Tactical Tuesday - Battle of the Tauri

A special post from everyone's favorite co-blogger Pudge today. After months of vicious campaigning; I acquiesced to his desire to review Taurus pistols here. If anyone needs me I'll be taking a scalding hot shower to try and rinse off some the shame.

Battle of the Tauri-

As Mack knows, and I like to remind him every chance I get, I am a connoisseur of all firearm types both fine and fancy and crappy and crappier. Today I wanted to discuss two different Taurus pistols: the PT111G2/G2c and the TH9c. I acquired both of these pistols for different reasons. I will start off by saying that neither of these pistols would necessarily have been my first choice and I’m trying to figure out what exactly to use each of them for but I also would not over-look either if budget was a huge constraint or needed a handgun I wasn’t emotional about. I purchased the PT111 for roughly $200 brand new with a $50 dollar gift card (so $150 total) and the TH9C was purchased from Academy Sports for a little under $300 and it came with a free Rossi RS22. (In the intelligence community; this is called an indicator. -Editor)

The blog's first Taurus guns! What a momentous day!

I want to first start off by saying that there are slight changes between the PT111 and G2c. They are mostly cosmetic and are essentially the exact same pistol so I am referring to both when I discuss it vs the TH9c. The PT111 is a 12 round striker fired handgun with a thumb safety and is restrike capable. The TH9c is a 13 round (flush fit) or 17 round (extended) DA/SA, hammer fired handgun with thumb safety/decocker. We’ll try to begin understanding these handguns with the boring specs as compared to the ‘perfectly’ imperfect G19.

Handgun	G19	PT111G2/G2c	TH9c
Height	5.04”	5.1”	5.16”
Weight	21.16oz	22oz	25oz
Width	1.26”	1.2”	1.3”
Barrel Length	4.02”	3.2”	3.54”
Overall Length	7.36”	6.3”	6.85”
Capacity	15/Everything	12	13/17 extended

With that out of the way, let's discuss the good, the bad, and the eh…

The PT111 is not a terrible shooter but the trigger is not very smooth and not the cleanest breaking.(It sucks balls. -Editor) You aren’t going to win any accuracy shoots but it is more than enough minute of bad guy accurate. Interestingly enough it comes with an adjustable rear sight that is definitely usable. I think my favorite feature of this gun is the restrike capability. With good ammo you should never need this but it is a nice feature when Murphy tries to attack or you are like me and love some steel case (I can hear Mack groaning right now). 

The grip is very sandpaper like and really helps keep the gun from moving during rapid fire. On the downside this same grippiness is very rough against bare skin when being carried concealed. I like the thumb safety on this handgun. It is easy to reach with my stubby thumb and manipulate. The magazine release is reversible. Of note here though is that the thumb safety is only set up for right-handed shooters and is not reversible. The handgun takes down and reassembles like all the other plastic fantastic. There is a loaded chamber indicator on top of the slide. I want to note that Sig P226 magazines are verified to work very well in the PT111 if you want to have some larger capacity magazines. (As an aside, just the other day at work a customer was complaining that Mec-Gar -226 mags do not always work though. -Editor)

The TH9c definitely has some good things going for it. The double action trigger is long and heavy but the trigger in single action is slightly better than the PT111. I think the trigger being not quite as heavy in single action allowed for slightly better accuracy. (Accuracy was tested based on my abilities off-hand from between 5 and 15 yards.) This handgun also has restrike capabilities due to it being DA/SA. Unlike the PT111 the magazine release is already ambidextrous because it uses a cutout on the front face of the magazine. (I think Taurus made a huge mistake here by not making these magazines compatible. They are the same magazine tube but the cutouts are different. Keeping them the same would have been great due to the ability of the PT111 to use Sig P226 magazines and some of the original 24/7 magazines.) The TH9c does come with a 13 round flush fit and a 17 round extended magazine. The 17 rounder has a sleeve to provide some extra grip but can be removed allowing you to use it in the full-size TH9. One feature I do not understand at all is the decocker/thumb safety. It can be flipped up to carry the handgun cocked and locked or use it to decock the handgun and carry it hammer down on fire giving you a DA first shot. Again, similar to the PT111, the magazine release is ambidextrous but the decocker/safety is only set up for right-handed shooters and not reversible. The full size TH9 however comes with an ambidextrous decocker/safety already installed. (Not sure why they would do this on the full size and not the compact.) The grip is plenty grippy without being overly aggressive like the PT111 can be. The extra grip available with the 17 rounder inserted is definitely nice but not necessary. I think given the chance I would prefer the full size TH9 due to the extra grip and barrel length.

If I had to choose one after firing both side by side I would choose the TH9c. Even with very similar dimensions and feel in the hand, the recoil felt smoother and lighter and the trigger pull was slightly better with the TH9c. I will however continue to keep the PT111 in my carry rotation in certain circumstances because I have verified its reliability and it is an easy handgun to grab and stow. There are, without doubt, better options out there for a concealed or fighting handgun but if this is all you can afford and need something now or are looking for something to tuck away in a bag or vehicle and not have to worry about then don’t overlook the venerable Taurus models PT111G2/G2c or the TH9c. - Pudge

There you have folks a review of some bargain basement bullet throwers. I'm gonna go see how many beers I can drink before I black out tonight. I can't believe Pudge convinced me to shoot the damn things.

We also kept going into our bargain basement and did some more shooting which we'll talk about here soon. Thanks for stopping buy. -Counter Jockey.