THIS TIME IT IS NOT TRUMP’S FAULT. (Or, maybe it is: Joe, Nancy and Chuck surely will let us know.)
Every vendor that fails to meet its own deadlines blames the failure on the Chinese virus.
THREE MONTHS AGO, my defective Taurus Model 692 was delivered to the company’s new Georgia facility on April 3, 2020.
The issues were relatively minor:
- Fix the lousy finish that shows bare metal after less than 100 rounds of ammunition
- Reduce the trigger pull to something manageable – that is, not requiring two hands to fire the revolver
- Repair a fault in the casting of the frame
Normally Taurus claims repair turn-around times are about six (6) weeks.
After six weeks passed with no word from Taurus I asked what was happening with the revolver.
“We told you it would be three MONTHS” (by my simple count, that’s 12 weeks) I was told by a person with an attitude. How dare a customer expect turn around in an advertised time (six weeks).
On June 28 I used Taurus’ web site to leave a message demanding return of the weapon.
No response.
I realize Taurus is closed for the weekend, but I — obviously foolishly — thought that I would have a response by Close of Business (COB) Monday.
Nothing.
Tuesday comes and Tuesday goes.
Nothing.
Wednesday I have a “Chat” session with “Veronica.” “Veronica” may be a pseudonym used by multiple people depending on the day of the week or the time of day.
“Veronica” told me the gun still was not repaired. It’s because of the “conditions.” I assume “conditions” means “Chinese virus.” Or maybe the repair personnel decided to go hunting or fishing — any season open in June?
In any event, the gun still was not fixed.
“Veronica” assured me that someone from another department would call me in one of two days to arrange to return the weapon. The question remains: Calendar days or “Taurus” days that, apparently, are not the same.
The call came four days later.
I was told the work was “almost done” and that Taurus could not return my gun until it was done with it.
I got the gun back on July 17, 2020.
The gun was made in Brasilcq. Taurus could have sent the gun back to Brasil, melted it down and re-cast it, sans defect, in the three months Taurus sat on the gun in Georgia.
- Things were no better when Taurus was located in Miami, and the repair folks are about the same — useless.
Will I buy another Taurus?
In a word: No.
Will I recommend Taurus?
Again: No.
Adding insult to injury, Taurus USED TO HAVE a “lifetime” warranty. The Model 629 came with a one year warranty that was largely used up with the gun sitting in Taurus’ Georgia facility not being repaired.
My Model 692 was purchased because it has interchangeable cylinders: one for .38/.357 Magnum rounds and one for 9mm ammunition in “star” (a/k/a “moon” or “stellar”) clips. (See
https://tinyurl.com/yb3o9bfn for more on using 9mm cartridges and “clips.”)
I had fired less than 100 rounds of .38, .357 Magnum, and 9mm before the gun went back to Taurus.
I traded another Taurus .38/.357 Magnum revolver (and a fistful of cash) for the 692.
Firing .357 Magnums with the old 5-shooter was painful.
The 692 is almost a pleasure.
It has a soft grip that absorbs a lot of the .357’s recoil. The 692 also is a heavier gun, which also helps.
I can only fire the 692 in single-action mode; the trigger pull in double-action (DA) is too “heavy.” I was getting pretty good at “thumbing” the hammer before the gun went off to Georgia.
The “star” clips are a little inconvenient to load/unload (although practice and a pair of needle nose pliers help). Unloading and loading a 7-round “clip” into the cylinder is much faster than loading seven rounds of loose cartridges. In a pressure situation, the 9mm/star clips win hands down.
Until recently I was of the opinion that if I wanted stopping power, I had to fire .357 Magnum.
First of all, that’s not entirely accurate. Nine’s can pack a wallop.
I do not want bullets going through a body into an innocent bystander (so I carefully check cartridge specs before buying any ammunition).
Turns out, then, for this shooter, 9 mm is becoming to caliber of choice.
KNOWING THEN WHAT I KNOW today about 9mm vs. .38/.357 Magnum, I would have bought an American-made 9mm revolver such as
- Ruger Blackhawk Convertible with 2 cylinders: 9mm, .38/.357 Magnum
- Smith and Wesson, multiple models
- Kimber
Colt, while made in America, does not offer a 9mm wheel gun. (That seems strange given it was “the gun that won the West.”)
Ruger and S&W are more expensive than Taurus, but one hopes the quality of the weapon and support is better than Taurus.
Why a wheel gun? Semi-autos usually hold more ammunition in their magazines.
In a word: Reliability.
In another three words: Ease of maintenance.
There simply is less to go wrong with a revolver.
Since they normally are not field stripped for cleaning, unlike semi-autos, there is less chance that something will go wrong with reassembly.
With each cartridge in its own chamber, the cartridges do not need to be fed into a firing chamber; they already are there.
True, if a revolver is mistreated and never cleaned — normally a five or 10 minute job — the cylinder could jam or fail to align properly. Having owned a semi-auto, I know that if a cartridge fails to feed, the user has to clear it before firing again.
If a cartridge in a semi-auto fails to fire, the gun is useless until the dud is removed.
If a cartridge fails to fire in a wheel gun, the next cartridge moves into place.
The only problem I have had with wheel guns, and this may be unique to Taurus, is that ammunition from Liberty Ammunition will not immediately eject from either of the two Taurus revolvers I have owned. (I complained to Taurus AND to Liberty, to no avail.)
What did Taurus DO?
Taurus was told, in writing and in pictures what needed to be done:
- 1. Fix the finish so bare metal would be covered.
2. Lighten the DA trigger pull
3. Do something with a small crack in the frame.
In seven — count them, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 —weeks Taurus managed to accomplish only one — right, ONE — task.
The DA trigger pull now is acceptable.
The bare metal remains bare.
The small crack on the frame remains as it was.
The bare metal does not — now — present a problem. I keep a light coat of Ballistol CLP on all parts, inside and out.
The small crack may, or may not, “grow” as the weapon is fired over time. I probably will take it to a real gunsmith for a second opinion. If the crack is not an issue, Taurus would have been well advised to tell me “Don’t worry about the crack; it’s just in the finish.”
When I originally received the 962 it came with the admonishment that there was a one year warranty.
When it came back from “repair,” it came with a piece of paper stating it now had a lifetime warranty — comparable to Taurus’ better built competitors.
To its credit, Taurus paid FedEx shipping both ways.
This morning (19 JUL) I applied an alcohol rub to all the gun’s surfaces, internal and external, and then quickly applied CLP gun oil. Were it not for the Chinese virus, the only application would have been gun oil.
The gun was clean when it left my house and it was clean when it returned. Taurus claims it fired 21 rounds with the gun. If it did, the crew gets a gold star for cleaning the barrel and chambers; the gun was as clean as when it was shipped to Georgia.
Some good words
There ARE good things to say about Taurus wheel guns. (I have no experience with Taurus semi-autos and would not own a semi-auto regardless of manufacturer.)
While the Model 605 I previously owned would beat up my palms firing .357 magnums, the spongy grip on the 692 gentles the .357’s recoil so that firing 50 rounds is about the same as firing 50 rounds of standard .38 FMJ.
Th 692 has a longer barrel and it is ported, a feature some love and others hate. Porting is supposed to reduce recoil.
I bought the 692 sight-unseen because it has inter-changeable cylinders. I had my doubts about 9mm vs. .38 SPL and .357 magnum. Once the 9mm cartridges are set in the moon/star/stellar clips, they can rapidly be loaded/ejected from the cylinder, seven rounds at a time. With the .38/.357, trying to load individual cartridges can be time consuming and awkward, especially under pressure.
My personal “bottom line”
Given the option to buy a new Taurus or a used “name” gun (e.g., Kimber, Ruger, Smith & Wesson) buy the used “name” gun. (All the guns just named are made in the U.S.A.)
The 692 is a great idea for people who don’t know what they want (previously my situation).
The only drawback I see to a wheel gun is less capacity. The 692 holds seven rounds and Taurus correctly recommends that the chamber under the hammer be left empty. Countering the comparable lack of capacity is the ease, speed, and simplicity of cleaning the weapon. No disassembly required.
Pre-loading 49 9mm rounds into 7 moon/star/stellar clips should provide enough ammunition or almost any occasion. (The 692 is supplied with five clips. More are available from Taurus.) Loading the clips requires minimal patience; unloading cases from the clips is easy with needle nose pliers. There are several devices to load/unload the clips, all available “for a price.”
Besides, if you can’t hit the target with 5, 6, or 7 rounds, you need to spend more time at the range.
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.
No comments:
Post a Comment