pt111 First impressions

[tboesche]

I finally had a chance to take the pt111 to the range. This is my first compact pistol. I bought it to use as my carry gun. I have had it for about 2 weeks, but today was the first chance I have had to shoot it. I put 100 rounds thru it. It shoots a little low. Might be me though. We were at an outdoor range and it was 45 with the wind blowing, so it may have been me. My CZ-75 was hitting a little low as well. Any way, muzzle flip was not as bad as I had expected. Control felt really nice. I had one FTF. The primer was lightly dented. I reloaded it into the mag and cycled the action and it fired. I have heard that these pistols sometimes have this problem. I attribute it to the gun being new and that I may not have cleaned it thouroughly before I shot it. HOPEFULLY, I do not have anymore FTF's. I can live with 1 in 100. We will see how it goes after 500-600 rounds.

So far I am pleased with it.

[PhilR.]

Some of the Tauruii have second-strike capability. Did you try just pulling the trigger a second time when you had that failure to fire?

Congrats on the new pistol....

PhilR.

[dustyb]

I bought my wife a PT111 "Millenium" in 2000. She didn't care for its recoil compared to a full sized pistol. I liked the size of the pistol, but did not care for its long DAO trigger pull. My biggest gripe was that it was very hard for me to reassemble, after taking it apart to clean it. It has been a while, but it seems like there was some kind of trick to it that the directions did not cover. I ended up selling it to my cousin for some extra cash to buy a Beretta I wanted more. I never had any mechanical problems with it firing, but in all fairness, only shot with it a few times. It seemed like a good deal for the money though.

[Commander]

I had a PT-111 a few years ago. It developed a problem similar to the one you described - the striker would lightly dent the primer on occasion, I'd just pull the trigger again and usually it would fire the second time. However, when I was qualifying for my renewal, I loaded up and it only went "click" no matter what I and the instructor tried. I had to rent a pistol to complete my qualification. A local gunsmith told me that this was a "known" problem with the 111. I sent it off to Taurus and they replaced the striker spring. But I had lost trust in that gun and soon traded it for a Smith & Wesson.

[tboesche]

I actually was not firing it when it happened. My buddy was. He is not real gun savvy so I just took it and ejected the round. Saw that it was lightly dented so it put it back on top of the mag loaded and fired it. Had no more problems after that. Mine is a Gen 3.
Yeah, the take down and reassemble is a bit confusing.

[PhilR.]

I've read many times that European ammo has somewhat harder primers than does American brands, so if your ammo was Fiocchi or S&B or similar, it might just be as simple as that. And if it turns out to be hard primers, a switch to an American brand might well eliminate the problem.

hth,
PhilR.

[tboesche]

I think that particular load was Monarch. Although we also shot a box of Winchesters. Both fed with no problems

[PhilR.]

I think that particular load was Monarch. Although we also shot a box of Winchesters. Both fed with no problems

Monarch brand is made in Europe, so perhaps it's the ammo, and not the pistol. At any rate, the pistol might run fine on American ammo, but I would shoot quite a lot of boxes through it before I would make a definitive evaluation as to whether or not the pistol has a hard time with Euro primers....

PhilR.