I finally purchased my Taurus PT1911 last week. After searching all over the state (SC) I located three. Prices were $529, $565, and $619. I bought the one from Sportsman's Warehouse for $529. Earlier in the week their price was $489 but they had none in stock. When they finally got some, the price had gone up $40. Supply and demand?
I'm pretty pleased with the pistol, but not perfectly. There are scratches in the dovetail where the front signt was installed, and a shiny place on top of the rear signt. There's also a tiny gouge in the takedown lever, but you have to look really close to see it. The only real disappointment was the cheap little plastic case it came in. The much less expensive Rugers come with a much nicer case. It would be no problem to cut through the Taurus case with a pen knife. There are no compartments in the case, just a couple of pieces of soft foam. I transferred the gun to a Doskocil case I had picked up at a gun show a few years back.
At the range yesterday, I fired about 80 rounds. The first three, fired from a rest, went into a 2" bullseye at 25 yards. Awesome. I didn't duplicate that, but the accuracy overall was even better than I had hoped. I had two FTE's, but I have a bad habit of limp-wristing when firing from a rest. I had no problems with feeding or ejecting when using a standard grip and stance. The trigger is crisp, no creep or overtravel, but a bit heavy.
There were two other guys at range with 1911's--a Kimber and a Colt. They loved the Taurus and couldn't believe the features it had at that price. My only regret is that I didn't borrow the money and buy it back before Christmas--I could have saved 70 or 80 bucks!
