Taurus PT111

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Background

Its hot in South Carolina this time of year.. In the CSRA (central savanna river area) that borders Augusta Georgia it is not unusual for the temperature to be 97 degrees and the humidity to be high enough so that you can literally see fog in the mid afternoon on a clear day. When I go outside, I begin to feel sweat on my forehead after about two minutes and If doing manual labor, I bring three or four t-shirts. Each T-shirt is soaked with sweat after 30 minutes and I bring enough for one or two hours of work...which is the most I can take usually.

There are many opinions concerning gun CCW and what is proper practice. Like most people I tend to waffle as to what I think might be right and what might be wrong. What caliber, what size, what method, which model, revolver, or semi-auto, ? The list goes on and on.

Of course, there is no such thing as “right” or “wrong” when it comes to such a personal decision. There is however, one particular opinion which I accepted as true, and have never questioned. If you are going to CCW, do it all the time...period. I tend to take this to the extreme. Have a gun within arms reach when you sleep, drive, play, work, even when your using the john......and yes even when in your own home.

I have been carrying a the Sig-pP239 in .40 caliber and I absolutely love this gun! Reliable, accurate, well crafted, inspiring a feeling of confidence yet still concealable inside the waste ban.

The problem? None till the temperature gets above 90 degrees. A Sig can hold up under the most extreme conditions, of that I have no doubt. But I begin to encounter problems nonetheless. First was a pain going down my right hip and into my lower leg after about 4 hours of CCW the Sig P239 IWB in light clothes. Dreaded sciatic…which steadily gets worse and worse the longer you continue to carry the gun. I noticed when this sets in, I had to wait about 48 hours before carrying again or the pain came right back. The next problem came when examining the gun one afternoon. I could not believe my eyes. Even with wiping down the gun weekly, I noticed surface rust on the slide release lever. I got out my cleaning kit and began wiping down the gun and from the residue on the cleaning swab it appeared even more “brown” than I had thought from observing the surface rust on the side release. Could it be I needed to completely wipe down the gun twice a week now? Possibly. Imagine the moisture that much accumulate between my abdomen, my trousers, and the weapon after a long day. (and to think I thought I was doing something smart when I purchased a can of compressed air to blow out the flaked anti-Per spirant that gets down in the hammer style action every few days).

The Search

I began thinking….”I need a summer gun after all. One that has a polymer frame and a stainless slide. Something light…under 20 ounces. Hmm…under 20 ounces? I think Ill get something in a 9mm, I don’t want to shoot a .40 in that light a gun much. 9mm though?…Ill need something with a 10+1 capacity if possible. And what about that anti-per spirant problem?...striker fired over a hammer might be cleaner.”<br>
I began going through the list of usual suspects in my mind…..Glock 26, Kahr P-series, err….well that’s about all I think…<br>
Off to the gun store I went. I looked at the Glock (for the millionth time). I handled it, shoved it in my pants, tossed it about…..and I was left with an impression…..”Big…blocky….I wont carry that much either”. Then I searched for a Kahr….and searched…and searched. I drove to 5 different local Gun vendors and only found one. A Kahr E-9. It was a fine weapon. Stainless slide, smooth action, nice heft. It had an all steel frame, too much heft (at 24 oz.) and only held 8 rounds. The price new was $399.00 and I figured I could get it out the door at $375.00.

I went home disappointed but seriously thinking about that Kahr. I new I could find a polymer version that would weigh in much lighter. However, the Polymer version would still only hold 8 rounds and would surely cost in excess of $550.00.

So I went back to the drawing board. “I need a smaller caliber” I figured. The Bersa .380 is readily available, well recognized, ultra light/low recoil (around 19 oz.), has available 10rd mecgar extended grip magazines, and can be had for $225.00 easily. But a .380?...I wanted more knock down power. I remembered the Para carry C6...the web site states it weighs in at around 30 ounces, and a quick search on GunsAmerica tells the tale of how expensive this little gem is going to cost. Yikes, that’s more weight than my P239 (although smaller). Do I really want to shoot a .45 in THAT SMALL A PACKAGE?. Even if it is reliable, it wouldn’t be very fun. Well is “fun” really a luxury I can afford in a hot weather carry weapon?…perhaps I was just being too picky.

Late one night I was browsing gun reviews and ran across the Taurus Millennium series. Reviews ranged from slightly positive, to scathing. “Mediocre” summed up my impression after researching the gun a bit. Customer complaints, some reliability problems, a bad run of polymer that resulted in frame cracking, slow customer service, and the largest complaint: a long-gritty awful trigger pull.

“Back burner option for sure” was my thought and off to bed I went.

The Purchase

The next day I returned to one of the shops where I had seen a Bersa .380. I was looking at it and also considering a J-Frame S&W .38 when something caught my eye. It was a used Taurus PT-111. “What the hell?” I thought and asked to see it. It was light, felt good in my hand, and appeared of descent construction. My impression was that it was a “half-way” point between a cheapo Kel-tech and a nice Kahr. There was really nothing I hadn’t expected until I dry-fired it. The trigger was actually pretty good! It was longer and heavier than a Kahr certainly, but subjectively felt about “A 100 times better” than a Kel-tech. It did not feel “gritty” at all. It had almost no “stacking” and was consistent from start to finish. Ergonomically the weapon and trigger fit my hand perfectly. I dry fired it a few more times and was convinced that I could reasonably hold good site picture on this weapon as long as I had an appropriate grip. It was “lightly used” and appeared new (but dirty). The price was $300.00 retail and I bought it on the spot.

Disassembly/Reassembly

I took it home and field stripped it. It was filthy. The feed ramp had so much residue on it that it was completely black. You get the idea. I was curious to know how reliable the little gun would be so I opted NOT to clean it. I decided to take it to the range dirty to see what it would do.

Upon reassembly, I discovered one of the reasons for the less than positive reviews. This little gun is tricky to put back together. I have experience with H&K USP, Beretta 96, Glock 19/23, Sig P239, etc, but I have NEVER had so much trouble reassembling a gun as I did this one. After 30 minutes of trying I gave up and decided to call Taurus tech support. They were already gone home for the day. I read the instructions again…no help. I found an online discussion group and could see that several others had this problem also but it was no help.

Back to the gun….I knew you had to manually hold the barrel forward before the take down pin could be reinserted….and this was no easy task. Invariable the barrel goes back with the slide, and trying to hold it forward requires the use of 3 hands. What’s worse, is that when the barrel goes back with the slide upon reassembly, it locks back there and you cant get it forward…it jams up. I had read about people taking hammers to the thing in haste upon experiencing this. I was frustrated to say the least. Finally I discovered that if you invert the gun and work the slide back and forth the barrel will fall down into a flush fit position at the ejection port and the slide and barrel will then go forward. After screwing around with it a while longer I finally got the barrel to stay forward and the slide locked to the rear. I then inserted the take down pin, and I reassembled it. After doing it once, I decided to see if I could replicate the procedure….I could not….well not exactly. I couldn’t just take it apart and put it back together again, but if I worked it for about 5-10 minutes…I could eventually get it reassembled. Since then It has gotten a little easier each time although I admit I still haven’t figured out “the secret”.

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Taurus has marketed this gun at the CCW population in a price range of roughly $400.00 dollars retail. It is reasonable to assume that many fine folks may purchase this gun with absolutely zero hand gun experience. I imagine that a novice trying to put this gun back together would easily generate a less than positive first impression and may account for some of the negative feedback. I also imagine that experience hand gunners who are accustomed to a Beretta or Sig would have equally negative feelings about the experience. Personally, If I like the way the gun carries and shoots, I will work out the reassembly procedure sooner or later.

Shooting Impression

Equipped with two boxes of Winchester USA brand 9mm (100 rds each for $10.00), I was off to Shooters indoor shooting range in Augusta, Ga. Putting a paper target out to 25 feet I was genuinely surprised when I put the first 20 rounds into the x ring. I then reloaded and moved the target out to 33 feet. The 9 ring was hit frequently. By the third round of shooting my hand was already getting tired, rounds 40 thru 50 saw the 8 ring getting chewed up. At this point I began to realized the short comings of a 19oz gun with a long heavy DA trigger pull…plain and simple hand fatigue. Next I pulled out my Nitron G2 and fired 10 rds using a rogers grip (still in the 8 ring from what I could see). Knowing I wouldn’t be able to continue shooting for accuracy I switched up and fired 20 rounds rapid fire (rds 60-80), followed by one hand shooting (first right handed then left handed-some at 33ft and some at 25ft) (rds 80-100) By now the target looked as if it had been hit with at least three rounds of .12 “01” buck shot with the 7 and 6 rings hit frequently and 3 or four rounds nearly missing the human shaped black area all together.

I changed targets, and set the new paper to 25ft. I practiced double taps with the first round aimed at the x and the second round aimed at the head. For the first magazine all 5 body shots were in the x ring, and all 5 head shots were in the head….well some where in the head. Some of them really just grazed the edge of the black and frankly they were all over the place. I fired a second round of “double tap mozombies” with the same results. (Rds 100-120) Seems that first body shot was much more accurate in my hands then the rapid follow up head shot attempts. By now my right hand was literally shaking and I knew this to be partially responsible. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that reloading the 10rd Mecgar produced “Taurus factory” magazines is at least as hard to load as a Glock magazine (if not harder) and I didn’t have one of the plastic reloaders on me. I finished up the shoot by practicing my speed reloads. The drill is simple. I load 3 rounds in each of two magazines. I draw from my holster in a slow controlled manner, bring the weapon on target, fire 3 rounds rapid fire, drop the magazine and attempt to reload a spare magazine from my front left pocket and shoot those three rounds as rapidly as possible and returned the magazine to my holster. I did this drill three or four times.

Realizing I had just fired around 130-140 rounds without a single jam, I decided to try some personal defense carry rounds. I went out to the counter and bought a box of Federal Hydra-shoks. I believe they were 124gr. On the sixth round I had a failure to feed with a bullet sitting directly on that completely blackened and fouled feed ramp. A slight tug on the slide and I was back in business. The remaining 14 rounds fired without incident.

Carrying the Taurus

The light weight millennium literally disappeared inside the IWB holster I had been using to carry the Sig P239 in. Noting that this was good news I sifted through my holsters and found an OWB holster I used to use to carry my Kahr k-9 in years ago. (a great gun by the way which was given to my father as a gift and then lost in a house fire. At the time I had gotten rid of it in favor of a Taurus 605 in .357 which later proved to be both too heavy and too much kick for me! I should have kept the Kahr).

I hadn’t carried OWB in years and back then only in winter. Much to my surprise, the Taurus disappeared under a t-shirt almost as well as the Sig did when carried IWB! Wearing it around the house I quickly appreciated how much lighter this thing is than both the Kahr and the Sig. Boasting 3 more rounds than either of the former, this diminutive little gem may fill a perfect niche. Inspection of the double stack magazine reveals the two inches of empty space at the bottom. Noting that both the PT140 also has a 10 +1 capacity, and a nearly identically sized millennium pro holds 10+1 rounds of .45 ACP, I quickly concluded that this model could easily accommodate 12 +1 or possibly 14 +1 rounds of 9mm if the AWB is allowed to expire this fall. Now THAT’S fire power for such a light weight carry weapon.

Saftey

The Taurus line of hand guns does feature the key-lock safety feature. Some will like it, some will hate it, I pretty much ignore it. I keep my guns always loaded with the safety off, and keep them either on me, in a fast access safe, or locked up in a glove box. However, the internal locking mechanism could come in handy when none of those options are available, say while on vacation at the beach with children in a hotel room.

Some will also hate the manual safety but once again, I can take it or leave it. The presence of absence of one is a non-issue for my purposes. I leave them off, and never touch them except to confirm that they are off. It might come in handy say if I decided to hand off my weapon to my brother while it was still loaded at the firing range (a no-no of gun safety but something that is made some what more acceptable with a manual safety engaged).

Of course the weapon has a number of internal devices to prevent an AD in the event the weapon is dropped or handled roughly. Modern hand guns rarely will discharge when dropped, and civilians rarely drop there guns so this is less of an issue than most make it out to be. This is not a hand gun for swat or military use, so one isn’t likely to be climbing a building or running through an obstacle course while wearing one of these anyway.

Overall Impression

Polymer frame, stainless slide, 18.7 oz unloaded weight, 10+1 (and possibly more) capacity, controllable recoil, combat accuracy, and a $400.00 price tag…what’s not to like? The only remaining question will be that of reliability and durability. So far I am very pleased. I just purchased another box of the Winchester USA 100 rd practice ammo, as well as a box of the Winchester USA brand 147 gr. Jacket hollow points. I will continue to try this gun out with varying ammo and update this for accuracy and reliability. I suspect now that the weapon is cleaned and well oiled, it will be a nice shooter indeed!