Ten Things I Learned Working In A Gun Store
BY Herschel Smith
4 years, 11 months ago
I have two comments about this.
First, it isn’t really completely accurate to say that the Springfield Armory pistols (XD, XDm, etc.) are made in Croatia. It would be more accurate to say that the parts were fabricated in Croatia and the gun was assembled in America. But whatever. And the HS2000 bears as much similarity to the modern XDs and XDms as Ford Ranger does to a F150.
Second, I would question his brief assessment that more Taurus pistols are being sold and virtually none are coming back for repairs (at least without knowing more). It could be that the buyers of Taurus pistols simply aren’t shooters like someone who will drop $1200 on a 1911, thus they never come back for repairs because they were bought to sit in a nightstand drawer and never get taken to the range.
On May 12, 2019 at 10:25 pm, Ratus said:
On the Taurus pistol reliably, I give you the “Modest Proposal”.
https://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2011/04/modest-proposal.html
On May 13, 2019 at 8:06 am, John Matterhorn said:
Having purchased a couple of Taurus firearms, I can tell you that the reason they do not come back to the store is the Taurus has you ship them directly to their location in Miami. Unfortunately, I had a great deal of experience with this. I have not bought a Taurus since then.
On May 13, 2019 at 9:39 am, Heywood said:
According to my gun retailer(largest in the state) “Taurus pistols account for less than 10% of handgun sales but 75% of repairs. (Part of their sales pitch of this store is that they will take care of shipping and handling for repair retuns.)
On May 13, 2019 at 9:47 am, Unknownsailor said:
I had the same thought as all of you about Taurus, and went looking for information. The P9C in particular seem to work. Whether they can hold up under sustained use is an open question, though.
James Yeager has 10 people coming to a fighting pistol class this month (25-26 May) that have volunteered to be Guinea pigs. All of them are going to run P9Cs for the class.
On May 13, 2019 at 11:03 am, MTHead said:
Springfield’s move in Croatia was a good one. that part of the world had been known for quality gun manufacturing , with workers ready to go. CZ anyone? Would I like to see guns “made in America”. sure. but i’m not going to fault Springfield for staying competitive in a world market.
The XD line is top notch for the price. plus one could always get mags for them. not always the case with a lot of new systems.
Like someone said, Taurus’s don’t get shot as much as other guns. like most corporations. their all about new models, more than beefing up quality.
And yes, gun repairs get shipped directly back to the manufacturer. If they don’t give you a label to ship, it costs to much. handgun shipping through an FFL is $50.00-plus,and insurance. he can ship USPS. your only other choice is UPS/ FED X overnight from a hub. lots more. This racket is brought to you by federal govt. regulations. how’s that 2A guarantee working for you?
On May 13, 2019 at 1:06 pm, Sanders said:
The only Taurus I’ve ever purchased got sent back to Taurus for repairs, and they sent me a new pistol. It was a 605 – .357 mag snub nose revolver.
My Springfield XD models are made in Croatia, but the frame of my 1911A1 Loaded is stamped Imbel – the Brazilian manufacturer. I understand that Springfield is now sourcing their 1911 frames from within the US, but it wasn’t the case in 2000 when I got mine.
On May 14, 2019 at 10:04 pm, Guest said:
Exactly. This is the same reason relatively few of the potmetal garbage handguns–Jimenez, Hi-Point, Jennings, etc.–get returned for service. They tend to be bought by people who think that a gun, any gun, is a magic wand that magically makes bad people stop what they’re doing and go away if they just pick it up and wave it at them.
The typical Taurus customer buys his Judge, or whatever, and puts it in the sock drawer, possibly loaded, possibly not, and there it sits, collecting dust for the next forty years, until it gets sold at the estate sale. To the purchaser of such an item, the idea that they may actually have to fight for their lives with it is not something that has, in most cases, occurred to them.
It’s insane.
Let’s imagine for a moment that we lived in a world where any night at three in the morning we could be awakened by the sound of broken glass, only to find one of the community’s local “garage bands” in our living room. And then, immediately, without warmup or preparation, we and and our uninvited guests have a playoff, with life and death as the stakes. Whoever plays better music gets to live and everyone who didn’t come in first wins a nice body bag as a consolation prize.
The typical Taurus/Hi-Point owner has purchased a plastic ocarina that he’s never so much as picked up to practice with. Granted, the garage band from the next block probably isn’t made up of musical prodigies either, and is likely to show up with plastic ocarinas, cigar-box banjos, and plastic kazoos, with maybe the occasional pawn-shop guitar they probably don’t know how to tune, themselves. But this doesn’t always happen.
If you lived in this world, would you buy a musical instrument? If you did, would you practice with it, or would you put it in the back of the closet to gather dust and trust to luck?
I shoot 150-200 rounds a week, minimum. I’ve gone over 1000. It’s never enough. I know that it just might happen one night that I’ll have to fight for my life. And I don’t own any Taurus or Jimenez products.
On May 19, 2019 at 6:47 am, Talktome said:
I have a Taurus gen2 works great. I practice with other firearms way more that the Taurus, mostly because I’m pretty comfortable with the Taurus.