Taurus PT92 Econo Race Gun Project

Taurus PT92 Econo Race Gun

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I thought you all'd be interested in an update on the Taurus PT92 9mm. econo race gun project, since I haven't mentioned it lately.

First, why did I pick a Taurus PT-92? Probably the strongest point in favor of the Beretta designed Taurus is it's ability to shoot reliably and chamber just about anything you throw at it. As best I recall, I've never had a stovepipe, failure to feed, or failure to extract as long as I've owned it. Another consideration was the ready availability and low prices for used PT-92's.

The Beretta version originally had a problem with the slide developing cracks after several thousand rounds. When Taurus was licensed to build the PT-92, they slightly reduced the barrel diameter, and slightly increased the thickness of the slide. Apparently this solved the problem, although I've heard it suggested that Italian steel was a somewhat lower quality than the Brazilian steel, and that was the reason for the cracking.

The magazine release is on the lower left rear corner of the grip on the early PT-92's, and it's not very convenient to get to in a hurry, but since this is being built primarily as a bowling pin gun, speedy mag changes aren't a big issue. The later PT-92's moved the release to a more standardized location on the trigger guard.

The hard plastic grip panels leave a bit to be desired, but the Hogue rubber grip sleeve with finger grooves made a huge improvement.

I converted the Taurus from DA/SA to single action only, and it was a really simple conversion, once I figured it out. All I had to do was machine a little part out of Delrin, remove the right grip panel, drop in the part, and put the panel back on.

While I had it apart I removed the trigger return spring and replaced it with a lighter one, since it no longer needed to be so strong. I also did a little fiddling with the sear spring, but the full trigger job will come later.

Designing and machining the parts for the sight mount took a little time and figuring, but it was fairly straight-forward. The barrel isn't exactly parallel with the bottom of the slide, so it took a little trial and error to get the top surface of the mount parallel with the barrel centerline. I've almost got it, but I may need to take another .010 or so off the front. I've got a bore-sighter on the way to make that a little easier to figure out how much to take off.

The compensator is one I picked up on ebay for about fifteen bucks. It was a little bit too small, so I had to machine about .005 off the forward 1/2 inch of the barrel to get a good fit. I've shot about thirty rounds through it so far, and it hasn't come off or loosened up, so I guess it's OK!

The next phases of development are to work on tightening it up a bit to improve accuracy, getting the trigger pull down into the sub 2lb. range, and then finally determining what ammo it likes best.

Then comes the fun part, lots of shooting!

I'll keep you posted.......