My experience with Taurus revolvers has been varied the roles of gunsmith and owner. Many of the Taurus models are exceptionally great value products, and some others are disasters.
In general, Taurus steel pistols, like the M9 and 1911 clones have been very good quality for their price point, and every bit as reliable and functional as any other clone of their type. PT1911’s and PT92’s are proven models in Bullseye (I used a 92 myself for a very short time), and while relatively inexpensive and relatively less refined than some elite clones, these are very good pistols in their class.
Their steel revolvers of various flavors, like the 85 small frame, the Trackers, Judges, and the Raging series of revolvers are also very great quality products. I shared a rebuild of a Taurus 85 I did a few years ago on this forum, as an example of what one of these revolvers can take, and how badly abused they can be, but still survive well enough, despite severe “injuries,” to be accurately fired, surprisingly without catastrophic failure. The Taurus Raging Bull and Trackers, while heavy, are well priced in their classes and very good quality revolvers.
The alloy frame ultralight versions of the 85 series frame do seem to have relatively common metallurgical issues - these models utilize hardened steel bushings pressed into the frame and cylinder for the firing pin and main pin, and unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for these bushings to be over-tempered, fracture under the impacts of use, and render the revolver inert. The only solution is replacement by Taurus. When I had my shingle out full time, I had a handful of these failures come across my bench each year - even as an exceptionally small, word-of-mouth advertised smith shop operating in a relatively low volume market in a relatively low population state. In other words, seeing so many of these failures happening implied there were larger smith shops out there seeing 10x or 100x what I was seeing (although, admittedly, part of my draw was the fact I’d work on revolvers, while many would not).
The polymer pistols have been a very rocky road, and the newer models have a lot of bad history to correct. Feeding, extraction, and ejection tend to be common issues. Feeding issues, in my experience, can be corrected. The Taurus Millenium models tended to be very picky about seating depth and bullet profile, but some correction to the feed ramps generally helped remedy these. The 709 Slim has been a relatively good model despite its terrible aesthetic, once the extractor has been corrected. The 709 was essentially designed as a CRF feeder which needed to be mag fed, such dropping a round into the chamber and closing the slide, as many do for their “+1” loading process, yielded broken extractors. Later production models have had improved extractors and don’t seem as sensitive to dropping rounds in the chamber. I have had a very high number of Taurus polymer pistols on my bench, asking for reliability improvement. The extra effort isn’t highly technical, but it does take time, and would elicit a higher price point if done at the factory. Most run fine, especially with certain ammunition, but many do have issues.
The Curves I saw were sluggish in feeding as well, but I struggled more to get them to swallow ammo well. The Curve and the TCP were relatively short lived, which I think follows a common path for Taurus - release products, let the consumers act as the beta testers, then correct any errors in the next models.
Naturally, the recall which pulled back over a million Taurus pistols at only $200 value should be an indicator of a considerable issue with the Millenium and 24/7 pistols, which accounted for almost 20 years of Taurus production. The G2 attempted to right the ship, and on its face, appeared to do so. The G2c’s I received through the recall did feed and eject well. I’ve not handled the G3’s enough yet to have an opinion, but they appear to continue the same trend. But with Ruger and S&W offering poly pistols at low price points, it’s a narrow market for Taurus, and frankly, I would personally rather see them focus on other products.
By and large, it’s very popular for folks to regurgitate lines about poor metallurgy or inconsistent tempering of internal parts, even going as far as calling Taurus revolvers “pot metal,” or “Saturday Night Specials,” most of these being folks who have never touched one themselves. The feeding and extraction/ejection issues common to their older polymer pistol models were legitimate concerns, and reason enough for me to recommend most people to steer clear of their pistols until the G2.
So personally, I own several of the all steel revolvers like the 85’s, Tracker 17 HMR, Judge (novelty), Raging Hornet, and Raging Bull with a smile on my face. The poly pistols - eh, there are other pretty girls at the dance which don’t have as much baggage.