commander that's been to Wilson multiple times for reliability work and still can't make it through more than a couple magazines without a variety of FTF/FTE/Stovepipes occurring. I still own the weapon because it was my first 1911, my wife bought it for me, it's a Colt Combat Commander for goodness sakes, and I have a strict don't sell guns rule. It sits in the safe, rarely even going to the range because the performance is so abysmal no matter the magazine or ammo I use in it.

Every manufacturer (including semi-custom houses) has the potential to produce a good or bad pistol occasionally. You just want to buy from a manufacturer whose deck is stacked in the good product direction. That ain't Taurus.

[SW-Shooter]

Sent it back to Taurus, they "fixed" it.

Traded it straight across for a NIB Glock 23, never looked back!

I know that the Taurus is supposedly worth a few $ more than the Glock, but whatever.

[fadedtrends]

First off if I offend anyone I don't care. Say all you want about taurus, Im sure alot of it is because you've spent alot of money on your 1911, I've owned a PT1911 for eight months, my brother has had one for a little over a year we live in different states bought them at different dealers, and out of the 1400+ rounds I've put through mine I haven't experience one failure with factory ammo, I've had 2 failure to feed on hand loads, (bullet seated to high) I cannot say the same for my kimber or my glock 19 or G23 or my XD-9 or XD-45 or my springfield 1911 Loaded. Out of the box it was as accurate as a defensive handgun needs to be. My brother has had zero failures with factory ammo (doesn't handload so no report there) and has nearly 700rnds though his. say what you will about fit and finish, one lesson that should be learned, lets drop my cheap taurus in the mud now lets drop your expensive tight tolerance wilson/kimber what have you and see who's gun has fewer problems, it's the AK vs M16 argument. does my finish rub off from the holster yes, does it make me winch when it does no.

You nay sayers are like corvette drivers, I could take a cheaper tuned Japanese car that still costs less, out perform you in every venue and you'd still call my car a P.O.S. well it maybe cheaper but I don't compensate for what I lack by spending money on something that is clearly not worth the price.

Buying a cheap gun that doesn't work is alot easier to swallow than buying a way over priced gun that has issues you over look and make excuses for.

Bottom line I'd trust my life to my taurus. Anybody who goes and buys a gun and trusts their life to it before some serious range time is a fool I don't care how much you spend.

Btw the comment was made about police/fbi/military not using taurus products, Because taurus doesn't submit their guns for testing to any of those agencies so your point is what???? I don't see alot of police agencies that issue guns in the $1000+ range either so what does that tell you? in fact most agencies issue the plastic guns does that mean 1911's in general suck????

Taurus is what it is, like it or leave it. I shoot my guns not worship them like gods.
Anybody who spends over $1000 dollars on a defensive pistol is a bigger idiot than the people who buy a taurus.

Anyway tomorrow I'm going to the range and I'm gonna watch the custom gun guys make their excuses on why their guns malfunctioned, probably a certain box of ammo. idiots.

Now all you wanna be gun guru's come dispell my myths on why Wilson combat, Ed Brown and Kimber reign supreme and cast me out as a heretic. I also own a bushmaster M4 tell me how and why that is a P.O.S. too please.

Most of you who've spent an obcene amount on a pistol will justify its problems even if it shot you in the foot. I mean that had to be because I was shooting cheap ammo.

Either way I don't care, if you've had a bad experience boohoo for you, now shut up.

[ToddG]

First off if I offend anyone I don't care.
(...)
Anybody who spends over $1000 dollars on a defensive pistol is a bigger idiot than the people who buy a taurus.
(...)
I also own a bushmaster M4 tell me how and why that is a P.O.S. too please.
(...)
Either way I don't care, if you've had a bad experience boohoo for you, now shut up.

[Business_Casual]

I am an old 1911 guy from a long way back so before I bought the gun I detailed stripped it, in front of the gunstore clerk, after I signed a paper stating I would buy it if I could not get it back together without any extra parts laying around.

Was that a pre-printed form? I've never been to a gunstore where they had that policy and form handy.

M_P