Joe Williams
Shooter
- Jun 26, 2008
- 10,431
- 38
What a beautiful day!!
Met ATM at Crawfordsville Gun Club today to make some noise and break in my new to me Taurus PT145. I really like this little gun, when I first handled one at the gun store it was an absolutely perfect fit for my hands. The grip is just big enough for me to get a full grip on it, there is a little indent on the frame to index my trigger finger when not shooting, the slide release and safety are in just the right spot to hit with my thumb, the shape of the grip is just the right shape for my hand. All in all, I picked it up, and was instantly in love. Nevertheless, I put a Model 85 Ultralight on layaway instead. I was convinced that such a small and light .45 was just going to be downright violent in recoil. Got home and started researching them a bit, and found quite a few folks saying the gun was actually pretty soft recoiling, and had a good rep for accuracy and reliability. Frankly, I really didn't believe the parts about soft recoiling, but when I saw one for trade I jumped on it anyway.
The PT145 Pro is a quite compact .45 ACP semi-auto. It's got a 3.25" barrel, polymer frame, and a 10 +1 capacity. It's got a DA/SA trigger, though the gun is always in single action mode unless a round doesn't fire. If a a round fails to fire, you can just pull the trigger again for a second strike. The gun has a manual safety on the left side of the frame, similar to a 1911, but does not have a decock capability. Our best friends were over tonight, and we compared my PT145 to his S&W 649. The 145 is actually shorter, skinnier, and about the same height, a very compact little gun. The Taurus also weighs about a half ounce less empty, feels like it weighs a little more when both guns are fully loaded. The gun comes standard with very easy to see three dot sights, but the ones on mine had been changed to Williams Firesights, very high vis fiber optic three dot sights. The two rear sight dots are red, the front is green. This makes for a combo that is very easy to see, and very quick to put on target.
The gun is a total dream to carry, of course. With it's small size, low weight, and pleasant shape it could hardly be otherwise. A Fobus holster was included in the trade, but frankly I'm really not a fan of them. Yesterday, I stopped at Applied Ballistics in Lafayette on the way home and bought a Don Hume JIT holster for it, and that completed a sweetheart of a carry package. I was really nervous about shooting it today, because I would have been heartbroken if I'd shot it and not enjoyed the experience. Like I said, I really didn't believe the reports about the gun being soft recoiling. Reckon I should have had a little more faith. I will not describe the recoil as "soft," but it's far from unpleasant. I found the little gun a lot of fun to shoot. It's no .22, you definitely know you've pulled the trigger, but instead of being a violent handful, I found the gun to be easy to control, and a lot of very real fun to shoot. Accuracy was good, once I'd shot some rounds and stopped sucking. Can't blame the initial suckiness on the gun. I've not been shooting even a fraction as much as usual, my trigger control sucked, and a few times I found myself not paying as close attention as I should to the front sight. By the end of the shooting session, I was able to put together an acceptable group. I put about 150 rounds through the gun. Mostly ball, a few JHPs. Reliability was good. I did have one malfunction when a Remington UMC round nosedived in the magazine. Normally, this would bother me, but Cathy experienced exactly the same malfunction twice with ATM's SA XD45. I've never seen an XD malfunction in this way, and ATM said his gun had never malfunctioned before. It was the first UMC he'd put through his gun, so at this point I'm satisfied this was an ammo related malfunction. We'll be shooting much more frequently than we've been able to, so I'll certainly report back if this becomes an actual problem. I'm not at all a fan of UMC ammo, it's just never seemed to be very good quality to me, unlike Remington's more expensive fodder. I am, however, now a huge fan of my PT145. I really love this little gun. Combined with my 85UL when I get it out of layaway, I'm gonna have a beautiful carry combo.
Speaking of ATM's XD45, Cathy is all hot and bothered about XDs again after shooting it. She's actually considering having me put her beloved Rock 1911 up for trade toward one. I almost think she should. She's always shot the XDs well, they seem made for her, and the XD45 was no exception. We'll see what she decides
Below are some pics of the trip to the range today. We surely couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day! Had a lot of fun shooting with ATM, our first trip to the range with him. I owe him some .45 ammo, so hopefully it won't be the last LOL.
ATM shooting his Mosin Nagant
Some pics of me shooting my little PT145
In this one, I was making no effort at recoil control. Instead I was trying desperately to get something on paper that resembled a "group" more than a "pattern" LOL. Recoil is nothing near as nasty as this pic makes it look
Sean shooting ATM's 10-22
Me and ATM, and me, Sean, and ATM
Target was shot with my PT145 at 10 yards offhand
Target shot with my PT145 at 10 yards, double taps from the holster. My ego almost convinced me not to post this one, but here it is anyway. I'd love to blame the gun, ammo, anything, but it's all me
For example, if you look at the two rounds outside the black (below the grip of my gun) I was looking at the target instead of the sights when I shot those. Watched them both go in "boom, boom." Bad Joe!
Met ATM at Crawfordsville Gun Club today to make some noise and break in my new to me Taurus PT145. I really like this little gun, when I first handled one at the gun store it was an absolutely perfect fit for my hands. The grip is just big enough for me to get a full grip on it, there is a little indent on the frame to index my trigger finger when not shooting, the slide release and safety are in just the right spot to hit with my thumb, the shape of the grip is just the right shape for my hand. All in all, I picked it up, and was instantly in love. Nevertheless, I put a Model 85 Ultralight on layaway instead. I was convinced that such a small and light .45 was just going to be downright violent in recoil. Got home and started researching them a bit, and found quite a few folks saying the gun was actually pretty soft recoiling, and had a good rep for accuracy and reliability. Frankly, I really didn't believe the parts about soft recoiling, but when I saw one for trade I jumped on it anyway.
The PT145 Pro is a quite compact .45 ACP semi-auto. It's got a 3.25" barrel, polymer frame, and a 10 +1 capacity. It's got a DA/SA trigger, though the gun is always in single action mode unless a round doesn't fire. If a a round fails to fire, you can just pull the trigger again for a second strike. The gun has a manual safety on the left side of the frame, similar to a 1911, but does not have a decock capability. Our best friends were over tonight, and we compared my PT145 to his S&W 649. The 145 is actually shorter, skinnier, and about the same height, a very compact little gun. The Taurus also weighs about a half ounce less empty, feels like it weighs a little more when both guns are fully loaded. The gun comes standard with very easy to see three dot sights, but the ones on mine had been changed to Williams Firesights, very high vis fiber optic three dot sights. The two rear sight dots are red, the front is green. This makes for a combo that is very easy to see, and very quick to put on target.
The gun is a total dream to carry, of course. With it's small size, low weight, and pleasant shape it could hardly be otherwise. A Fobus holster was included in the trade, but frankly I'm really not a fan of them. Yesterday, I stopped at Applied Ballistics in Lafayette on the way home and bought a Don Hume JIT holster for it, and that completed a sweetheart of a carry package. I was really nervous about shooting it today, because I would have been heartbroken if I'd shot it and not enjoyed the experience. Like I said, I really didn't believe the reports about the gun being soft recoiling. Reckon I should have had a little more faith. I will not describe the recoil as "soft," but it's far from unpleasant. I found the little gun a lot of fun to shoot. It's no .22, you definitely know you've pulled the trigger, but instead of being a violent handful, I found the gun to be easy to control, and a lot of very real fun to shoot. Accuracy was good, once I'd shot some rounds and stopped sucking. Can't blame the initial suckiness on the gun. I've not been shooting even a fraction as much as usual, my trigger control sucked, and a few times I found myself not paying as close attention as I should to the front sight. By the end of the shooting session, I was able to put together an acceptable group. I put about 150 rounds through the gun. Mostly ball, a few JHPs. Reliability was good. I did have one malfunction when a Remington UMC round nosedived in the magazine. Normally, this would bother me, but Cathy experienced exactly the same malfunction twice with ATM's SA XD45. I've never seen an XD malfunction in this way, and ATM said his gun had never malfunctioned before. It was the first UMC he'd put through his gun, so at this point I'm satisfied this was an ammo related malfunction. We'll be shooting much more frequently than we've been able to, so I'll certainly report back if this becomes an actual problem. I'm not at all a fan of UMC ammo, it's just never seemed to be very good quality to me, unlike Remington's more expensive fodder. I am, however, now a huge fan of my PT145. I really love this little gun. Combined with my 85UL when I get it out of layaway, I'm gonna have a beautiful carry combo.
Speaking of ATM's XD45, Cathy is all hot and bothered about XDs again after shooting it. She's actually considering having me put her beloved Rock 1911 up for trade toward one. I almost think she should. She's always shot the XDs well, they seem made for her, and the XD45 was no exception. We'll see what she decides
Below are some pics of the trip to the range today. We surely couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day! Had a lot of fun shooting with ATM, our first trip to the range with him. I owe him some .45 ammo, so hopefully it won't be the last LOL.
ATM shooting his Mosin Nagant
Some pics of me shooting my little PT145
In this one, I was making no effort at recoil control. Instead I was trying desperately to get something on paper that resembled a "group" more than a "pattern" LOL. Recoil is nothing near as nasty as this pic makes it look
Sean shooting ATM's 10-22
Me and ATM, and me, Sean, and ATM
Target was shot with my PT145 at 10 yards offhand
Target shot with my PT145 at 10 yards, double taps from the holster. My ego almost convinced me not to post this one, but here it is anyway. I'd love to blame the gun, ammo, anything, but it's all me
For example, if you look at the two rounds outside the black (below the grip of my gun) I was looking at the target instead of the sights when I shot those. Watched them both go in "boom, boom." Bad Joe!
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