I'd be interested to try the frame mounted safety with the option to carry cocked and locked, but I've heard mixed things about the PT92s that are out these days. Would you buy one new for around 400 or so, or stay away altogether?

I saw this thread from active topics and I suspect folks who normally come to this area might have a different opinion than I do.

I had one Taurus years back and the trigger was not at all good. Reliability was ok but it was just lots of work to land bullets anywhere near where I wanted . Would not recommend .

At the very least before you buy go to a rental range and get some time on one before you commit

I enjoyed my Taurus PT-99 (adjustable sight 92).

The magazines do not interechange between Beretta 92 / M-9 and the Taurus.

The frame mounted lever was nice and I like it better than the slide mounted Beretta Safety / Decocker.  I wish I the Taurus frame mount could be blocked  to two positions (Fire & Safe) like a 1911.

The bottom third of the three positions is decock.  If you have it cocked and locked and mash down too hard, click you dropped the hammer back down.

BIGGER_HAMMER

As far as the trigger are you talking about the double action trigger being particularly bad or thesingle action one (or both)?

In my gun both were bad. It was sort of a odd thing , I bought the gun new from a local dealer and dry fired it a fair amount in the store. Double was bad but if you would rack it the single action was by no means great but seemed acceptable . When I got it to the range and got ammo in it if was way worse than dry fire. At the time I was hoping it would wear in some but that never happened. I paid a local gunsmith to try and clean it up . He polished the trigger parts some but when he replaced springs he couldn't get reliability from it so he put the factory springs back in .This guy is no hacker , he has a good reputation and has done some great work for me in the past . I shot this gun quite a bit and for a couple of weeks kept it by my TV and would dry fire it during commercials . Never got any better so it got tossed into the safe for a couple of years before I sold it off. I have sold only a handful of guns in the last 40 years I have been buying them but I was happy to see that mistake go

The guns made in the 80's did not have the decocker. If you want to carry C&L see if you can find one.

I owned a Beretta 92FS a few years ago...I shot it well, and liked it, but eventually decided a Glock 17 fit my needs better.
But I missed shooting the 92.
A couple months ago, I found a used, like new 1997 Taurus PT92. Price was very cheap, so I bought it. $265.
I got it to the range and put 150 rds through it. Not a single issue, and accuracy was excellent.
It seems to be the equal, in all respects, to the Beretta I used to own, and I say that as someone who is a big Beretta fan.

Just got done cerakoting my dad's old 1991-ish PT-92.  Man, I wish Taurus still made this style instead of the awful hammer drop type.



I installed a new, Beretta locking block ( yes, you CAN do that!! ) as the old one was beat to shit...and put on Hogue G-10 Grips after restaking one of the grip screw bushings...added a new stell recoil spring guide and new recoil spring then had to beat the snot out of it to get her all broke in.



This thing is awesome accurate for what it is and reliable as all get out.  Such a shame they don't make 'em like they used to!!!!  Those old Taurus 92s are SWEET!!!!

Just shot 200 rounds in mine today.  Not the greatest double action but like someone said, get her going in single action and she'll ruin your bad guys day with a 17 round mag.  Nice weight, and I also like the cocked and locked feature.  I jusy bought a steel rod and spring but have not installed yet.

Well, here's my .02:

Since this thread was started, I've gotten two--one black, and one stainless. No problems or complaints from me at all about the DA or SA triggers, I think both of them are great, IMO noticeably better than Beretta's, BUT...

...BOTH of them now have run into issues out of the box regarding the safety/decocker. There is a spring and bushing underneath the left grip panel, you need both of them in there (under there, better stated) or else you'll run into problems, like the gun decocking itself randomly after you shoot. The black one had to be sent back to Taurus for repair/replacement of those parts (safety spring and the grip bushing which helps hold it in place)and unless Taurus has an extra bushing they can send, the stainless one will have to be sent back too, because apparently when they assembled the gun, they forgot to include the bushing! (did I mention this stainless PT 92 is having issues too?)

It only took about less than a month I think to get back the black PT 92 AF from Taurus in Miami, but holy sh*t this is absolutely insane. Steel rod and spring??? Make sure the parts that are SUPPOSED to be in your gun are there before even worrying about anything else...if you do look under the grip panel make sure you do so in an area where you won't lose the safety spring if it does fly out.

If this thing didn't shoot as well as it does, and fit me as well as it does, and have a frame safety that allows for cocked and locked, I'd sell both PT 92s and just stick to Beretta. I'm bending over backwards because the triggers are so good, and I think the design (at least on paper) is so much better than the Beretta's. It's the manufacturing and assembly of that design that seems to be falling so short of the mark here.

CDNN's flyer had them advertised cheap this morning and I decide to do some quick research because PT99 was the first handgun I ever owned (new around 1994 or so), wish I had kept it.   Looking around the internets, the same pattern emerged.  People were happy with the old guns, but the new ones were crap.   So I think I will pass.   Maybe if I come across an old non-decocker cheap at a gun show some day.

However, the price of a good used Beretta has come down so much, hardly seems the point.   I remember when new Berettas were $200 plus more for a new one, and this was mid-90s dollars.

My 99 has been great since I recieved it as a B-day present from my wife many years ago... early 90's.

I like the safety position much better than the Beretta, the trigger is fine in both DA/SA. After shooting the polimer guns, it feels like carring a tank, so it now stands guard as the wifes cupboard gun.

No. Just buy a 92 with the frame safety if that's what you want.

Edit to add: the Taurus is just a copy of the Beretta so idk wtf the guy above me means by better design on paper?

I got burned on a busted Taurus years ago.  Their stuff is garbage in my book.  I have never had a quality issue with a Smith or a Beretta (the real 92).

'No one ever asks if the Beretta 92 is as good as the Taurus 92"

One of Taurus's (Taurii?) Better pistols, but still falls short to the Berettas

If Taurus could unfck their QC and CS, they'd be king

I had a good early 80's PT-2 with frame safety. It out shot my friends M9 - Guess I got lucky and scored a good one.

Today - maybe if it were really really cheap...

I'm kinda collecting CZ's at present.

Frankly, IDK what on Earth YOU'RE talking about. Buy a Beretta 92 with a frame safety "if that's what you want"? Where? Not from Beretta, fella! Beretta hasn't made standard 92 pistols with frame safeties since the '70s--and back then they only made a few thousand of them. There was one on Gunbroker recently, it might still be there, but again Beretta very early on switched over to making pistols with slide mounted safeties.

The only factory Beretta 92 pistols with frame mounted safeties since the late '70's/very early '80s have been limited edition/limited production guns that usually end up costing thousands of dollars, like their most recent 92 Centennial. Not exactly affordable for the average joe.

http://www.beretta.com/en-us/92-fs-centennial/

Modern Taurus PT 92  are NOT direct copies of the current Beretta 92. The early Taurus 92s are quite similar to the early Beretta 92 pistols for obvious reasons, but for a long time now the two have diverged from one another in noticeably in terms of design and parts used. Some parts from Beretta 92s will work in Taurus but many will not (the magazine, for example).

What I had been trying to say was that  think the PT-92 AF with its frame mounted safety/decocker is better on paper than the slide mounted safety/decocker on the Beretta, because with the Taurus you can carry cocked and locked, hammer down with safety on, or hammer down with safety off....with Beretta you can safely carry only hammer down with safety off, or hammer down safety on. There is no cocked and locked carry mode with a Beretta 92FS/M9. The problem in my view is that Taurus' quality control is just simply too poor these days even on its most successful and well known model to trust the average PT-92 AF over the average Beretta 92FS/M9. It really is a shame.  

 

Besides Taurus' complete lack of Q.C. and Customer Service, the final nail in the coffin is that the decock mechanism is part of the actual safety.  The technically precludes any effective carry in the cocked and locked position because in a tough scenario you are most likely to draw a cocked and locked weapon and then decock it as you disengage the safety.  The ramifications of this in a bad situation are astronomical.   The same goes with any pistol with a decocker that is also part of the manual safety.  If you are force to go with a decocking gun, the Sig P series or the Walter P99 would be a better route.



It IS a darn shame that the Beretta or a ( let me quantify this ) "good" Taurus cannot be had without the decocker is a darn shame as these, though a bit largish, are eminently shootable guns.

Regarding the PT92;  
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2012/11/chris-dumm/gun-review-taurus-pt-92-af/
http://www.policemag.com/channel/weapons/articles/2004/03/arsenal.aspx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vaSTmblWGw

Some of the people I've talked with in the Taurus forum who own both the PT92 and the Beretta 92fs claim the PT92 shoots better, has a better trigger, is just as accurate, and just as reliable.  From all the reviews I read  on various sites and dealers before I ordered mine, there is about a 100 good ones for every bad one.

Regarding the remote possibility of accidentally decocking it in a panic situation...I seriously doubt that if you are that paniced that you would even notice the difference between the single action trigger pull and the double action trigger pull that would be necessary...IF you haven't already shot yourself in the leg.  It is my understanding that the decocker has a very stiff action.  Personally I would never carry any pistol that wasn't double action on the first round anyway.

The only way I would ever own another Taurus in my lifetime is if Smith & Wesson and Ruger both go out of business and Beretta, Colt and Springfield would have to be doing the same.  I have owned three Taurus firearms in the past 25 years and all three had issues.  Do yourself a favor and save up the extra $100 and buy a real Beretta 92.

I wouldn't get a PT92.

Had a PT92 stainless.  Liked the idea of the slide mounted safety. However it was very unreliable, about 2-3 failures to extract every mag. Called Taurus, and told them my problem and that'd I'd like to purchase a new extractor to see if it would fix my problem. They told me sorry, we don't sell those to people, it's a factory only part and that I'd have to send in the gun on my dime for analysis. ($50-$60 to Fedex overnight it). I'd already had to send a Taurus 85 back to the factory 3 times on my dime to get it right....so I wasn't going to play that game again.

I got smart and ordered a Beretta extractor and it fit just fine.  It did seem to help my problem somewhat but was still never that reliable.  Maybe 1 failure to extract every 2 magazines. I finally just gave up and sold the gun.

I really liked the ergos of the gun so I decided to try a Beretta 92.  Still own it and am very happy with it.  The Beretta quality is much better overall. Chrome lined barrel, every gun is accuracy checked at the factory.....you can just feel the quality in a Beretta.  Beretta has made gazillions of these and they have had lots of time to work out the production bugs and get very good at making and refining them over the years. Parts are very available for the Beretta too. Spare locking blocks (a known failure point that should be monitored and replaced when needed) , springs, hammers.... all available for the Beretta.  Surplus mags are cheap and very available for the Beretta too.

IMO the PT92 is false economy.  You may get a cheaper gun, but when it comes time to stock up on mags and spare parts the savings may not be there anymore.  And with surplus Beretta 92's floating around out there, I wouldn't hesitate to pick one up.

well that is odd The Taurus has a FRAME mounted safety

lolz.... Brain fart.  Yes. FRAME mounted safety.

If never buy one because I own real berettas.

Around here the Taurus is priced the same as the Beretta----with no cost advantage, I'll go Beretta every time.

seriously  why on God's green earth

You can go on any number of online gun sites and order a Taurus for at least $100 cheaper than the Beretta.