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I command my vast minions

Regular readers who follow this stuff will know that I have owned one of the early Taurus PT145 pistols for quite some time, and that I like it a lot. It’s a DAO pistol that serves up 11 rounds of flying ashtrays from a 6″x5″ package, and I can get some very nice groups with it.

In fact, I like it so much I’m thinking about buying another one - in this case the newer PT145 Millennium Pro, which is advertised as a single-double action pistol. If any of my readers happen to own this particular model, could you let me know what you think of it?

I have no experience with any Taurus so I can't help. But I know plenty of you have.

Thanks!

posted @ 7/21/2010 6:39:56 PM

Comments

divemedic says:

on 7/21/2010 9:10:34 PM

The trigger of the one I owned felt like you were dragging sandpaper across gravel. I didn't like it.

Freiheit says:

on 7/21/2010 10:19:27 PM

Finally! I can contribute something other than smartass remarks.

I bought a PT145 used late in 2009. It's serial number places its date of manufacture in 2008.

I shoot the gun at least once a month, usually twice, at the local pistol matches. I get a minimum of 200 rounds downrange a month. Its had roughly 1500 rounds fed through it and its only been in my safe for 8 months.

Most of that ammo has been Winchester White Box and PMC. It fed a batch of reloads from a commercial reloader just fine. I have not tried to feed it hollowpoints yet.

Its got the Heine Straight-8 sights on it (factory) and I like them. As do my friends that have shot the gun.

I use a Fobus paddle holster for competiton and recently got a Galco holster to carry. The Galco was made for a Glock 30.

The closest gun I can compare it to is a Glock 30. Feels about the same to my untrained hands.

So far I have had only two problems with the gun:
1) When it was new to me, like when I rented it before buying it, I had two bad feeds from limp wristing. That was easy to fix.
2) I bought a Taurus branded magazine (Type B, see reference below) that feeds perfectly, but will not drop out of the gun. Gotta carve out the time to call customer service and get a new one.

I like my PT145, I shoot it often, but I do hesitate to recommend buying Taurus autoloaders. Early generation PT145s had frame cracking issues and I've seen some chatter about their new .380 pocket gun having some issues as well. Taurus has a great reputation for their lifetime warranty, but if a lot of people know your warranty service is good that means a lot of people use it. That is less good.

Overall I would say that any not-1st generation of a Taurus pistol that you can inspect closely and shoot before you buy it is worth the money.

Reference on magazines: http://www.taurusarmed.net/forums/index.php?topic=29512.0

Kevin Baker says:

on 7/22/2010 12:11:16 AM

I want to know where Bill Quick still gets Flying Ashtrays! I've only got about 50 left, and Speer stopped making them (superseded by the Gold Dot) almost ten years ago.

Jake says:

on 7/22/2010 9:35:47 AM

As I said there:

I do like mine, but I do have two issues with it. The big one is that it’s very sensitive to limp-wristing - something I constantly need to watch due to growing up shooting mostly revolvers that don’t care how firmly they’re gripped. Most misfeeds are simple failures to feed, but when it does jam, a “tap and rack” doesn’t work - I have to remove the magazine, lock the slide back, and tilt-and-shake it to get the jammed round out (I can’t quite get my fingers in to pull it out). Again, this is mostly a limp-wristing issue that I need to work on, although it seems to really not like Wolf ammo - I had about a 50% failure rate with Wolf compared to about 5%-10% with Winchester white box and less than that with hollowpoints.

The other issue is that I find the Heinie Straight-Eight sights to be pretty much useless with this gun. Using a traditional sight picture (i.e., the one I’ve trained myself to use for the last 25 years, with the top of the blade lined up with the top of the rear sight) it shoots extremely low - more than 8″ low at about 7-8 yards. To get on target, I have to line up the top of the rear sight with the top edge of the end of the slide. Everyone else who has fired this pistol has had the same issue, so I doubt it’s something I’m doing wrong.

The front sight is also thick enough that it obscures most of the target at that same distance. Replacement sights are on my “buy as soon as I can find and afford them” list.

Other than those two issues, though, it’s a pretty good gun. Like Guy said, the break is a bit ‘vague’, but not terribly so. I think it’s a good, everyday concealed carry gun. I bought it new in 2008, so it should be the same as or pretty close to what you would get today - I don’t believe they’ve made any significant changes since then.

Freiheit says:

on 7/22/2010 10:13:06 AM

Jake, run the serial number through Taurus here: http://www.taurususa.com/find-model.cfm

It will tell you when it was made.

There have been notable changes to the PT145:
1) Early models had frame cracking issues, it was some kink in the plastics they used. Warranty covered it, if your gun was going to do it, it would have by now.
2) Went from DAO to SA/DA . The DA is billed as "second strike", which is not the most useful feature IMO. Great for dry fire practice I guess. The SA trigger feels fine to me, but I'm not picky.
3) Magazines have changed a bit, early mags had issues. This may correct your failures to feed.

Honestly, I would steer you away from another PT145. You don't like the standard sights, its hard for you to clear, and you already have one. The one you have is good, just carry and shoot it.

If you happen to be near Louisville, KY I'd be happy to meet you at the range and you can shoot my 3rd generation PT145.

Molon Labe says:

on 7/22/2010 12:32:52 PM

I bought a PT111 (9mm) back in 2001-ish and it was the worst purchase I ever made. I shot about 30 rounds out of it the first time and the slide stuck in mid-battery. Could not budge it. Sent it back to Taurus and they fixed it no charge. Took it to the range again and same thing happened. this time, i was able to get the slide off and noticed a bunch of broken pieces of polymer and what looked like polymer shavings. Send it back, Taurus "fixed" it again. took it out to the range, and, yep, you guessed it...same problem.

I ended up getting it fixed for what was the THIRD time. Sold it without shooting it again.

The experience gave me a real sour taste for taurus. They may have improved upon the design since then, but they lost me as a customer.

My new rule....NO MORE POLYMER!! Yeah yeah Glock this and Glock that...sorry, i'll stick to my first love, 1911's.

Jake says:

on 7/22/2010 12:51:19 PM

Freiheit:

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out. I do have my records for when I bought it, just not where I can get at them right now.

Mine is a SA/DA - it's at least the 2nd generation and I'm pretty sure it's 3rd gen. I'm pretty sure the feed issues are me. Like I said, I shot revolvers almost exclusively for about 20 years - the PT-145 was my first non-.22 semi-auto - so I have 20 years of not caring about limp-wristing to overcome. I need to shoot more often.

I'm not looking for another one, Bill Quick is. Knowing what I do now, I might not have bought it (unfortunately there's no 'rent before you buy' possible around here), and I definitely wouldn't buy a second one (except as a replacement if I couldn't find anything I like better), but it may work for others and he seemed very satisfied with his 1st generation model.

Freiheit says:

on 7/22/2010 2:45:27 PM

Whoops sorry Jake, got my names mixed up.

Petey says:

on 7/22/2010 4:12:01 PM

Man, everytime I grip a little to high on my PT111 I end up tapping the mag release and dropping the magazine. Does the PT145 not have this problem?

Jake says:

on 7/22/2010 4:47:05 PM

Whoops sorry Jake, got my names mixed up.

No problem. I half suspected it.

Man, everytime I grip a little to high on my PT111 I end up tapping the mag release and dropping the magazine. Does the PT145 not have this problem?

I haven't had that problem, but I have small hands so that may be why. I did have an issue with the "thumbs low" hold that I carried over from revolvers causing me to drop the mag when firing. Switching to the thumbs-high "Todd Jarret Kung-Fu Grip" (patent pending) fixed that quick enough.

Stuart the Viking says:

on 7/23/2010 9:26:39 AM

I like my little PT145, it's not my favorite, but it's what I carry when I know I'm going somewhere a little shady. Mostly because if I end up having to shoot, the cops will take the gun until their investigation/prosecution is over and being without the PT145 wouldn't bother me as much as one of my more favorite pistols, and I trust the 145 to get me out of any scrape that I might get into. I don't usually go looking for trouble and trouble usually avoids me.

That said. The previous owner of my PT145 (a close friend of mine) had a very bad time with it. He bought it used in very good condition, less than a month later it was broke. I don't know exactly what was broke on it. He sent it off to Taurus to get fixed and ended up waiting for months and months to finally get it back. He took it to the range, put a mag in, sighted up and pulled the trigger... the damn thing went full auto! He called Taurus and they were all ho-hum about it saying that it was a non-related problem and he would have to send it in and wait for it to go through the whole repair queue again (months and months). So instead, he got mad and called ATF. The ATF guy came and picked it up. Once ATF was done with it they forwarded it on to Taurus and it was repaired and back in the guys hands post-haste, working as advertised. I bought it later when the guy married a nice pretty young lady who was terrified of guns and he was getting rid of everything.

So far, it has worked for me fine. I don't get to the range as much as I would like, so it's only had a few hundred rounds through it, and Jake is right about the limp-wristed thing, I have seen this happen with my gun. It took me a while to get used to the single action gun with a double action re-strike capability... weird... and I'm not really picky about triggers so that's fine. As an interesting side note, I got ahold of some lead Semi-wadcutter reloads (they were cheap... what can I say) and my 1911 HATED them but the PT145 gobbled them up like it was nothing. I was impressed.

s

Rabbit says:

on 7/23/2010 5:33:56 PM

The wife and I own a pair of PT 111's- Millenium Pros, second generation. The trigger on the third gena and later is much better, if you can call it that. I smoothed up the striker channel on mine with a little valve lapping compound, but Wife's is as original as the day it rolled off the line. That said, I've stated many times publicly that the trigger pull on those second gen Milleniums is like trying to drag a grand piano down a gravel road by your fingertips. I stand by that statement still. Later renditions are between "somewhat improved" to "I don't believe this is a Taurus".

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