My PT111SSP-12 (DAO) is back at Taurus in Miami, FL. Sent on Friday.
I sent it back for the magazine release issue - same issue about which I've read a couple few accounts. I went ahead and purchased the pistol anyway - it felt too good in my hand at the store (w/out dryfire) - and who thinks the same bad experiences they read on the errornet will
really happen to them???
Lesson learned.
Unfortunately, the spring tension went from normal to barely holding the magazine in place at about the 200rnd mark. I put about 400 more rounds through the pistol before getting fed up with the mag release due to losing a full mag in the woods this past deer season.
Thankfully, Gander Mountain has agreed to take care of the shipping costs back to Taurus since I am still with in my 12 month Gander Mountain warranty (purchased in March 2006).
If it wasn't for Gander's warranty, I'd be out about $75 bucks for the cost of shipping overnight to Taurus, and a new magazine to replace the lost mag. Tack that cost on to the $330 + tax/fees I paid for the stainless PT111SSP-12... and, well, I begin to wonder if it was worth purchasing a pistol in the "good value" monetary bracket.
On a more positive note there has not been one failure to feed, failure to eject, or failure to fire.
I've had great success in shooting decent groups with the pistol, and I’m not one of these guys you'll see sqawking about 2" groups at 15yds. So to be able to handle/shoot this pistol more accurately than some of my other pistols was a nice surprise. Though I'm not a fan of the trigger
feel, it doesn't seem to affect my ability to shoot well so I suppose my not liking the feel is a non-issue.
A small part failure like this could happen to any brand pistol - so this isn't a "Taurus bash" session -- I'd give the same review to a Glock 26, or HK P2000SK...etc.
I'm just relaying my experience with one Taurus model I've owned, and I feel I can rightfully say the experience has left a bad taste in my mouth. A bad taste - I might add - that is slightly overcome by an unlimited lifetime warranty.
Due to this part failure, and more so due to there being numerous accounts of the same, I'm not sure I would
recommend this pistol to a prospective buyer. I might steer them to a few similar models by other manufacturers. I would have to let them know all of the many positive aspects of this pistol, and let them make the decision on whether or not to take the same chance I took last March.