The Taurus G2c - a gun review

Tennessee and Georgia traditionally have some of the highest crime rates in the country, and when people started losing their jobs because of the corona virus I speculated that muggings and home break-ins could become a problem. That in itself seemed like a good enough reason to finally buy that gun that I'd been thinking about for awhile. There were other reasons. For one, I'm still surprised by the number of men who carry concealed guns in this part of the country. It's almost like a religion to some. Another reason to own a gun goes back six years to a hotel in Clearwater Beach.

It was 4:30 AM when I heard a gentle knocking on our door. I opened the curtain a bit and saw the father of all biker dudes. He was huge. He had the bandanna, white tee shirt and leather vest and the boots. When I asked him what he wanted he said he had rode in from Miami and was there to meet his woman, who had given him the name of the hotel and room number. I told him there was a mistake; that my wife and I had rented the room for the past 3 days and didn't know anything about his woman. He kept showing me a slip of paper with our room number on it and insisted that she must be in the room. About this time Maribel got up to go to the bathroom and the dude saw her. He shouted out, "That's her!" and started banging on the door. This was starting to get serious so I did what any red-blooded American male would do...I picked up the phone and called the front desk. In less than a minute a middle-aged woman arrived and threatened to call the police. The man left without arguing. If he had made it into our room I don't know what would have happened. He was far too big and young for me to handle. A gun in my hand would have felt comforting.

My neighbors gun, a 9mm Taurus G2c felt comfortable in my hand at a shooting range last week. Not only was it comfortable but I was shooting the hell out of the bullseye, which surprised me after not shooting in over 15 years. I made up my mind then and there that I was going to get that gun. Local gun shops were out of stock for that gun so after calling around Maribel and me drove to Bass Pro Shop in Lawrenceville, GA near Atlanta. They had seven of the guns in stock.  

The first gun I handled didn't feel right; not like my neighbor's gun. It was difficult to rack the slide, the slide catch didn't seem to work at all, and the magazine release was inconsistent. Sometimes the mag would pop out as it should, other times I had to pull it out. But the gun still felt comfortable in my hand, so I asked the clerk to get a different boxed gun for me, opened the box to see that the gun and all the parts were there, bought it and drove home.

Later at home that night I was getting a bad feeling about that gun. The slide didn't rack easily, the magazine release didn't always work, and the slide release didn't work at all, just like the gun I rejected in the store. I showed the gun to my neighbor the next day. He disassembled and oiled it but the issues remained. Despite the problems he told me not to worry, that the gun would be okay after shooting it for awhile. That it had to be worked in like a new pair of boots. I wasn't so sure.

The next day I bought ammunition, loaded the gun and placed it in a safe yet convenient place. Maribel and me both agreed that we felt a bit more secure knowing we could defend ourselves and our home if necessary. 

A few days later I was at a shooting range with my neighbor, ready to put the new gun through its paces. I racked the slide, released the safety and fired. I could not fire again because the gun had jammed. My neighbor cleared the jam and returned the gun to me. I fired and again it jammed. This happened repeatedly despite all the adjustments my neighbor was attempting, including different magazines and ammo. Now, I'm not a patient man and was about to tell my neighbor to put the gun down, that my next stop was back to Bass Pro Shop when he fired three consecutive shots without jamming. He handed the gun to me; I shot off the rest of the mag, loaded another of 12 rounds and fired them all without a jam. For the next 30 minutes until we left that gun fired flawlessly. And the magazine release worked. The slide catch still doesn't work but it's not really needed to fire and reload the gun so I can do without it, though my neighbor still holds out the hope that with a few more sessions at the range it too will work. The accuracy of the gun was acceptable but not outstanding, but that was probably my fault. I was just hoping the gun would fire and was not concentrating on where. The groups did get tighter toward the end of the session.

So now the gun is apparently working. But what I can't forget is what would have happened if during the first night I had loaded the gun and some intruders had entered our house? I would have had one shot and then the gun would have jammed. Maribel and I could have been killed.

And even though it fired without a malfunction the last 30 minutes at the range I still am not confident with it. Like my neighbor, many shooters will say that a new gun will be 'tight' and needs "a few hundred rounds through it" to loosen it up. I'll need to fire at least another 300 rounds through it without a malfunction before I trust it. And that shouldn't be.

When you buy a car, toaster, bicycle, electric drill, lawn mower, blender, drone, camera, microwave or any other piece of machinery you expect it to work from the get go. You wouldn't buy or accept something that didn't work until you broke it in. We call something like that a lemon. An auto-loading pistol is a simple piece of machinery with maybe three moving parts. Shouldn't it be expected to work right out of the box? Why should gun makers get a free pass on poor quality? And that's what it is. The fact that the gun I rejected in the store and the one I bought had identical problems tells me that either machine tolerances or fine-finishing during the manufacturing process are not being monitored, or worse, are within acceptable standards for the manufacturer. 

I'll be taking Maribel to the shooting range in a few days to familiarize her with the gun. If that gun so much as hiccups it's going back to the store. I'll be stuck with the ammo, magazine loader, hearing and eye protection and holster I bought. But at least I didn't shell out the $82 for a concealed carry permit. 

Even before the gun problems I was wondering if I really need a concealed weapon permit. I can't see myself saying to Maribel that, "I'm going to Walmart or Walgreen's or the Waffle House and I'm carrying the gun." I mean come on...it's not like I'm riding off to the OK Corral to join the Earps in a shoot out. Still...in the not too distant past people have been shot in or on the parking lots of Walmart, Walgreen's and the Waffle House restaurant. Maybe some citizen with a gun could have saved the situation. 

I guess I'll decide on any future gun issues after the next shooting range visit to see if the gun shoots properly and how well Maribel handles it. Oh...and my opinion on the Taurus G2c? Save up your money and buy a good revolver like the Smith & Wesson 626 or Ruger SP101 in 357 magnum. Revolvers don't have a slide to rack, or a slide catch or a magazine release. And when you pull the trigger they fire every time. They don't jam. No break in period required.