Taurus TCP Review

I bought a Taurus TCP awhile back as a pocket, conceal carry option in the popular .380 caliber.

I can't recommend this gun due to repeated reliability problems.

Pro's:

- Great Trigger, long but smooth; much lighter and better than the main competitor the Ruger LCP
- Very Concealable
- Very Light
- Surprisingly Accurate


Con's:

- Feeding and Ejecting Problems

I want a pistol I can trust 100% if I ever need to use it in a life or death situation. When I first bought this pistol, it was a jam-o-matic. This was due to a faulty extractor. It would fire, but fail to eject the spent brass, and the next round would jam into the back of the empty brass case of the first. This is called a "type 3" malfunction and is the worst kind of jam. To correct you need to strip your full magazine from the gun, rack the slide several times clearing both cartridges, then insert a new magazine and chamber a fresh round.... at which point it will fire once, then jam again... terrible...

Taurus has a lifetime warranty on their guns, so I sent it back to be fixed. They replaced the extractor and it worked much better, however, a new problem developed. Now, the slide occasionally locked open as if it were empty when there were still rounds in the magazine. This is much easier to clear, a simple rack of the slide puts you back into action, however, that is unacceptable to have to do if you were in the middle of a gunfight.

Instead of sending it back again, I decided to sell it for a loss to someone else to deal with it.

This was my first Taurus, and will probably be my last unless I decide to get one of their revolvers down the road. If you want a pocket .380, I would recommend the Smith and Wesson .380 Bodyguard, Kahr P380, or Ruger LCP as better quality choices than the TCP.