I'm pretty new here but I have seen several posts where people have asked about this little pocket gun and since I recently purchased one and have some first hand experience with it, I'm going to share my experience so far. Ive only owned a few handguns in my life as they are not necessarily my cup of tea. Ive owned a couple of revolvers and only two semi-autos. The semi-autos which I have owned were both made by Glock (a 27 and a 22C). My experience with Glock has been that they work. Far beyond any other firearm that I have ever owned or had issued to me, Glocks work. My 27 was well used when I purchased it and I put somewhere between 2000 and 3000 rounds through it without it ever failing to fire, eject or feed, even once. My 22C has probably had 3 or 4 times the number of rounds fired through it as the 27 did and again, not one single solitary failure. Never. The gun is my duty weapon (so technically I dont own it but I have possessed it and practiced and trained with it for 5 years) and I trust it to function with 100% confidence regardless of the conditions. My point is, any semi-auto handgun that I will own will have big shoes to fill.
I purchased the stainless version of the Slim. It is a Compact (3" barrel, 7+1 capacity, single stack magazine) 9mm with a black polymer frame and matte finished stainless slide. The Slim is apparently available with either a stainless steel, matte black or titanium slide. It comes with two steel 7 round magazines, and two keys (for the Taurus security system).
Fit & Finish:
My Slim came out of the box looking quite nice. The finish on the outside of the slide and barrel was clean with nice lines. Taurus has done a good job of knocking the rough edges off of the Slim so that it is pretty smooth all around. Internally there were a few places that the polishing line missed inside the hood but the feed ramp looked like a mirror and Taurus even polishes the chamber area of the barrel so as to reduce friction between the barrel and the slide. As for the minor imperfections inside the slide, they are purely cosmetic and seem to have zero effect on performance. Slide serrations were cut at an angle and open towards the muzzle so they are quite grippy and functional making it easy to retract the slide.
Assembly & Disassembly:
If you own a Glock, youll notice that they are pretty much identical in this regard. It is simple and fast. It does seem a bit more difficult to pull down on the retainer on the Taurus than my Glock. No tools are required for a basic maintenance tear down for cleaning and inspection purposes. When I say it comes apart like a Glock, I mean it comes apart JUST LIKE A GLOCK.
Capacity:
As previously stated, the magazines hold 7 rounds each and the gun comes with 2 of them. They are metal with a bright yellow follower. They have round count windows. The butt cap of the magazine is plastic and fits flush in the base of the grip when inserted fully.
Trigger:
The trigger is ultimately why I own this gun. I originally set out to find a pocket gun. I wanted something more concealable than a Glock. As loyal as I am to them they are difficult to conceal and uncomfortable to have shoved in your pants. Before anyone says Guns are supposed to be comforting, not comfortable let me say that I really dont need to hear that cliché. I have carried a concealed weapon for quite a while and what Ive discovered is that the best concealed carry weapon is the one you are most likely to actually have on you when you need it. Back to the subject at hand, the trigger. I looked at lots of mouse guns such as the LCP and the entire Kel-Tec line including the P11, P3AT and the little .32 they produce. I looked at the Bersa .380 and several others as well. What I found when I dry fired these little guns was that the trigger pulls were all long and heavy. They didnt feel to me as if they would be accurate. The Slim fills a gap between pocket pistol and duty weapon when it comes to the trigger. That being said, the trigger is .. Well .. Odd. Ill explain what I mean by odd. The trigger of the Taurus is a DA/SA with repeated strike capability. If you pull the trigger and the striker fails to ignite the primer, you simply pull the trigger again and the striker will reset and impact the primer again. The initial pull of the trigger is very long as the trigger doesnt break until it has almost come into contact with the mag well. The first time I pulled the trigger I pulled it back as far as I thought it should go and then told the salesman at the gun counter that it must be defective. He laughed and said keep going. Obviously he had handled the gun himself. When it broke it was light and clean. I then manipulated the slide to simulate a round being fired and I let out to find the reset. It resets quickly and the SA pull was even lighter and cleaner feeling than before. I immediately made the decision that this would make a significant enough difference to justify the price difference between it and the Kel-tecs.
Grip:
The Slim has a polymer frame as I mentioned earlier. It has some checkering molded into the short grip. The grip provides enough friction to be somewhat effective but I definitely think one of those rubber slip-on grips would be a nice addition or maybe some good ol skate-board grip tape (I love grip tape, its ugly and uncomfortable but if you ever have to use your gun and things get wet, youll still have a tight grip on your weapon). Aside from being pretty functional and nice looking, the grip is big enough for me to get all but my pinky finger on it. I dont have the longest hands in the world but I got some pretty thick fingers and I still get a better than acceptable grip on the Slim. I have also allowed my better half to shoot it and noticed that it fits her tiny paws just as well as my own. She had no problem reaching the nicely placed magazine release or the thumb operated safety.
Sights:
The sights are somewhat low profile plastic sights with white dots for low light situations. The fact that they are plastic was what bothered me and still bothers me a bit. I would have liked to have seen some tritium inserts or something but the white dots are quite easy to see. The front is a fixed blade with a single white dot. The rear is fully adjustable with a white dot on each post. Shooting at the local indoor range with somewhat crumby lighting proved that even in low-light the dots are easily visible. I had no problem finding my front sight and they line up nicely. Considering this is what I consider more of a pocket point-and-shoot gun, I was impressed that they had the dots or that they were adjustable.
Shooting:
I havent put the kind of numbers through this gun as my Glock by any means but Ive put exactly 100 rounds through it so my shooting impression is based off of that. The ammo was good ol Winchester White Box FMJ. I filled each magazine to capacity and would insert magazine, chamber round, drop magazine and fill to capacity each round of shooting before firing. The indoor range where I shoot has two basic options for handgun shooting. You can either shoot at the yellow line which is 15 yards or at the wall which is about 25 yards. I fired approximately all but two magazines with a two hand grip, and one with a single hand strong side grip and one with a single hand weak side grip. My fiancé fired one magazine through it as well.
I didnt take a ruler or tape to the range with me but the 15 yard groups easily stayed inside the center mass oval on a standard silhouette. I had several magazines early on that I kept them all (8 rounds) within a 5 or 6 inch area (the gun is limited by its shooter and I am not an impressive handgun shooter). Most of the time I would have 4 or 5 in a 4-5 inch area with a few strays close by. Shooting single/strong hand things didnt change much. Shooting single/weak hand, they spread out a bit more but all stayed center mass and I didnt find it difficult to control the recoil even using my off hand. As stated previously, the sights were easy to acquire and I had no difficulty getting quick follow-up shots (in fact I could have shot faster if there werent a restriction on rapid-fire at the indoor range. I fired 8 rounds at 25 yards. The 25 yard groups opened up as I intentionally planned to put 5 to the chest and 3 to the head. The chest shots stayed in an approximate 7 inch group and the head shots went pretty well too. In the head two were almost touching dead center and one was about the Adams Apple area.
Alternating magazines, I fired 100 rounds. During the trip to the range I never experienced a single failure to feed, fire or eject. I had actually kind of hoped for a hard primer so I could test out the re-strike function. It never happened. The gun fired each and every time the trigger was pressed.
Recoil was manageable. Compared to the .40 S&W Glocks that I have a lot of experience with, recoil was very light. The gun itself is quite light and I had anticipated heavier recoil but the gun manages well. The light recoil made quick follow-up shots easy.
My fiancé said that the recoil was about the same as her .38 snubby but she definitely shot smaller groups with it than her wheel gun.
I trust this gun. So far, I feel totally comfortable making this my CCW. Its accurate, easy to operate, easy to hide even in shorts and a t-shirt. 9mm ammo is very easy to find compared to other calibers of semi-auto handgun ammo.
I purchased the stainless version of the Slim. It is a Compact (3" barrel, 7+1 capacity, single stack magazine) 9mm with a black polymer frame and matte finished stainless slide. The Slim is apparently available with either a stainless steel, matte black or titanium slide. It comes with two steel 7 round magazines, and two keys (for the Taurus security system).
Fit & Finish:
My Slim came out of the box looking quite nice. The finish on the outside of the slide and barrel was clean with nice lines. Taurus has done a good job of knocking the rough edges off of the Slim so that it is pretty smooth all around. Internally there were a few places that the polishing line missed inside the hood but the feed ramp looked like a mirror and Taurus even polishes the chamber area of the barrel so as to reduce friction between the barrel and the slide. As for the minor imperfections inside the slide, they are purely cosmetic and seem to have zero effect on performance. Slide serrations were cut at an angle and open towards the muzzle so they are quite grippy and functional making it easy to retract the slide.
Assembly & Disassembly:
If you own a Glock, youll notice that they are pretty much identical in this regard. It is simple and fast. It does seem a bit more difficult to pull down on the retainer on the Taurus than my Glock. No tools are required for a basic maintenance tear down for cleaning and inspection purposes. When I say it comes apart like a Glock, I mean it comes apart JUST LIKE A GLOCK.
Capacity:
As previously stated, the magazines hold 7 rounds each and the gun comes with 2 of them. They are metal with a bright yellow follower. They have round count windows. The butt cap of the magazine is plastic and fits flush in the base of the grip when inserted fully.
Trigger:
The trigger is ultimately why I own this gun. I originally set out to find a pocket gun. I wanted something more concealable than a Glock. As loyal as I am to them they are difficult to conceal and uncomfortable to have shoved in your pants. Before anyone says Guns are supposed to be comforting, not comfortable let me say that I really dont need to hear that cliché. I have carried a concealed weapon for quite a while and what Ive discovered is that the best concealed carry weapon is the one you are most likely to actually have on you when you need it. Back to the subject at hand, the trigger. I looked at lots of mouse guns such as the LCP and the entire Kel-Tec line including the P11, P3AT and the little .32 they produce. I looked at the Bersa .380 and several others as well. What I found when I dry fired these little guns was that the trigger pulls were all long and heavy. They didnt feel to me as if they would be accurate. The Slim fills a gap between pocket pistol and duty weapon when it comes to the trigger. That being said, the trigger is .. Well .. Odd. Ill explain what I mean by odd. The trigger of the Taurus is a DA/SA with repeated strike capability. If you pull the trigger and the striker fails to ignite the primer, you simply pull the trigger again and the striker will reset and impact the primer again. The initial pull of the trigger is very long as the trigger doesnt break until it has almost come into contact with the mag well. The first time I pulled the trigger I pulled it back as far as I thought it should go and then told the salesman at the gun counter that it must be defective. He laughed and said keep going. Obviously he had handled the gun himself. When it broke it was light and clean. I then manipulated the slide to simulate a round being fired and I let out to find the reset. It resets quickly and the SA pull was even lighter and cleaner feeling than before. I immediately made the decision that this would make a significant enough difference to justify the price difference between it and the Kel-tecs.
Grip:
The Slim has a polymer frame as I mentioned earlier. It has some checkering molded into the short grip. The grip provides enough friction to be somewhat effective but I definitely think one of those rubber slip-on grips would be a nice addition or maybe some good ol skate-board grip tape (I love grip tape, its ugly and uncomfortable but if you ever have to use your gun and things get wet, youll still have a tight grip on your weapon). Aside from being pretty functional and nice looking, the grip is big enough for me to get all but my pinky finger on it. I dont have the longest hands in the world but I got some pretty thick fingers and I still get a better than acceptable grip on the Slim. I have also allowed my better half to shoot it and noticed that it fits her tiny paws just as well as my own. She had no problem reaching the nicely placed magazine release or the thumb operated safety.
Sights:
The sights are somewhat low profile plastic sights with white dots for low light situations. The fact that they are plastic was what bothered me and still bothers me a bit. I would have liked to have seen some tritium inserts or something but the white dots are quite easy to see. The front is a fixed blade with a single white dot. The rear is fully adjustable with a white dot on each post. Shooting at the local indoor range with somewhat crumby lighting proved that even in low-light the dots are easily visible. I had no problem finding my front sight and they line up nicely. Considering this is what I consider more of a pocket point-and-shoot gun, I was impressed that they had the dots or that they were adjustable.
Shooting:
I havent put the kind of numbers through this gun as my Glock by any means but Ive put exactly 100 rounds through it so my shooting impression is based off of that. The ammo was good ol Winchester White Box FMJ. I filled each magazine to capacity and would insert magazine, chamber round, drop magazine and fill to capacity each round of shooting before firing. The indoor range where I shoot has two basic options for handgun shooting. You can either shoot at the yellow line which is 15 yards or at the wall which is about 25 yards. I fired approximately all but two magazines with a two hand grip, and one with a single hand strong side grip and one with a single hand weak side grip. My fiancé fired one magazine through it as well.
I didnt take a ruler or tape to the range with me but the 15 yard groups easily stayed inside the center mass oval on a standard silhouette. I had several magazines early on that I kept them all (8 rounds) within a 5 or 6 inch area (the gun is limited by its shooter and I am not an impressive handgun shooter). Most of the time I would have 4 or 5 in a 4-5 inch area with a few strays close by. Shooting single/strong hand things didnt change much. Shooting single/weak hand, they spread out a bit more but all stayed center mass and I didnt find it difficult to control the recoil even using my off hand. As stated previously, the sights were easy to acquire and I had no difficulty getting quick follow-up shots (in fact I could have shot faster if there werent a restriction on rapid-fire at the indoor range. I fired 8 rounds at 25 yards. The 25 yard groups opened up as I intentionally planned to put 5 to the chest and 3 to the head. The chest shots stayed in an approximate 7 inch group and the head shots went pretty well too. In the head two were almost touching dead center and one was about the Adams Apple area.
Alternating magazines, I fired 100 rounds. During the trip to the range I never experienced a single failure to feed, fire or eject. I had actually kind of hoped for a hard primer so I could test out the re-strike function. It never happened. The gun fired each and every time the trigger was pressed.
Recoil was manageable. Compared to the .40 S&W Glocks that I have a lot of experience with, recoil was very light. The gun itself is quite light and I had anticipated heavier recoil but the gun manages well. The light recoil made quick follow-up shots easy.
My fiancé said that the recoil was about the same as her .38 snubby but she definitely shot smaller groups with it than her wheel gun.
I trust this gun. So far, I feel totally comfortable making this my CCW. Its accurate, easy to operate, easy to hide even in shorts and a t-shirt. 9mm ammo is very easy to find compared to other calibers of semi-auto handgun ammo.
