The Fatal Flaw - Dead Trigger Reset on Taurus TCP 738FS

[k9ontheway]

Has anyone else had this issue?

I picked up a Taurus TCP 738FS (.380acp) a few months ago and although I like it... I don't trust it enough to carry it solo. No problem as a backup, but not as a primary weapon.

Here's the deal:

When you fire a round (DOA trigger), the hammer drops, round sends and the firearm cycles up another round.

As you let out the trigger to "reset", you will hear and feel two distinct audible "clicks".

The first reset click comes after about 1/4" is let out on the trigger, the final reset click comes when the trigger is allowed to fully travel forward into its "normal" resting position.

If you press the trigger to fire a round after the first click but before the second ("short-stroking"), the hammer will fall from "half-cocked" and will typically dent the primer... but the round will not fire.

At this point, if you allow the trigger to come all the way forward (in order to "reset" it) and then press the trigger again.... nothing. It's the loudest click in the world and the trigger is now *completely* dead.

So much for DOA.

A "tap rack bang" drill is the ONLY way to get the weapon system back into battery.

I feel this is a major design flaw and could possibly prove fatal in a SHTF scenario, if one should happen to short-stroke under high stress.

Has anyone else seen this problem? Any ideas?

I will go on the record and state that having put 1500 or so rounds through this little gem, this is the ONLY issue I've had. I can run the hell out of it and not have a single problem with short stroking... but I hand it over to my wife and she encounters it every 50 or so rounds.

I understand the importance of training properly around this, but my point is, it's still a bad issue to have. You never know what could happen.


Here is a YouTube video demonstrating this issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEPqBwUIr6k&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

[k9ontheway]

Bump.

Anyone?

 

[NavyLCDR]

Only very well trained individuals know to feel for a trigger reset on followup shots. Most common shooters assume you have to allow the trigger travel to full release before followup shots. I would think if you have enough training to know about feeling for a trigger reset, you should be trained enough to know that on this particular gun you have to let the trigger go all the way forward. I am curious if glocks are the same way. Don't glocks go to "half cock" after firing and the action of pulling the trigger to the rear finishes cocking the striker before it is released by the sear? How far forward do Glock triggers have to travel before the sear is not only reset, but the cocking mechanism engages as well?

Taurus pistols definitely have their quirks. On my Taurus PT-145 Millennium Pro (whatever generation mine is), if you pull the trigger partially to the rear with the safety off, and engage the safety with the trigger partially to the rear, then release the trigger, the gun will fire with the safety engaged!

 

[k9ontheway]

Yeah, you can definitely feel the reset on my Glock, it's very obvious. Firing as soon as the trigger resets has become second nature with it. If you let the trigger go about a third of the way forward, it will reset. Much much faster and more accurate follow-up shots this way. No need at all to allow it to travel all the way forward like with the 738, it's just wasted movement and IMO a bad habit.

That's one reason the Taurus seems a bit "less polished" to me. I'm so used to Glocks, as you said, the Taurus is a bit "quirky".

I just feel that having a completely dead trigger due to half-stroking is unacceptable in something marketed as a CCW.

 

[k9ontheway]

... glocks go to "half cock" after firing and the action of pulling the trigger to the rear finishes cocking the striker before it is released by the sear? How far forward do Glock triggers have to travel before the sear is not only reset, but the cocking mechanism engages as well?

With a Glock:

If you let the trigger forward about 1/3 you can feel and hear a click, at this moment the weapon is 100% in battery, no ifs ands or buts. It might be 1/4" travel, haven't studied it... I just go by feel.

If you pull before the click, nothing happens. You can let it go forward 1/3 at that point and it will re-engage and go into battery.


Taurus:

If you try that with the Taurus, the trigger goes COMPLETELY dead. No amount of pressing the trigger will do ANYTHING. You have to tap rack bang.

^^ That's an engineering problem, I believe.