What are the weak points of the PT1911AR???

I've read some pretty bad things about the PT1911 but I got a SMOKING deal on a gorgeous railed model so I went ahead and got it. When I got this thing home, I totally stripped it, cleaned, oiled and reassembled it. Fit anf finish are outstanding! The slide has ZERO movement on the rails, meaning no rattle or lateral movement at all. When I work the slide back and forth really fast, it is like its riding on glass! It's a heavy pistol but is very well balanced. I havent shot it yet, but my initial impression of this pistol is that it seems to be very well built with high quality.

What I want to know is why all the bashing? Is it soft metal or something?? I need all the people with EXPERIENCE ( not rumor millers!) with this pistol to tell me what to look for and what to check for, please... because I can find no faults at all with this thing! It has a wilson combat extractor installed as well as a polished stainless firing pin plate and full length recoil rod. I also use a wilson combat 8rd mag in it... so have I already corrected most of the problems or what?

Much appreciation for your help!

Jim

Because some people are arm chair mercenaries and they have a very nice Lorcin or Jennings that they received as an inheritance from a departed uncle and their inherited handgun is so much better than your or my Taurus 1911.

The ugly green monster reared its head so they hate on the Taurus owners.

I like my PT 1911 it shoots great and hasn't exploded or blown up in my face so I am thinking it is good to go.

LOL!!

My ambi safety kept walking out. I took some rough grit sandpaper and scored up the mating surfaces of the tongue and grove then put it back together with some blue loctite. Held like a champ afterwards.

How can I check my safety for that?

I JUST sold mine. Not that anything was "wrong" with it. I carried it a few times and shot a few hundred rounds through it. Absolutely no jams, no fail to feed, and no failure to return to battery. However, I did have the slide fail to lock back after the last round, but that can be blamed on the Taurus magazines. You're not going to like this, but aside from my wife asking me to sell it since I bought another Glock, my main motivation was that fucking rail. I conceal carry just about everywhere except work (active duty military, stripped of my right to self defense while at work). It is near impossible to find a place that will make a holster for your gun at a reasonable price. Not saying it isn't possible, but it is just very hard. I only owned this for a month, and for that entire month I just shopped for holsters. The rail is so big it doesn't fit any 1911 with rail holsters. Another reason I just stopped carrying it was that I just trust my life with Glock , but that has nothing to do with this and this gun never gave me a reason to not trust it. It shoots great, never jammed on me. I'll probably buy it chambered in 9mm down the road! Enjoy it!

The safety on my new Taurus PT1911 had virtually no resistance to being moved and would accidently go on safe because of my high hand hold. I don't particularily care for an ambidextrious safety so I ordered a Wilson single sided "bullet proof" safety and replaced it myself.

You must go very slowly when hand fitting the safety or you will ruin it. I took the pistol apart probably eight times removing and polishing a little more metal along the way. When it finally would just engage is when I stopped. It was actually a little too stiff until I used it a while. It's close to perfect now.

I lightly polished the feed ramp and purchased a custom sized barrel bushing from EGW. It handles and shoots well enough for my purposes and I still had money left over to buy bullets.

edited to add: I agree with the concern over rails and holsters, I just don't get the rail thing myself. For a straight forward self defense handgun this stuff is silly. It makes the handgun way too big for no good reason. Are we all going to try and conceal 1911's with lights and/or lasers mounted? These railed additions have there place for SWAT and the military, and it's fine if someone wants to buy it, but it's getting nearly impossible to buy a plain old semi auto without all this stuff attached. Call me retro.

There is nothing wrong with them really other than the finish being fairly week and thin, the other common problem that some were having was the safety would fall or walk its way out under recoil, but you won't have to worry about that till you fire it and even then its a easy fix. I had mine about 5 years or so with thousands of rounds through it, and the only failures were me limp wristing. The reason people hate on Taurus is cause as a company they suck, and I love my PT1911 and revolvers but don't call them for anything, and if you do get a lemon fix it and sell it. I know you don't want to hear it but their QC is spotty at best, but take it out and blast away and find out if it works for you.

No one wants to get stuck with a lemon but this mentality drives me nuts. If you fix the flaw in the gun is it still a lemon? If it can't be fixed send it back to the factory and ask for a refund, as many here have claimed they have done. Why do we put fellow gun owners through the same hell we have just been through. A company further gets it's name drug through the mud even if they do try to make it right. This is not aimed at the OP, just a general comment on something a lot of gun owners do. Just read though the various forums here, it's not just Taurus, but Wilson, Bushmaster, Glock and a bunch more.

I had a Stainless PT1911 that I put a little over 1200 rounds through before my wife sold it. It was well worth the price and the only issues I had were probably caused by operator error and magazines. The slide fit was just right and the ambi safety never got loose or gave me a problem. I would like to see the sharp edges gone as the pistol tends to cut up holsters and hands in daily use and I hated the straight 8 sights. Aside from that, the thing was very reliable and I thought that it was a quality piece, bettering it's price point. It's not a $3000 BBQ gun, but then it was only about $600 OTD and I feel I got a good value for my money from my experience with it.

As an aside, my father who had shot it on occasion was looking for another 1911 and asked about buying it from me so I guess that might say something for the pistol too.

My PT1911 is one of the best pistols I have had. I like your comment the it "hasn't exploded or blown up in my face". I would like to say that mine has survived a reload with a double charge of powder! the magazine blew out of the mag well, and it stove piped. My shooting instructor is a gunsmith, and after it happened, we disassembled the gun right there on the tailgate of his truck, and the gun survived.

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