[MTCSSUSN]

I recently purchased a "new" G3C from a well known online retailer (if you watch Hickok45 you know the one) and went today to pick it up at my FFL dealer. I inspected it closely and was appalled at the condition of this supposedly new from the factory handgun. You can see in the photos the amount of wear on the barrel, breech block, slide rails and interior of the slide. I refused to take delivery and when I got home immediately contacted the retailer to tell them why I refused the gun and asked for a refund. They insisted the gun was brand new from Taurus with a build date of 10/13/20 (same date was on the box) and the wear on the gun was from factory testing. I said that was BS and Taurus sent them a used gun.
Anyway, the results was they agreed to refund my money and waived the 10% restocking fee (wasn't that nice of them!!) but I have to pay $25 for return shipping (wasn't that crappy of them @&&$&^#^@^).

I would be interested in anyone's opinions that looks at these photos about about the wear on this gun.....does this look like just test fire wear to you?

 

[777Driver]

Judgement call.
I can't tell how bad it is from the photos.

Taurus is not a high quality product, but I think it's a high value product.
If you want a Mercedes-Benz type firearm, get a Sig.
Taurus is more like a Toyota, cheap but reliable.
P.S. I drive a Toyota.

 

[Quality_driven]

To be honest, the last three used pistols I've purchased (Colt, Ruger & Glock) have looked much better than several of my new Taurus'. I bought my G2c for $198.00. The comparable Glock 26 is $549.99. My math puts that at a difference of $351.99 which is a Taurus and a half. As soon as my new Taurus' come home, they are field stripped, cleaned, polished (mating surfaces, barrel and feed ramp) and lubed. Taurus has leveled me up from a hobbyist/amateur to midlevel gunsmith. Oddly enough, having higher finish firearms keep me in the dark. Taurus has given me the light of knowledge. And yes, mine looked about like yours. It seems they don't clean them after assembly or test firing.

 

[silverstring]

With the lack of any finish work it is easy to see very little wear on the inside of the slide, to me that means it wasn't shot much. If it had been there would be some wear/polishing where the barrel chamber hood rubbed against the slide. The chatter marks on the barrel look like normal first shots wear. BUT... The lack of any finish work on the interior of the slide and the rough texture on the barrel etc.. would make me unhappy. IF I had kept it, would have spent time sanding off the rough foundry texture and probably sanded the barrel to a stainless finish. Lots of finish work for an inexpensive pistol.

 

[Alfonse]

I would have kept that pistol. It looks great to me. That tells me they actually test fired it at the factory and it should function well. It all looks very normal to me.

 

[dennisturner]

Looks okay to me, but it's your choice.

 

[Fredward]

Looks okay to me, too. Why is it the retailer's responsibility to pay shipping and eat the cost of processing your purchase? Figure in the costs, and next time, buy at a LGS. Inspect before you buy.

 

[philellis2710]

I recently purchased a "new" G3C from a well known online retailer (if you watch Hickok45 you know the one) and went today to pick it up at my FFL dealer. I inspected it closely and was appalled at the condition of this supposedly new from the factory handgun. You can see in the photos the amount of wear on the barrel, breech block, slide rails and interior of the slide. I refused to take delivery and when I got home immediately contacted the retailer to tell them why I refused the gun and asked for a refund. They insisted the gun was brand new from Taurus with a build date of 10/13/20 (same date was on the box) and the wear on the gun was from factory testing. I said that was BS and Taurus sent them a used gun.
Anyway, the results was they agreed to refund my money and waived the 10% restocking fee (wasn't that nice of them!!) but I have to pay $25 for return shipping (wasn't that crappy of them @&&$&^#^@^).

I would be interested in anyone's opinions that looks at these photos about about the wear on this gun.....does this look like just test fire wear to you?
View attachment 474928 View attachment 474929 View attachment 474930 View attachment 474931

Precisely how mine looked, and I bought mine 21 days after it was manufactured. I phoned Taurus. They were very honest with me. It is dry operated hundreds of cycles. Each gun is fired 8-40 times. They are NOT cleaned after testing. They did say much if the very expensive and hidden finishing is not done for a very strategic reason - it would be a MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE weapon, putting it outside of the value proposition for many buyers.

I spent some enjoyable time with mine and actually enjoyed the work and effort. I retired several very common and well-known guns to carry the G3c daily.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

 

[Memiram]

I wouldn't have been upset or shocked if I bought one that looked like the OP's. I would shoot it and if it was OK, I would be OK too. The finish on the G2's and G3's is not exactly great.

 

[PilatusTurbo]

All of my Taurus guns show up with a reasonable amount of factory schmug all over them. I don't like the specific wear patterns that Taurus guns show, but it's normal. That one looks normal, to me, too. My G3C that I recently bought, the sales guy at Sportsman's quickly took it out to show it to me, removed it from the plastic baggy. He got a rag and wiped it down somewhat thoroughly before he handed it to me to hold, as we waited on my 4473. I was kind of impressed by that, and it made a nice impression on me for the gun.

As others have said, I take a Taurus home, clean it thoroughly per my specs, and inspect. I know there's kind of this new movement to take the gun straight from the factory to the range. I think it's foolish. There could be leftover machining fluids, storage packing, or even a machining artifact like little shaving of metal. Not that I've seen those in a Taurus, but you get the point. Clean the dang thing before firing it.

The kind of wear I'm looking for in first cleaning and inspection, and first 500 or so rounds with any gun. Barrel lug, and contact surfaces, excessive slide wear, stress points, RSA springs contacting and in good shape. My black slide rails on every Taurus I've owned eventually lose that black finish, but they have all run absolutely fine. The G3C seems to have a better finish, but it'll still wear. It's steel on steel contact.

Bottom line, I'm picky, too. If you weren't comfortable or happy with it, you do you. I'm gonna go look more closely at my G3C real quick and see what it looks like after first range trip and second cleaning. These guns are so boringly reliable I've almost gotten complacent with my first 500 round inspections.

 

[GhostHorse]

I was thinking "that barrel looks like a used gun" until I read this:

Precisely how mine looked, and I bought mine 21 days after it was manufactured. I phoned Taurus. They were very honest with me. It is dry operated hundreds of cycles. Each gun is fired 8-40 times. They are NOT cleaned after testing.

That description rings true. I'd say your barrel looks exactly like what I'd expect from hundreds of dry cycles (I was actually thinking "I wonder if a customer stood at the counter and cycled it a couple dozen times") and maybe a couple of test shots. What philellis describes is an excellent match for what the photos show, I'd say.

All of which makes this a useful, interesting thread.

 

[lebomb]

My G3c looked the same way. It looked a bit used, but I cleaned it when I got home and it looks brand new.

 

[MadKaw]

Looks OK to me. I used to run a gun shop and inspected thousands of guns from Taurus to Kimber. Perfectly normal for a factory gun.

 

[pegasus]

Considering the previous history of Taurus QC I would not complain about buying one that the factory actually tested before shipping it out. I observed a PT111-G2 at a gun how once that obviously wasn't tested out first, because it wouldn't even dry fire. I pointed it out to the dealer and he had no idea what was wrong either, but he wasn't surprised and jokingly said something about What do ya want for $200, a working gun? He claimed he only brought the Tauruses to the gun show because they are a popular seller due to the price, just like the Hi Points and the Jimenez, and of course recommended the more expensive Smith's and Rugers, etc, if you (according to him) "really want a gun you can depend on working out of the box". He made a point of saying if you bought any guns from him and had a problem after purchase contact the factory, not him.

 

[MTCSSUSN]

I appreciate all of your responses. The majority of your comments do make sense concerning the factory testing but I am sure I am not the only one who didn't think a budget gun such as a Taurus would be dry cycled hundreds of times and fired dozens of times. What is the purpose of the dry cycling, breaking in a new gun before a customer gets his hands on it? Do other manufacturers put their guns through this? Another thing I thought suspicious I didn't mention before was that the gun was almost completely dry, no excess lube like I have heard Taurus's are shipped with, especially those made in Brazil like the G3C.
Perhaps I was being overly picky about the guns condition but I did not expect to see this type of wear on a new pistol regardless of price. After I inspected and handled the gun maybe my subconscious was telling me I was making a mistake buying the G3C as it was not 100 percent of what I was looking for. Whatever, once I made my choice and walked out the door it doesn't matter. It cost me the $25 for return shipping to learn a lesson instead of keeping it for $320 and then regretting my decision. Next time I will handle and inspect a pistol before laying out the money.

 

[MadKaw]

I appreciate all of your responses. The majority of your comments do make sense concerning the factory testing but I am sure I am not the only one who didn't think a budget gun such as a Taurus would be dry cycled hundreds of times and fired dozens of times. What is the purpose of the dry cycling, breaking in a new gun before a customer gets his hands on it? Do other manufacturers put their guns through this? Another thing I thought suspicious I didn't mention before was that the gun was almost completely dry, no excess lube like I have heard Taurus's are shipped with, especially those made in Brazil like the G3C.
Perhaps I was being overly picky about the guns condition but I did not expect to see this type of wear on a new pistol regardless of price. After I inspected and handled the gun maybe my subconscious was telling me I was making a mistake buying the G3C as it was not 100 percent of what I was looking for. Whatever, once I made my choice and walked out the door it doesn't matter. It cost me the $25 for return shipping to learn a lesson instead of keeping it for $320 and then regretting my decision. Next time I will handle and inspect a pistol before laying out the money.

Taurus USA [periodically] makes a big effort to upgrade their image, and then you get clean guns that are cycled. Then somebody will decide that costs too much and you don't. Then it starts all over again.

 

[pegasus]

I appreciate all of your responses. The majority of your comments do make sense concerning the factory testing but I am sure I am not the only one who didn't think a budget gun such as a Taurus would be dry cycled hundreds of times and fired dozens of times. What is the purpose of the dry cycling, breaking in a new gun before a customer gets his hands on it? Do other manufacturers put their guns through this? Another thing I thought suspicious I didn't mention before was that the gun was almost completely dry, no excess lube like I have heard Taurus's are shipped with, especially those made in Brazil like the G3C.

If they are made in the USA they shouldn't need excess lube. The PT-111 G2 I eventually bought was dripping with lube, but it wasn't American made. Someone who was disparaging my G2 a few years ago asked, "If you were in a firefight, and you had boxes of new guns, would you grab a brand new Taurus or a Glock? I replied obviously the Glock but not because Taurus makes bad guns, but simply because with a G2 you have to clean off the lube first to ensure reliability. When I got my G2 I cleaned it and tested it, and it's been just as reliable as a Glock so far. In fact more reliable than a new Glock 17 I once bought, it had 2 factory defects, and was one of the most unreliable handguns I ever bought until Glock fixed it. (just my bad luck I guess) How they let that one slip out of the factory I have no idea.

In defense of Glock the finish was much tougher than the G2, and their CS is very fast.

Perhaps I was being overly picky about the guns condition but I did not expect to see this type of wear on a new pistol regardless of price. After I inspected and handled the gun maybe my subconscious was telling me I was making a mistake buying the G3C as it was not 100 percent of what I was looking for. Whatever, once I made my choice and walked out the door it doesn't matter. It cost me the $25 for return shipping to learn a lesson instead of keeping it for $320 and then regretting my decision. Next time I will handle and inspect a pistol before laying out the money.

That's what I would recommend. That's what I ended up doing with my G2 and mines been great. At the gun show most of the Taurus handguns seemed to be okay, but I saw enough questionable ones that it scared me off of just paying for and ordering one sight unseen and taking my chances.

 

[GhostHorse]

I appreciate all of your responses. The majority of your comments do make sense concerning the factory testing but I am sure I am not the only one who didn't think a budget gun such as a Taurus would be dry cycled hundreds of times and fired dozens of times. What is the purpose of the dry cycling, breaking in a new gun before a customer gets his hands on it? Do other manufacturers put their guns through this? Another thing I thought suspicious I didn't mention before was that the gun was almost completely dry, no excess lube like I have heard Taurus's are shipped with, especially those made in Brazil like the G3C.

I'm sure the dry cycling is part testing and part breaking in. Dunno about other manufacturers.

The last time I heard anyone complain that a Taurus was shipped with excessive packaging grease was a couple of years ago. They fixed that. I bet MadKaw is right, though.

 

[PilatusTurbo]

My G3C wasn't packed with grease, but it was slick and shiny here and there. They're still not manufactured here, as far as I can tell. G2C bought in July, and the G3C bought on 12/4/2020 both still made in Brazil. I mean, is it that big a deal? I used to think so, but with hundreds of thousands of these weapons out, and most of them running like Glocks, according to the majority of reports/reviews, I think it's safe to say that made in Brazil is no big deal. We buy guns made in Turkey by the ship load, as Americans; Croatian design and manufacture, Turkey, Russia, China even, so what is everyone's hangup about Brazil? I like Brazilians.. Their GUNS... the Guns they make in Brazil....... By Taurus....

 

[777Driver]

Yeah,...I like Brazilians too.