Talon Industries T100 .380 Pistol
While Phoenix, Arizona would be a nice place to live, an even more scenic part of the country may be found around Ennis, Montana. Ennis is north and a little west of Yellowstone National Park. The rivers and streams around Ennis provide some of the best trout fishing in the world. Ennis is the home of Talon Industries, a new firearms company that makes two pistols, the T100 in .380 and the T200 in 9 mm. Both are very inexpensive. I ordered one of the T200s awhile back to see if it was competitive with the Kel-Tec 9 mm. The Talon 9 mm doesn't cost as much, but the one I got had some problems. The problems includes misfires, failures to feed, and during the last session the pistol more or less broke. I sent the pistol back to Talon three times, and they sent one magazine to see if that was cauing the misfeeds. The last time I sent the pistol back, I told them it would be ok to replace the 9 mm pistol with one of their .380 models. They did that. That was either an admission that there are design problems with the 9 mm or just very good customer relations. I haven't fired the .380 yet, but from the looks of things the gun is almost identical to the 9 mm. The magazine and barrel are different, of course, and the recoil spring is lighter. I will try the .380 this weekend. I suspect that the pistol is just right for the lower pressure cartridge and too fragile for repeated use of the 9 mm. The magazine springs in the 9 mm may be too weak, because the misfeeds involve the next cartridge doing a nose dive below the feed ramp. I've read that this may be due to a weak magazine spring. A replacement magazine didn't solve that particular problem. I remember buying one of the first Kahr pistols, and having problems that were later resolved by the company in subsequent products. I should have waited a year for Talon to get the bugs out of their 9 mm, but just had to experiment. No problem. The Talons are not expensive. Right now I cannot recommend the 9 mm, but may have some good things to say about the .380 once I try it.
The CZ-75B single action pistol continues to work just fine. Every once in awhile you get a pistol that shoots to point of aim, is easy to use, and feels right. The CZ-75B does all that and more. I discovered that the Fobus Beretta 92 holster also fits the CZ-75, but the Predator holsters made in Mesa, Arizona for the CZ-75 don't fit my CZ-75B single action. That's being resolved right now because the Predator holsters have a lifetime guarantee.
January 13 Talon Update Just when I was close to complete dispair, the Talon story took a turn for the better. The Talon .380 did not do well with the MagTech ammunition a week ago. A week later I tried some PMC ammunition (90 grain FMJ), and managed to fire 50 rounds with out a misfire, misfeed or jam. Not bad. Today I got another box of identical PMC .380 ammunition and will see if these results can be repeated. If so, I will not feel guilty selling the Talon for a "move 'em out" price which will include a note advising the buyer to stick with PMC ammunition. I used the Talon in a Home Firearm Safety class today, because in that arena (where you don't have to shoot it) the Talon works very well. Students were able to point the Talon in a safe direction, drop the magazine, retract the slide, and check the chamber. The Talon fed and ejected the orange plastic dummy rounds with no problems at all. Until it can be sold, it will be a great training aid. Someone saw the Talon on the table today near a Kahr 9 mm pistol with a polymer frame and asked what the differences are. My answer was, "Several hundred dollars."
Today was also the Big Gun Show at The Showplace in Richmond, Virginia. This venue is about a 2 hour drive from our normal gun show area, but there are so many different vendors that it is worth going down there a few times each year to see things you won't see anything else. For example, I like Georgia Arms ammunition a lot and they had several tables at the show, with all of the calibers and different bullet weights. I was able to pick up some inexpensive 155 grain .40 S&W practice ammuntion. Nobody had the new S&W Model 610 with the 4 inch barrel. I can't wait for that to get on the market. Smith and Wesson may not survive, but while they're still around, I hope I can get the one revolver I've wanted them to build for a long time: a 10 mm with a 4 inch barrel.
January 14 Talon Update Just when I thought the Talon was going to work... I got another box of PMC .380 ammunition, tried the gun again, and it started to act like the 9 mm Talon with double feeds and failures to extract. If this was a more expensive pistol, I would be alarmed and dismayed. I had hoped a U.S. company could build a low cost reliable pistol. Maybe that will happen someday, but I do not believe that Talon Industries has done it with either their .380 or 9 mm models.