[PilatusTurbo]

After my recent debacle with a Lemon G3, I was leery on getting the GX4 I wanted, but I did. One lemon should not ruin one's perception of a brand or their products.

Anyway, I got my GX4 home. Light cleaning and wiped mag interior out as I replaced the baseplates with the pinkys I ordered.

This one has a 7 lb trigger, just as my earlier GX4s did; heavy and oddball. All these reviews talking about smooth 4.5-5 lb triggers on their GX4s. I've owned 3 of them now, and none of them had that. All 3 consistently had this exact trigger. Heavy, and nice crisp break. Heavy.

However, I loaded up a magazine with JHP ammo, and it loaded them reasonably well. I loaded up the Winchester White Box JHP that I'd had the nosedive feed issues with on the G3, and boom. Nosediving here and there. My Caniks digest that stuff with relative ease, but my G3 didn't care much for it, nor does the GX4 seem to. Probably just ammo... I even got the gun to nosedive racking my PMC JHP ammo. I understand live fire cycling will tell us the truest version of the story, but my G3 nosedove during handing cycling, and did during live fire, as well.

Closer inspection looking at the feedramp: This can not be normal.

Feed ramp is crooked, off center, or whatever we'd like to call that. I guess QC is beginning to slide back to historic days, and hard.

Thankfully, I called the FFL back and told him it happened with both magazines and two ammo types, he said he's ordering a swap out from the distributor. I'm out of ideas. If the feed ramp looks the same, then I'll just keep this one I guess. If it's correct, then he'll know, too.

You guys mind having a look at your feedramps? Maybe a photo? I only found one photo on Google searches and it is symmetrical. Mine is not.

Thanks

 

[PilatusTurbo]

That looks like crap. Warranty should fix it. One of the Taurus FB groups I'm in had a guy complaining about his but he polished the feed ramp and solve the issue.
Sorry I can't be much help but I normally polish the feed ramp on all my gun barrels.

Yeah, I had considered that, but it's not even geometrically correct. The FFL I got it from already ordered a replacement. I called him first and asked if there's anything he can do before I have to go sending another Taurus to Bainbridge. Without hesitation he asked for the UPC and inventory number on the box to order another from his distributor.

I'll probably polish the ramp on the new one, if it's correct. I had to do a ton of work on my G3 to get it working even after it was sent to Taurus. They didn't fix the issue, so I did. Got it running reliably enough.

 

[PilatusTurbo]

Got the new one today, and man my FFL guy was quick on that. New one is brand new, never touched by customers or anyone else but factory and us today. Feed ramp on this one looks a good bit better, and it hasn't hung up once. I've been cycling the same ammo, top three rounds, one at a time. The nose dive failures were pronounced after you racked and loaded the 11th, or first round in the mag. The second round would almost half the time hang up. This one is smoothly sending them right up the ramp into the chamber. Plunk tests are good, and she seems like she's loading up just fine.

Also, didn't even do my normal new gun cleaning. I figured maybe some of that stuff I was doing wasn't helping. The interior was clean enough, striker channel a bit gunky but not like my last ones last summer. I didn't even open and wipe out the magazines. I'm leaving it the way it is and am just gonna go shoot the damn thing as soon as I can.

I'm assuming the troubles I had with mine hitting left in past were me, even though I was halfway decent; I've come a long way in that last year. I'm assuming I just needed more technique and practice work. Everyone else seems to be able to hit with these guns, with a bit of practice. I'm stoked, because the GX4 was my favorite gun in a long time, but I couldn't get good with it and assumed it was not the shooter. This time I will assume it was, keep it, and practice with it until I can do stuff well with it. They really are great guns.

 

[PilatusTurbo]

Keep us updated. Did you check the barrels feed ramp?

Sure did. It did look a bit better, as said. The feed ramp in this one is ever so slightly off, but no where near as bad as that one. It's also feeding everytime. I've compulsively chambered that ammo type many times this afternoon LOL Zero nosedives thus far. Crossed fingers, but I think we're there.

I do watch for setback and have a bullet puller. Most set back is minimal, and is perfectly safe to fire off at the range. Ask me how I know. I check ammo as I load it, and if it's only set back a millimeter or two, it's fine with factory ammo.

discussed in an earlier thread my LGS has been seeing quality problems with Gx4's not normally seen with the rest of the Taurus G series. That feed ramp should never have made it off the parts production line in Brazil, and should have been discarded on the assembly line in Georgia.

That's good to know that it's being noticed and it would seem that some bad batches are getting out as of late. My G3 was a horrendous crap show, and that other GX4 I had was getting returned to the distributor and to Taurus.

This GX4 seems to be solid, and I'm happy about it. It's got me excited, which after the G3 mess, I was almost done with Taurus. That wouldn't have been fair, and I know they can do better.

They need to stop pumping new models out every 5 minutes and focus on QC and making guns work. They're going in the wrong direction with trying to make a gun for everyone, and forgetting to actually make them well, consistently. We're going back to the days of Taurus when you have to say "If you get a good one, or one that works" and that's really not the direction they need to go. I've had two bad samples recently, and I know of several others within the last 18 months...

I'm contacting Taurus tomorrow and asking to speak with whoever they'll let me talk to highest up. Ruger has an "Ask the CEO" thing, and I'm gonna see if Taurus does. Ruger's CEO actually responded to me, twice. I was cordial, and to the point, and he was happy with my words of support.

Taurus needs to hear this stuff directly. QC is failing, and failing bad.

 

[PilatusTurbo]

We know those people in Brazil are most likely not getting paid very much and most likely don't care about the quality but the people who work at the facility in Bainbridge, Georgia need to take the time to check that crap. I just hope Taurus doesn't return to it's old days of pumping out trash and nobody was buying them. It's still a hit or miss even today. You either get a good one or bad one but the sad thing is my nephew has the PT111 and it's been flawless. He refuses to get rid of it so I offered to get it Cerakoted to help with rusting as he carries it daily. This is why I can't let my Glock 43 go.

I think you literally called it. Hit the nail on the head. Along with their poor choices I was mentioning. Chasing every market trend and forgetting to make sure the guns coming out are in decent order now is Ruger's mistake they've fallen into, also.

I had several Rugers in a row that all exhibited serious machining flaws. They handled it really well, but myself and others got tired of needing their best in the industry customer service.

That seems to be the model Taurus is going for. QC can take a back seat to an extent, just have fast turn around times for customer service warranty returns when those inevitably happen. They have gotten consistently faster from my recent experience, and hearing several others with <2 week turn around times like mine.

That's great, if they actually fix the issue. My G3 issue was not something they could seemingly replicate, so they put some BS on the return form of "adjusting trigger bar" and sent it back. Unless you have like a cracked slide or something physically demonstrable, their warranty is probably worthless. At least it's not taking months to get your gun back, anymore.

My PT 111 Millennium G2 was a boss. Bought it in 2017, and proceeded to run a good 1500+ rounds through it in less than a year and never a hiccup. Nothing. Just ran like a sewing machine. Shoulda held onto that one. Can't find them anymore in that old PT 111 configuration.

ETA: @TiTaN The Glock 43 is a boss. I have owned several, but ended up going to guns slightly bigger or better capacity. If Glock would produce a gun the 43's size and the GX4's size, with 10+1, and it ran, It'd sell out for a year or two straight. We'll probably get it, when Glock gets that market trend, in like 2029.

I was able to reliably get 8+1 with the updated new Pearce +1s and Magguts +1 Z-springs. It's kinda pricey, and at that point you could try Magguts +2's, but I had reliability issues with one of my 43s and the +2. The Pearce +1 and MG +1 was a solid combo, and looks nice.

 

[PilatusTurbo]

I was looking at the Ruger Max 9 and as I was reading in the forums and Ruger groups on FB everyone that had an issue would always get a reply from others saying just send it to Ruger and they'll fix it quick. That made me ask, why do I need to send a week old handgun in for warranty repair but they'd just get mad and ignore you. If you had a $1,000.00 iPhone or Android phone that broke that soon they'd be screaming at the tech support demanding a new phone or a refund.
FYI
Shield Arms just released the Z9 magazine for the 43 thats 9+1. I have one on backorder as they sold out so fast they couldn't keep up.

Yeah, I was hoping for more from SA for the 43, but there's mathematically only so much you can do with that tiny mag well. Many of us were just saying too little, too late. I was fine with my concoction which will still end up costing less, and won't require you to replace the mag catch. Shield Arms will require that, and your OEM mags simply won't be reliable for long with a steel mag catch.