All parts on the PT 1911 are manufactured by Taurus, including the magazines and the custom-style accessories, and they are specific Taurus configurations and not copies of any other brand-name designs. (Of course, all popular Model 1911 accessories, such as beavertail safeties, triggers, hammers, etc., are very similar in appearance.) Even the Heinie sights on the guns are actually fabricated by Taurus, under license and according to Heinie's strict specifications. Most of the small parts are manufactured through metal injection molding (MIM), which is a very precise, cost-effective process growing in widespread use throughout the entire world of precision metal parts fabrication in many high-tech industries. Taurus has become a national leader in MIM technology, and OEMs a large number of parts for other manufacturers throughout the firearms industry.

It is important to remember that in spite of the PT 1911 being an "all-Taurus" product, it is nonetheless a true-dimension Model 1911 pistol in all specifications--which means that a shooter can replace any of the gun's accessories or components with any other Model 1911 aftermarket parts for which he has particular preference with only the minor fittings or adjustments normally required for installation. At the same time, however, Taurus spokesmen observe that one of the main reasons they believe the performance of the PT 1911 outstrips similarly featured pistols that cost much more is that other manufacturers assemble their "loaded" guns with off-the-shelf parts from various sources without the unified design and quality-control coordination that makes the PT 1911 a truly integrated product.

Put simply, with the PT 1911 the basic gun and all the bells and whistles were designed, manufactured, and assembled under the same direction under the same roof. It makes a difference. Or as Taurus Vice President Bob Morrison wryly observed when I asked him about parts compatibility, "Sure, the other stuff will fit. But if you have a nicely equipped Mercedes, why would you want to switch its drive shaft with a part from Acme Auto?"

A Real Shooter
With all this pedigree, it's almost anticlimactic to say how the PT 1911 shoots--but it shoots well. Face it; the Model 1911 pistol is such a time-proven design, and all of its manufacturing idiosyncrasies have been worked out for so long, that a gunmaker would have to be really bad to screw one up. I had the opportunity to run five varied commercial .45 ACP loads through the preproduction review sample. Thanks to the Heinie sights and a crisp 3.25-pound trigger pull, my first full-magazine familiarization runs fired offhand at 50 feet with Federal's Personal Defense load printed at about 2.5 inches, which is certainly what I'd expect from any tightly fitted and full-featured Model 1911 pistol. The overall average for all five loads from benchrest at 25 yards was essentially the same.

All of which leaves us with the question that was on the mind of everyone who saw or heard of the PT 1911 at last January's S.H.O.T. Show: With its hand-fitted assembly, custom features, and long list of premium-design accessories, how can Taurus possibly afford to sell the PT 1911 at such a low cost? I asked Morrison exactly that question. His answer was thought provoking.

TAURUS PT 1911 FEATURES AT RETAIL VALUE
Full length guide rod & reverse plug	$35
Heinie Straight Eight Sights	150
Serrated slide rear and front	100
Checkered 30-lpi trigger guard	50
Checkered 30-lpi mainspring housing	60
Checkered 30-lpi frontstrap	150
Ambidextrous safety	125
Beavertail grip safety with memory pad	120
Skeletonized hammer	60
Skeleton serrated trigger	100
Trigger job	100
Custom fit barrel (air-gauged bushing)	100
Custom slide to frame fit	100
Polished feedramp and barrel throat	50
Lowered and flared ejection port	60
Custom internal extractor	75
Extended mag release button	35
Beveled mag well	100
Extra 8-round magazine	30
SUBTOTAL	1600
Basic Mil-Spec Model 1911 pistol	500
TOTAL	2100
NOTES: Prices are average of parts, installation, and fitting charges from five leading U.S. pistolsmiths based on a Mil-Spec basic Model 1911 pistol as the starting point.

"Think about bottled water," he said. "If you own the well and the bottling facility and make the bottles and the shipping cartons and print the labels, you can always sell water at a lower price than if you have to buy that stuff from somebody else and feed their profits.

The PT 1911 averaged 2.55 inches for five-shot groups at 25 yards with five different factory loads.

"At Taurus we do everything in-house. Our designers and production engineers have every conceivable way to produce parts right on site, from forging to machining to MIM-ing. We can produce virtually any shape of any part we design...if it's too complicated to be made by normal methods we just MIM it instead of machining it. Our new, totally equipped 1911 is unique because we went from concept to completely packaged product in our own plant, in our own environment. All components from design board onward were completely integrated from the get-go: dimensioning, finishing, hardening, heat treating, choice of metals, manufacturing method, fit and finish--all as a single operating unit, designed by one engineering team. That's why you get so much for so little. We made it all to our own tolerances, in-house. Every single part was designed to be mated to every other single part.

SHOOTING TAURUS'S .45 ACP PT 1911
Factory Load	Muzzle velocity (fps)	Standard Deviation (fps)	25-yard Accuracy (inches)
CorBon 165-gr. JHP +P	1168	7	2.50
Federal Premium Personal Defense 165-gr. Hydra-Shok	1047	6	2.50
Hornady 200-gr. HP/XTP +P	988	9	2.63
PMC 230-gr. StarFire JHP	1013	15	2.88
Winchester 230-gr. SXT Personal Protection	971	5	2.25
NOTES: Accuracy is the average five eight-round groups fired from a sandbag benchrest at 25 yards. Velocity is the average of eight rounds measured eight feet form the gun's muzzle

"A lot of people still think that just because something costs more it's necessarily better. That's out-of-date thinking. Remember bottled water. The Taurus PT 1911 costs less because it's made better. It costs what a smart manufacturer's 1911 ought to cost."

Well, when you consider all the very advanced, very reasonably priced products Taurus has brought forth over the past eight years, it's hard not to agree with him.