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If there’s one thing we truly love at Torqued Magazine, it has to be Firearm testing. There’s nothing better than putting a new firearm through it’s paces and seeing what it can do. With Taurus firearms releasing their new G3 handgun, and us already hearing good things about it, we knew we wanted to see what all the fuss was about. And we honestly weren’t disappointed.
Taurus developed the new G3 to be the successor to their G2 series with some great new upgrades and features. And with a MSRP of $345, making it an affordable option into the polymer 9mm Luger handgun game. The G3 comes in six different models varying from round capacity and slide finish. These options will suit any taste. With colors such as Black/Grey, Black/Black, Black/FDE, Black/ODG, and SS/Black there is something out there for everyone. The Taurus G3 does have multiple magazine capacity options as well. You can get yourself two 10 round mags, two 15 round mags, or one 15 and one 17 round mag. With options like these you can find a G3 fitting to your desires.
We are testing and reviewing the Black/Black colored G3 with the 15 round magazine. Which suits our needs just fine. With our new G3 test unit we also got ourselves a couple of different rounds of 9mm from various manufacturers as we always want to see how a gun will handle various types, shapes and casings found among the varying makers of ammo.
First impressions: When we got our hands on the G3 we noticed a few things right off the bat. This gun has a good strong feel and balance to it. Also, flat out it is a good looking gun. The grips, slide and all around appearance of the G3 sing to my heart. It comes with a loaded chamber indicator on the top of the slide and I really like that. The integrated picatinny rail is beautiful and good enough size to fit any accessories you want to add to your gun. We really liked the finger rest points/memory pads built into the body of the gun. The thumb rest and index finger rest are perfectly places and deep enough to give a great grip on the gun, but not over the top deep to give a weird look to the overall appearance of the gun. These rest/pads are setup perfectly on both sides making the gun comfortable for both right and left handed shooters.
New on the G3 is the 6lb trigger which when we tested it felt great. Personally, in my opinion 6lbs the perfect trigger tension and I love that the G3 is setup this way. The G3 is also setup with a trigger safety as well as a side safety switch and the loaded chamber indicator as part of the guns safety setup.
One thing we really look for in the firearms we test is the ease of which the firearm can be stripped down and cleaned. Guns that are easy to strip down and clean and put back together will always be high on our list. Our test unit didn’t come with a manual but with a quick internet search we found a simple fast explanation on stripping down the G3. And yes this gun is easy to take down clean and put back together without any hassle.
One thing we heard mixed reviews on this gun were in regards to the palm grip. This gun has quite the grip and by that I mean it’s got some grit to it. I wouldn’t call it full on sand paper but it can be semi bothersome to some shooters. I’ve heard it can leave a mark if you’re side belt holstering it under a shirt. For me it wasn’t a major issue, it can be filed down and smoothed if that’s your liking.
During our testing we tried three different manufacturers of ammo through our gun. Our first rounds we used some bulk ammo rounds under that name of USC Tacsling in a 9×19 luger. And I can defintely say this is not the ammo for this gun. In most instances I might have shot off one or two rounds before it jammed. In a lot of instances it would jam on the first round. There were times that the slide jammed so hard into these rounds that we couldn’t unjam it by hand. We had to bust out a rubber mallet a few times.
We inspected this ammo and notice on all the jammed rounds the slide was digging deep grooves into the projectile at the same spot every time. Based on what we could tell, this round had a super steep pitch from the nose all the way back to the casing. Apparently, this was too steep of a pitch for the G3 and it jammed every time. We decided to try our luck with some Federal American Eagle brand ammo. We compared these rounds with the previous rounds and noticed the pitch from the tip of the projectile to the casing was no where near as drastic as it was on the rounds that kept jamming.
Our first full magazine of the American Eagle yielded no jams, an neither have any of our subsequent magazines. The Federal American Eagle feels like it was made for this gun. It shoots smoothly with no hangups. Our third brand of Ammo comes from Novx which is labeled as a cross training competition round. This round does have a steel casing with a copper polymer projectile. The G3 handled this round better than our first brand but not as well as the American Eagle. We had times we could get through a full magazine with no hang ups. But other times we’d get 3 rounds in and then have a full jam. This round also has a pretty steep pitch but not as bad as our first round tested.
Based off what we find the G3 likes brass casings with a projectile that has a smooth pitch from the front point back to the casing.
Honestly other than this hang up with this ammo, this gun has made me a believer in Taurus. The G3 is a superior quality firearm at a price that will make anyone jump into the market. The sights are great and easy on the eyes helping to aquire targets. The weight of the polymer gun feels great. It’s the right weight in my opinon as it’s a gun that can be handled by all shooters and not feel overly cumbersome to the hand. The easiness to strip down this gun and clean it makes me happy. The gun is very accurate as we tested it out at multiple distances and have had nothing that would make us say otherwise. We really do love this gun. It does what you need it to do, it looks great, feels great and you can’t beat suggested retail price.
Get out there and experience the Taurus G3. You’ll be glad you did.
