Taurus PT709 Slim jamming

[sidebite252]

We've already discussed the M&P Shield as the replacement. I just need to get time to have my wife check them out. It's gonna be her's so she must make the choice but she does want a thumb safety and that is an option on the shield. I did get confirmation that Taurus had received the 709 and they gave a 6 week turn around. it will be interesting to see if they repair the problem. I'm still optimistic they will.

 

[guttermonkey]

I also had a PT709 for awhile and had several issues with it. I was able to get it to feed and fire reliably with some dremel work and polishing compound, however the sights were so far off it wasn't even remotely accurate. Oddly, the guy that sold it to me to begin with wanted to buy it back after I'd put the work into getting it working reliably so I made a small profit on it.

As for replacements, if she likes your PX4 I hope the Beretta Nano is on your list. It looks like a pretty solid piece, although I've never actually used one. The only caveat is that you stated she wants a thumb safety and that doesn't appear to be an option. I personally wish Glock would come out with a single stack slim 9mm as I'd snap that up in a minute.

 

[sidebite252]

The Nano was discussed because she really enjoys shooting the PX4 but no thumb safety might be the deal killer for her. She's pretty adamant on that feature for some reason. It's all about whet someone is comfortable with.

 

[guttermonkey]

In that case, how about a Bersa Thunder 380? I've got a buddy that swears by his and he carries 24/7 in AZ.

 

[BG1960]

The Spousal Unit did not care for the TS on the Shield at all. She settled on the P238 because she has a thumb safety fetish.

 

[SIG_Fiend]

I would caution people against the line of thought of relying on a thumb safety for personal safety. It's all personal preference but, ultimately what's needed at a minimum is a good, consistent trigger finger index. I find that a lot of people feel that way about thumb safeties, often because they might not be aware of some of the internal safety features built into most modern handguns. I think a lot of it has to do with the outlook that movies, tv, and media have given everyone, in that when "accidents" (it's really negligence a majority of the time) happen, you will always here "it just went off". One of those safety features is the firing pin safety, which is typically a steel block that sits in the way of the firing pin and makes it physically impossibly for the gun to just
go off" or to fire when dropped. Almost all modern handguns have a FPS, and the only thing that deactivates them and allows the gun to fire is pulling the trigger. Nothing wrong with wanting a thumb safety. Just saying, if a person doesn't have a good trigger finger index, the thumb safety isn't necessarily going to "save" them.

The Beretta Nano is a pain to shoot. They have quite a bit of kick for what they are.

 

[TheDan]

because she has a thumb safety fetish.

Mine's the same way... Seems like all the wimmins want a manual safety they can click on and off no matter how many times I tell them your safety is between your ears. As long as they practice with it, it's not big deal, tho...

Why the p238 over the p938? The p938 is essentially no larger and you get the benefit of 9mm. As long as you don't run standard velocity 9mm the recoil is really no different either.

 

[sidebite252]

Well amazingly enough I got the PT709 back today from Taurus. So, that's just over a 2 week turn around so that's a plus since all indications were 6 weeks (16 days since I shipped it to be exact.) Paper work says they found the barrel and extractor to be faulty and they've replaced both. Repairs and return shipping on Taurus (covered under the lifetime warranty.) I've looked it over and it does have a new barrel. I plan to clean it and give it a whirl on Friday. Hopefully the issues have been resolved with the parts that were replaced. Paper work shows they ran 21 rounds of the Remington Saber 124g HP through it. That was one of the 2 ammo's that was jamming previously. I'll report back on how it goes. Thanks for all the opinions and idea.

 

[Younggun]

Hope it runs for ya.

 

[TheDan]

Well amazingly enough I got the PT709 back today from Taurus. So, that's just over a 2 week turn around

That's good news! Let us know how it runs now.

 

[sidebite252]

Well it didn't go as I wanted. First I put 50 rounds of S&B 115g FMJ. Had several issues before with this ammo not extracting from the barrel. All went well but on the last mag I had one of the empty casing hang up while trying to eject. Not exactly a stove pipe but the same as the Remington ammo was doing previously so it does appear the barrel change helped. Previously, this ammo sometimes wouldn't extract from the barrel so that issue seems to be resolved. I then went to the Remington Saber 124g JHP. This is also the same ammo Taurus used on their 21 round test and as before I had issue multiple times (maybe 6 or 7) with the empting casing hanging up, getting hung during ejection. Each time I had to lock the slide back, remove the empty casing. Frustrating. I made damn sure I didn't "limp wrist" the pistol and I feel confident that is not the issue. So, after struggling through those 60 rounds (I had a few rounds extra so I ran them through as well) I switch back to the S&B 115g - put about 30 rounds down range and they too continued to hang up on ejection maybe 3 time. So I switched to the Federal American Eagle 147g FMJ-FN. As on the previous outing, I ran all 50 rounds of this ammo through the pistol with no issues. I guess I'll stick to American Eagle ammo with this gun. One of the guys at the range quipped their may be a difference in the casing lengths so I'll look into that. I don't know, I'll clean it and do another test with different ammo's from Federal/AE but I don't trust this gun with my wife for a carry weapon. Guess what my wife is getting for Christmas? lol - I won't send it back to Taurus since I just got it back from them. Maybe I'll find a local gunsmith that want to take a shot at it. Anyway, it will now become a personal project to see if I can figure out what's going on with my PT709. Too bad, it's actually a perfect size, feels & shoots great and is extremely accurate. At this stage, it's been demoted to hobby/project status. Maybe it's just time to trade it and stop wasting time with it? At this point I'm not sure what I'll do with this POS.

 

[SIG_Fiend]

I would get rid of it, especially with it already having been back to Taurus once. For about the same price, and for a similar size gun, the M&P Shield would be a great option worth considering.

 

[Plano Mark]

I bought one about 4 years ago, I first cleaned it up real good, used Winchester White box for 200+ rds, various JHPs with no issue. I decided to sell it when I bought a Ruger LC9. But it gave me no troubles.

That said, if you do a thourough cleaning, use good ammo, and you still have "jams" contact Taurus.