taurus pt1911 questions

[lunicy]

Is the taurus version like other 1911s, parts wise? Can parts from a taurus pt1911 fit into other 1911s?

Is it like ar-15 platforms where most parts will interchange?

[dubber123]

Some parts seem to interchange, others, no. I have heard they use an oddball pin size for some parts, preventing interchange. A local guy just bought an aftermarket Wilson Combat safety to replace the factory one that keeps parting company with the gun. (This is the second one I have seen do this). The Wilson part would not fit out of the box at all. I fixed the first one that did this, and the cheap aftermarket safety I got fit fine, so....?

[jmsj]

Lunicy,
The Taurus 1911 is simliar to the 80's series colt pattern.Even after doing a trigger job I didn't like the the trigger pull so I bought parts from Brownells to eliminate the Series 80 parts and a after market hammer. Fitted the new parts and now its as good as the rest of my pistols.
I agree w/ dubber the ambi safety is a piece of junk.
The pistol didn't group as well as I liked so I installed a NM bushing It was oversized so it needed to be fitted. A little lathe work and it went just as it should.
Good luck with yours, jmsj

[MtGun44]

I have replaced ALL the small parts in a Taurus 1911 for a friend with "real" parts. Almost all the
internal parts have been redesigned to be less expensive to make and/or install - basically
to reduce fitting or machining time. The only really time consuming replacement was the
trigger. The Taurus trigger has little horns turned out from the bow to let it fit tightly when it
is actually undersized and the groove is fairly rough. The firing pin lock spring is about 2 turns
of wire, really marginal - but it did work. My friend put all small parts from Ed Brown or Wilson.

The barrel,barrel bushing, spring guide, slide, firing pin, firing pin stop, grips, grip safety, frame, mag
release and mainspring housing are the only remaining Taurus parts. It is reliable and reasonably
accurate - now. Fortunately he bought it used when it would not work and got it really cheap. I will not
claim that all these parts HAD to be replaced, but at least the hammer, sear and disconnector
needed upgrading, IMO. After that he had other issues and wanted parts that he felt he could
trust - his viewpoint. Fitting a target trigger took a lot of work.

Bill

[Throwback]

I have had similar experience to the rest of you. The ambi safety was no-good. The trigger pull was very good but the lock time was the worst I have ever run into so I replaced the hammer with a light weight. The chamber was like a funnel and fed everything but was so large that resizing cases was a PITA - ergo a KART barrel! The firing pin hole was over-sized so that primers extruded. I welded up the hole and re-cut it. Also had to weld up the key on the bushing because the slot in the slide was mis-cut by a full 1/32 resulting in a loose fit with every bushing tried. It seems like it was a Monday or Friday gun!

I could have sent it back to Taurus but it gave me some good practice and I finished with a solid well fit custom gun, which I was able to sell reasonably. All of my problems aside, the pistol was accurate out of the box, and better after the new barrel. On all of the others I have seen there have been no bushing or firing pin hole issues. I was not able to evaluate chamber dimensions.

The quality of the steel is as good as anything out there. The parts fit was mostly straight forward but the frame is thicker than Colt spec so the Wilson Safety required a good bit of fitting.