I purchased a G3C last week. I'm a bit long winded but you'll let me know what I'm missing here. I have NOT got a chance to take it for a spin at the range yet, I was just too busy this weekend. However, On Saturday evening, I broke it completely down, cleaned each piece and lubricated it, saw no issues with it whatsoever. I also own a Taurus G2C 9mm and a Taurus G3 9mm and you'll know I sing praises for Taurus on here, I've found them completely reliable, accurate, and just overall great EDC weapons, especially the G2C as far as being able to conceal it. So, as you may or may not know, I use 147 grain Federal HST 9mm in all my 9mm handguns as far a carry ammo. I've shot a bunch of rounds of the HST thru both of my Taurus handguns with no FTF or FTE errors whatsoever, so I expected this one to be no different. I was wrong, now again, if I'm missing something here, let me know. The HST ammo keeps having a failure to feed on the G3C. It's not every round, but probably 1 in 3 so far. It's not only on the original round when you drop the slide either, sometimes, it will happen three or four times in a row before the next round will chamber, sometimes the first round chambers and there isn't an issue, but when it does not chamber, it's a dead weapon. You have to rack the slide very hard, then drop the mag to clear it. I have about 200 rounds of HST on hand so here's all the troubleshooting I did, I've narrowed it down to either a factory defect in the G3C barrel, more specifically in the feed ramp itself, or it just doesn't like the minimal added length the 147 grain HST rounds have over some other rounds I tried, so, here we go: Note: Again, the handgun has NOT been shot yet at all. No rounds except for whatever they might have fired at the factory have been fired thru the handgun. I suppose there is a chance there may be a bur or something on the feed ramp, although I ran my finger over every inch of it, and compared the barrel to the G2C barrel in every aspect, the barrel looks brand new, which it is...lol
1)Broke down the handgun, re-cleaned and lubricated EVERY part of the handgun...made sure the moving parts weren't gummed up with too much oil, if that's possible, then re-assembled and tried to chamber a round, again, about 1 in 3 won't chamber. The slide comes forward but the round does not elevate enough to chamber. The feed ramp on a 9mm is steep, but I've literally never had a problem with any 9mm round not wanting to chamber in a 9mm handgun I've ever owned. The nose of the round looks like it is not lifting up enough to slide into the chamber.
2)I have four 12 round mags, and two 15 round mags with sleeves for the G3C. The error is not mag related, at least not that discovered. I used all six magazines and had intermittent failure to feed malfunctions, all failing at the same point, the round not elevating and almost "digging" into the bottom of the feed ramp, again, the feed ramp is WELL lubricated
3) I changed out the barrel of my Taurus G2C with the barrel of my G3C. Upon reassembling the G3C using the G2C barrel, same length, they look identical as far as the barrel goes, the problem ceased to exist. With the reassembled G3C the problem disappeared, it chambered the HST rounds flawlessly time after time. Also, with the barrel of the G3C installed into the G2C, I was able to recreate the issue, BUT, not nearly as often as I did in the G3C. The HST rounds would FTF only about 1 in 7 or 1 in 10, although either is unacceptable in my opinion.
Now, here's the real kicker. I have about 250 rounds of Hornady 135 grain Flex Lock Critical Duty, the nickel plated round with the polymer filled in tip. I loaded up six mags after putting the G3C barrel back into the G3C.......each round chambered flawlessly, as did 5 different kinds of 115-124 grain FMJ rounds. I literally had no FTF issues with any of the Hornady or FMJ rounds, it's ONLY the HST rounds the G3C barrel doesn't like. So, having done all that, it has to be something with the G3C feed ramp and the HST round specifically, right? I mean, it chambered the other rounds with no issues whatsoever. I'm hesitant to take any action with Taurus before I take it out to the range. I'm hoping that maybe, firing some rounds thru it might break it in a bit and cause the FTF malfunctions with the HST to disappear, but I've never seen any 9mm handgun that didn't feed Federal ammo flawlessly. I've been shooting HST for quite a while, but the fact the handgun chambers all other rounds without issue is suspect to me. I'll try to post some pics of the FTF later if I can get them to upload.
Anyway, thanks for reading this and if I've missed anything or if you have any ideas, I'd greatly appreciate any input, and I thank you in advance. Ghost.
