Short TCP 738 and Range Review

[uthornsfan]

I bought my TCP 738 this past weekend at the Austin Gun Show.

$14 in entrance fees and $230 for the gun and I was all set. My wife was getting off work early today if you call 4pm early so we decided to hit up the range. (only her second time) I wanted to test out my latest fixes on my Glenfield .22 to see if I was going to have to turn it in to APD for $100 or if my latest efforts had paid off and it was operational and I also wanted to shoot the new .380

I only bought 50 rounds of Tula as I had read some not so great things about it and it was all that Wally world had in stock I believe it was just under $15 a box. I didnt want to have a bunch of problems with it and be stuck with 100+ rounds.

Anyway, we get to the range and I get my scope on the .22 sighted in for the wife to begin her first basic shooting lesson and day. I show her how to properly put the saftey on and off, check the chamber, load, aim and all the basics. All the stuff we have covered at home and just refreshed her memory! She got started and went to town with the .22 Eagle Peak allows .22 rifles on the 25 yrd pistol range so I was able to keep an eye on the wife and start testing out the 380 down on the 7 yard line.

TCP 738 Review
This is only the second pistol I have owned and coming from a Double stack .45 to a tiny .380 is a HUGE difference but I will try not to let that bias my review.

The TCP is very comfortable in my hands. I am 6'4" and pretty skinny so I have long skinny hands and it didn't feel out of place. Right off the bat I had a problem though and I am not sure if I was just being timid or if the gun just needed/needs broke in some more. I shot the first round and everything went fine but I dropped the mag out and tried to eject the loaded round and I could not get it to eject. The slide would only move part of the way back and to say the least I was a bit nervous. I put the mag back in and verified the slide was all the way forward and sent the round down range. BANG everything was normal fired, reloaded and was waiting to shoot again. Again I dropped the mag, tried to eject the round and nothing. I emptied a 10 rounds down range and then loaded up 11-15 and ran them through without firing and everything seemed normal again and the rest of the shooting went off without a hitch so to speak. I only put a total of 37 rounds through it as I do not have and PD rounds so I wanted to keep something in it until I got some.

My only dislike of the TCP is the trigger, but I think I am making progress on this and someone who has one can tell me their experience. Sometimes I would pull the trigger all the way to the rear and I mean I couldnt squeeze it any harder and nothing would happen. I would hold it there and then BANG it would go off. Sometimes it was very expected and felt great nice long smooth pulll BANG it would go off, sometimes its like it was thinking about it. After cleaning it when I got home I dry fired it a few times and it seemed to get better after I cleaned, and use compressed air on the frame and lubed it. We will see at the next range visit.

[E150GT]

glad it worked out. Mine had problems of all sorts, but since getting it back from Taurus its like a new gun. I think its a better value that the LCP and with a much better trigger. I will say that I definitely do not enjoy shooting it at all! It is very snappy. For me, 50 rounds is enough. I do carry that gun everyday, except when I have the glock on the weekends.

[A-R]

Tula ammo is coated steel case, correct? On a new, unfired gun I'm wondering if the ammo sticking in the chamber could account of the sticking/jamming you found when trying to eject a round? Of course, you'd think this would also affect the gun during the fire-eject-load cycle too, but perhaps you were being a bit timid with it combined with sticky out-of-spec steel-case ammo caused the problem?

In addition to coated steel-case ammo, sounds like you also took the gun straight out of the box, loaded it up, and fired it. One thing I've learned over the years with any brand new out of the box gun is to clean it thoroughly BEFORE you go to the range for the first shoot. So many guns have "packing grease" or excessive oil on them right out of the box. Cleaning out all this gunk first really helps. I've never owned a Taurus, but I've heard they're not shy with the packing/shipping oils and grease.

[e-bil]

Indeed. I have two Taurus pistols and they do need to be cleaned out of the box. Sounds like you may have it solved but give the mag a good tap after putting it in to make sure its seated correctly.

[uthornsfan]

Thanks guys!

I didn't buy the gun 100% new from the Gun show but I suspect it only had maybe 1 or 2 mags ran through it, but I think the PO didn't clean it at all before or after firing. I cleaned it before taking it to the range but I didn't do much in the way of cleaning the action. This time I used a dropper and put some cleaner straight onto the action and worked the action without actually dry firing the weapon. I then used compressed air and sprayed everything out.

I will report back when I get it to the range again.