How To Clean A Tarus 709 Slim 9mm

Evaluating a new gun is unremarkably a fun activity. But, this Taurus 709 SLIM review turned into a headache.

It didn't start that style, heed you. In fact, I was excited to get this little pistol to exam.

But in one case on the range, things went downhill and never got amend.

Earlier I requite you the details on what went wrong, let me describe the pistol first.

General Information
- Editor's Note
Taurus 709 Magazines
Range Time – Kickoff Try
Taurus "Repair" & Broken Sights
Range Fourth dimension – Second Try
Final Thoughts on the Taurus 709
- Disclosure

General Information

The SLIM is a thin, single-stack 9mm handgun that was adult for the concealed deport marketplace.

The barrel is 3″ long, and the overall length of the gun is double that at 6″. Unloaded, the 709 weighs in at 19 ounces. Part of the reason the gun is so light is that information technology has a polymer frame.

There are two versions of the Taurus 709 SLIM beingness sold. One has a matte black slide and carries a suggested retail price of $349. The 2nd Taurus pistol has a matte stainless steel finish on the slide and sports an MSRP of $513. I had the stainless steel slide version for this review.

Unlike some of the other CCW guns currently being sold, the 709 SLIM is big enough to be easily used. Although thin, the grip is yet large plenty to go nearly of your mitt on it (the pinky tends to hang off of the bottom) and the controls are easily reached and manipulated.

The sights are besides large enough to be easily seen, though they are somewhat smaller than what you would observe on a larger pistol. The rear sight is fully adaptable using an included screwdriver.

In general, I practise not like adjustable sights on defensive handguns, as they tend to be more susceptible to impairment in my feel. Unfortunately, this wound upward being the case during this Taurus 709 review. Ringlet down to encounter what happened to these sights.

The gun uses a unmarried-activeness/double-action trigger pull. This ways that once a round is chambered, the gun will exist in unmarried-action mode. Just if a round fails to fire volition the 709 reverts to a double-activeness mode. In theory, this gives the shooter the "second strike" capability.

In other words, if the round fails to become "blindside," just pull the trigger again and it might shoot that fourth dimension. The system works, but I don't know what value it has in a combat state of affairs. This is the same trigger organisation that Taurus uses in the PT24/vii line of handguns.

Although it is non actually needed to acquit the gun safely in SA mode, the pistol does have a frame-mounted rubber on the left side of the 709. Downwardly is fire, and up is safety. A brilliant red dot is ane the frame, which gives the shooter a visual indication that the gun is ready to shoot.

Taurus 709 Magazines

Equally information technology came from the factory, the flush-fitting magazine holds seven rounds (plus one in the chamber) of 9mm ammo. Taurus included ii of these magazines with each gun sold.

If you carried with i in the sleeping room (recommended) and the 2d magazine as a redundancy, you could have 15 rounds available when carrying this gun. Considering the pocket-size size and weight of this pistol, that is a reasonable corporeality of firepower.

Taurus 709 SLIM extended magazines were likewise made for the pistol. These mags held 10-rounds. While they extended below the grip of the gun, they were fitted with a special base of operations plate that allowed you to get a full mitt on the pistol. This could be considered a win-win for a lot of people.

Bank check out all of the magazine options through our affiliate link hither.

The Taurus 709 SLIM is pretty slick on the outside and doesn't have a lot of sharp edges or angles to catch on clothing or mankind when carried and fatigued from concealment. The within of the slide has a number of sharp edges suggesting a less-refined machining process. None volition cut yous when cleaning it.

Every bit far equally cleaning goes, this pistol field strips just like a Glock pistol. Button down on the bar running through the frame and under the ejection port to remove the slide, butt and recoil spring assembly.

As I mentioned above, the Taurus 709 magazine holds 7 rounds. The magazine is flush-fitting, and information technology drops costless without any issues. Since the frame is relatively short, many people will probably experience the dominant hand'due south pinky curling under the gun rather than providing any real grip on the gun. Information technology would be nice to have an extended Taurus 709 SLIM magazine that added a circular or two and gave that pinky a little buy on the gun. Unfortunately, no i makes such a thing right now.

The 709 has two safety mechanisms to satisfy the nanny land folks. The beginning is a loaded chamber indicator on height of the gun. When a circular is chambered, a small slice of metal levers up from the slide. While I never had whatever bug with it, I am ever worried about something protruding from my pistol that doesn't need to exist there.

The other safety device is an internal lock that renders the entire gun inoperable The locking mechanism is inside the slide assembly and is activated from the correct side of the frame.

The gun ships with two keys for the lock. I did not experience whatsoever issues with the locking mechanism, merely I strongly dislike having unnecessary parts in a gun. It just adds more points of potential failure.

Overall, I actually liked this pistol before I headed out to the range. Only in one case at that place…

Range Fourth dimension – Outset Try

I took the 709 SLIM to a nearby shooting club that lets me run a chronograph on their outdoor range. Unfortunately, once I got there a Florida rainstorm rolled in. The rain was not plenty to go along me from shooting, just information technology did preclude me from setting up the chronograph. So, I do not have whatsoever ammo velocities to share with you.

The SLIM shot fairly well and was pretty accurate. Information technology had a couple of failures to feed in the first 100 rounds, which is non terrible for a brand new gun. The adjacent 100 rounds were flawless.

Recoil was sharp, simply the Taurus 709 SLIM was nevertheless very controllable. Afterwards 200 rounds I was gear up to accept a suspension.

Picking up my brass, I observed some significant case bulges from the ammo. I checked, and the bulges appeared on all of the ammo I shot: +P and standard pressure and all brands. Concerned, I discontinued shooting the pistol.

I took the 709 home and field stripped it for cleaning. I did not see any obvious problems when cleaning the gun, then I figured I better contact Taurus and ask about the bulges. That is when the next trouble happened.

When attempting to re-assemble the pistol, the slide -somehow- got hung up on the barrel and frame: the whole organization was jammed up. It was the damnedest thing I have always seen. Somehow the recoil spring was working to exert force per unit area to keep the slide and barrel jammed confronting the frame. The organization was stuck in a one-half-on/half-off position and nothing I could do (within reason) seemed to help.

Taurus "Repair" & Cleaved Sights

I contacted Taurus customer service to make apply of the company's lifetime repair policy. I was instructed to impress off a repair class and send the pistol in, which I did.

About a month later, I got the pistol back. The slide was unstuck, but now in that location was a new problem:the rear sight was broken.

I kid y'all not: Taurus bankrupt the rear sight fixing the gun and sent it back to me in that fashion. Ugh.

I looked at the included paperwork from the service department hoping for some sort of explanation: either for the original case burl trouble or for the broken sight.

For "Problem Constitute," the explanation given was "PART Broken." For "Resolution," the response was "REPLACED." Seriously – that was the sum total of the explanation. A phone call to the service department for data on the repair and the now broken sight got me a phone tree and a voice post. I never received any return call from Taurus, nor any kind of explanation.

Range Fourth dimension – 2d Try

Well, fifty-fifty with a broken rear sight, I took the Taurus 709 SLIM back out to the range to see if the example bulges were notwithstanding showing up. Fortunately, that problem seemed to take been fixed. I put another 100 rounds through the gun and got no additional example bulges.

Final Thoughts on the Taurus 709

Every manufacturer occasionally makes a defective production. I don't intendance who y'all are or what you brand, sometimes one slips past the quality command folks and makes it into the wild. This Taurus 709 SLIM may have been only that – the oddball gun that is the exception, not the rule. When something similar this happens, it gives me the take chances to evaluate the customer service department and how well a company stands behind its products.

Unfortunately, Taurus did not live upwardly to my expectations when it came to warranty work. Yes, they seemed to have fixed the case burl problem, but they failed to provide Any kind of explanation regarding what the problem was. In fact, I never was able to talk to anyone about the repair.

They besides got the slide un-stuck (I am yet clueless almost what happened,) but they sent back a gun with a broken sight. This is completely unacceptable. Seemingly, they fixed one problem but acquired another. Then they failed to call me back when I telephone call them about it.

The bottom line is this: After the case bulge prepare, the gun seemed reliable. Merely it wasn't terribly accurate since the company broke the rear sight. Since the company never fixed the broken sight, I cannot recommend the Taurus products at this time based on their warranty. The guns might work, but you better promise you never have to send one dorsum for service.

I've had numerous issues with Taurus pistols and cannot recommend them at this time. Feel costless to read my reviews on the Spectrum and 740 handguns.

Concluding update: August 29, 2022

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