Taurus Model 738 TCP Stainless .380 ACP 6+1

16 Reviews. Average Rating: [3.9 of 5 Stars!]

5 stars:		57% (9 of 16)
4 stars:		19% (3 of 16)
3 stars:		0% (0 of 16)
2 stars:		6% (1 of 16)
1 star:		18% (3 of 16)

Reviewed By: Daniel S on 12/16/2012 Rating: [4 of 5 Stars!]
Great service from Buds! Got this gun for my wife. No FTF with a couple hundred rounds fired. Only issue with this gun is that the grip chews up my wife's hand so she doesn't like to shoot or carry it. It is very rough even on my hands. Good accuracy for a pocket pistol and easily conceal able. My wife now owns a sig 238 and I gained another pocket gun for myself so it all worked out!

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Reviewed By: Dakin F on 11/30/2012 Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]
Yet again...Buds guns hit the bullseye dead on! Purchased for the wife as her first EVER firearm. Great for her, low recoil, simple key lock safety (like I said...first firearm), easy disassembly. Only minor complaint on my end is the sights, very small and stubby. But this was for her, not me. She has put down range about 200 rounds so far with no hick-ups. I have even purchased one for my mother in pink (cant believe I'm admitting to ordering a pink gun), and preparing to take her to the range soon for her first time shooting. As always...its great to be a customer of Bud's!!!

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Reviewed By: Eric L on 07/24/2012 Rating: [1 of 5 Stars!]
I got the TCP for my wife after she did not like the .38 spl revolver I originally got for her(big mistake). I really wanted to like this gun as I chose it over the LCP, P3AT, ECT because of the advantages it has over these guns which I will point out in a few but its all the little nagging issues here and there and a HUGE DESIGN FLAW that will not allow me to recommend this gun to anyone. Let me start off with the positive things I like about this gun. I was kind of impressed with the overall fit and finish of the gun. The trigger pull is long but very smooth, much, MUCH better than the revolver it replaced. It is comparable to my PF-9 trigger, maybe a tiny bit heavier but maybe it will lighten up after more break-in. The slide lock feature and extra magazine was what attracted me to the TCP and so far it has locked back on the last round every single time. Its small and light weight so it makes it easy to carry even when I just want to go out in some shorts and a tee, something I was unable to do even with my PF-9(unless you wear really baggy pants and DEEP POCKETS).

Now for the negatives. The sight on this thing is very, very tiny. I knew that most of these guns have tiny sights so I just put a little paint on the nubs they call sights and I can deal with it. This gun does NOT like lead bullets so if you reload and make your own bullets do not use the LEE 102gr mold as it will never chamber the round unless you shorten the OAL to a dangerous level and that still wont fix it(I use fmj with 380 now but I got into reloading due to the high price of 380 ammo and it sucks because now I cant reload for it using lead). The take-down pin is hard to take out and extremely hard to put back in. One time it took me 15min trying to get this sucker in which after a few cleaning gets annoying FAST. I had to polish the crap out of the feeding ramp when I first got it since it would not chamber a round. Still to this day the first round does not want to chamber and I have to smack the slide real good to do so (never had a failure to feed so far so it should not be a big concern). The floor plate on the magazine is a little odd as the magazine is placed forward with the rest of the floorplate behind it. Sometimes it confuses the crap out of me and I tend to insert the magazine in the wrong direction but that just might be me on this on. Another hit is that the magazine leaves a huge gap between the floorplate and frame, but this seems like the only fit issue this gun has and does not effect performance.

I could have overlooked all these little nagging issues if only this gun worked properly and that brings me to the biggest flaw this gun has. I put almost 200 rnds through her and with every mag or so I would have a lightstrike, sometimes 2-3 rounds per mag. At first I thought there was something wrong with the firing pin or maybe a weak spring somewhere but as I did more research I ran into what really wrong with the gun. It looks like the TCP has a 2 stage trigger reset and if you don't fully allow the TCP to reach the second reset the GUN WILL NOT FIRE!! Some will say this is a training issue and you should always allow the trigger to reset correctly but just think of this for a moment. Do you want to own a gun that if you short stroke the trigger under a high stress situation it will render the gun useless until you rack the slide, re-reset the trigger and try again? Those critical seconds could mean life or death in many situations and I am not willing to bet my life on it. I have never had an issue even close to this with any of the guns I've owned. Going to send the gun back to Taurus and "if" this design flaw is fixable I'm still going to get rid of the gun as I find the manufacturer grossly irresponsible for letting such a huge design flaw out to the market.(wish me luck with Taurus CS, I hear it's hit or miss just like their guns)

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