To add a few comments: Taurus still makes the PT938 in .380 caliber for the Brazilian market. Since only recently we had the opportunity to buy 9mm. The most we had 2 years ago was access to .380 auto * Taurus unfortunately has no plans to make them again. * PT940 was excluded from the catalog only this year. * The PT 908 maybe based on the S&W 908 and use the same magazine. However I do not have access to a S&W to confirm this info Miss the metallic models from taurus 😔
As far as I can tell, the Taurus PT908 predates the Smith & Wesson 910/908 by a bit. The 910 would have been the first S&W to omit the barrel locking lug and use barrel hood lockup instead. So Taurus might have beaten them to the punch on that.
the PT938 was the first firearm I ever shot in my life. Love them, but they felt like they had the habit to spit hot gas in the face when cycling. But I think this is due to the shooting club ammo being reloaded too hot. Everybody I know that have one are actually quite happy with them.
You miss these things? I mean to each their own I guess but the PT940 is exactly why I despise Taurus. Ten shots is all it took to make my hand red, and I'm not a novice or a pansy.
@@JohnSmith-xv2ob .40 kinda sucks, specially in Taurus Handguns. Most of Taurus bad fame in Brazil is because their .40sw pistols are horrible and caused a lot of accidents.
Taurus did in fact take berettas homework. Beretta had a manufacturing presence in brazil for a government contract and when the contract ended taurus bought the facility including tooling and drawings.
@@jonathansmith7306 in the last five years they've only improved. I'd be willing to bet a new Taurus 856 will be better timed than most new Smith and Wesson revolvers.
@@JohnDoe-nf7up while S&W certainly isn't what it used to be, the new Taurus revolvers I handle are gritty all over, trigger to cylinder release. There's still at least a little difference in fit & finish to justify the price as long as we're not talking about the Bodyguard series.
Heck yeah I scrolled first to see if anyone remember the ‘nickel plated sissy pistol’ lmao 😂 although I always thought it was weird to call that nice ass .45 Agent Royce had a ‘nickel plated sissy pistol’ Even as a kid I was like, hmmmm .45 acp stainless gun is a ‘sissys pistol’ compared to that black plastic .40 glawk 🤔😄
I've learned how to shoot with a PT92 and Imbel MD1, both in 9mm and i can say that the Taurus is FAR better. IMBEL pistols are heavy and clumsy for 9mm and being on duty with one sucks, specially if they issue you with the FAL instead of the M16 too.
I was. THE gun to have was a Beretta 92, ideally dual wield. Anything else was either for old people or would get you shot by the people armed with Berettas.
Ryan George Pitch Meetings. Screen Rant's other content is mostly low-effort and poorly researched garbage. They're moving Pitch Meetings to a new channel in recognition.
I have a PT945 that is amazing. It's two tone with what I believe is a factory ported barrel & slide. It was my dad's and will never leave my possession. My biggest mistake was not buying more mags for it before my dad passed as now they're hens teeth. I've scoured the internet and even reached out to a friend at Taurus. Nuthin... so it remains a rarity that I bring it on range day with it's lone magazine (having a cracked floorplate to boot). When I do, it shoots well and at dusk on slo-mo you can watch the progression of fire pop out of the ports on the top. Tre-cool.
I owned a 908 back in the '90's. It was a fantastic gun, equal to the S&W 3913 & SIG P239 (both $500+ then). And I paid a lot less than MSRP (under $300, IIRC). It's one of the few guns I still miss (traded it off for something I've forgotten about). Glad to see one still in the wild....
This comment aged poorly, for context, I bought a NOS Gaucho in .357 and it stopped working after about 130 rounds. Most of that was .38 Special, Ill never buy another Taurus again
I Love my Taurus PT945. Bought it new sometime in the 90's. Wish I could remember what I paid for it. I was very broke back then so I don't see me spending anything close to the $500 range. It's reliable and I've been able to snatch up spare parts in case I need them. Mine is blued, but I was able to buy a stainless slide for it. I love the look of it with blued frame and stainless slide. I think I'll take the PT945 out to the range on my next trip.
If I remember correctly mine was between 400-500 new. I have shot it enough to make it smooth as glass like this one. It was launching the spent cases into orbit the last few times I shot it. I purchased a new recoil spring for it. I am hoping that calms the ejection down a bit.
Really nice review of the history of the gun and its context at the time of manufacture. Taurus were trying to move into a higher tier of the industry and did present those pistols as a sign of the new direction. It probably would have worked had the Soviet Union collapse not lead to a ton of cheap Warsaw Pact small arms coming into the market and then the 'assault weapon' ban that pushed a lot of interest into the AR platform.
I have a Taurus Pt111 g2 and I gotta say I love it. It's my everyday carry now. Lightweight shot hundreds of rounds through it and never a jam. I'd recommend it.
I had one of these at one point, it did have some reliability issues. I believe I sent it in to Taurus got it back in a reasonable amount of time. Replaced the recoil spring and maybe the barrel with only moderate improvement to reliability. Ended up trading for a S&W 908 which was flawless, never had an issue with it. Always get the models mixed up between the 809,908 because the model numbers were the reverse of each other.
I still have a Taurus PT908 in my collection and had a PT945. I carried the PT908 for a brief time and still occasionally shoot it. I carried the PT945 for about three Winters but later switched over to a Full Size .45 EAA Witness. Came close to buying a PT909 and wish I had gotten it. These were very well made handguns back in the day! BTW, I still have and shoot a Taurus PT92 and have had excellent service from it.
great firearm, i had a taurus pt 945 in .45 acp for almost 20 years, it was my service gun until early this month (april 2021) in brazillian police. it was replaced by a glock g22, got used to it already.
I've been waiting for you to make this video. Mines stainless and its pretty great but it looks cooler than it shoots. I don't remember it actually being that expensive originally
I bought a PT-908 in '95. I sold it to a friend who was moving to a sketchy place. I still regret letting it go. It was, for me, a great size, easy to carry and shoot. My hands are on the small side, so I had no problem with the grip. Double stacks of the era were not a good fit for me.
Well done video. Very informative and well narrated. Definitely a love-hate relationship with Taurus. Some interesting designs brought to market, but it will be at least another 10 years before they distance themselves from reliability issues of the early 2000s.
My dad had the same gun in 357SIg, he passed a few years back and the gun ended up in my possession the model is pt957 and it shoots exceptionally well. I can say that the smooth slide action is not because the gun had the crap shot out of it, my gun was rarely shot and it has the same super smooth action.
i owned a PT945 in .45ACP for a short period of time a few years ago. it was hard to get additional mags somewhere in Europe, i ended up bying the last ones available via one of the BENELUX states. it was picky on ammo: S&B FMJ would only fire after the second or third strike. But it ran reliably with Geco FMJ and of course with Magtech. Gave it away because i found it was recoiling pretty harsh.
There is another variant, the 938 chambered in .380 acp with a 15 rounds magazine. Both the 940 and 938 were still in production in Brazil up until late last year and sold for about R$6.000 (US$1.000) in the regular black version or R$7.000 (US$1.200) for the stainless steel version, that is just a bit cheaper than the PT92 over here.
My first thought was that it looks like a strange cousin to the Vektor SP1, which is itself a more exact Beretta 92 clone. What a time the late 80s/early 90s was, when you could just rip off someone else's stuff (I see you, too, Smith and Wesson Sigma Series...)
I remember this series. As a lefty, I was seriously looking at the .40 as well as the .45. One of the few Taurus guns (pre-Taurus 1911) I liked. On that, however ... I gutted my Taurus PT1911 and hand fit mostly Evolution Gun Works components within. By doing so, it has been upgraded into the Taurus M1911-A1 that King’s Gun Works so heavily pushed Taurus to make, instead of the executive compromised guns Taurus was forced to build in order to save a few bucks just so the CEO could fly first class.
In the early 2000's I had a PT-945 with a ported barrel. I was the who knows number of owners, lol. It was actually a very good pistol with the exception of the ported barrel and the plastic rear sight fell off every time you shot it. I actually liked the damn thing, but I hated the fact that they went cheap on it.
I've watched this vid 4 times... a 908 is on an action...if a stainless 945 shows up someday may give it a try. On other 908 vids people comment about jams and extraction issues a lot so idk...what state are you in Hop?
Love your Taurus reviews. Ive seen your Taurus G3 in tfb tv that you mentioned the 24/7 g2 is the best Taurus handgun. Can you do a retro review of it? I'm planning to get one hehehe but I want your blessing. Hehehe
From 1994-2004 we couldn't buy any mag over 10 rounds unless you were a Cop. So, the obvious choice was guns got either smaller with a 10 round mag, or they got more rounds in something that only had 8 rounds, or smaller with a larger cartridge, or mixture of these. Hence the reason 10 round compact .45s and 9mms were conceived. Same for 1911s with double stacked mags, and Commander-sized 1911 with 8 rounds. We all dealt with it. That's why Revolvers are still kicking: some folks just wanted 6-7 rounds of .357 or .44 for the baddies. Really, the only thing that ban fixed was a lack of movement in inventive work arounds.
I really like this review. Being that I'm a fan of Taurus' 900 series and have a couple. A PT911 which is eh but the PT909 I really love and will buy every one that I come across. Let me know if you want to review one or both and I'll ship it to you.
