Outwrite Outdoors

Do you feel lucky? The gunfight started as most movie gunfights do. The two main players stare each other down and then guns start blazing and the good guy wins. We’ve seen Unforgiven and remember the scene where Clint and Gene square off. Clint pulls the trigger, only to hear the click of a misfire. Gene tells his men to "cut him down." Thankfully I’ve never been in a gunfight in the movies or anywhere else for that matter, save for squirt guns as a kid and there if you have a problem with your gun, you just went for the hose. If I were to be in a life-or-death struggle, I’d want ever advantage I could get and that is why I am a big fan of the Taurus 24/7 OSS pistol.

Two strikes and a Hit
One of the greatest advantages to this pistol is the second-strike capability. If the gun fails to fire, the 24/7 OSS mechanism automatically and instantly resets to a conventional double-action long-pull position, allowing you to pull the trigger again without needing to work the slide. Like I said, I want every advantage I could get, and being able to have a second chance at firing a round, a round that might save my, or my family’s life, becomes golden.

Most failures to fire are actually caused by residue buildup that can impede full chambering or slow the firing pin. Usually the first firing-pin strike will fully seat the round or clear the firing-pin. The second strike then fires the gun. If the round will not fire on the second strike, work the 24/7 OSS slide by hand, chamber a fresh round, and the action automatically resets to the original short-pull single-action trigger mode.

Of course, I tried and tried to get this to happen, so I could have first hand knowledge of a failure to fire incident. Couldn’t make it happen though. I have not cleaned the gun and have tried everything from hand loads to the cheapest ammo I could find and nothing but smooth, reliable shots every trigger pull. I’m sure it works, but am happy to say so far, the Taurus is flawless.

Feature Creature
The 24/7 OSS combines more features than I’ve found in other pistols. Its trigger is the first thing that threw me. When you take up the slack in the new Taurus PT 24/7 OSS pistol trigger, you've got a first-shot pull that's as short and quick. And for every following shot, the trigger returns to the same fast, short-pull position. I have to admit, it was funky at first. The fine folks at Taurus told me that once I got used to it, I was going to love it. They were right. Once I got the hang of it, it is extremely cool.

Another cool feature is the amount of safety built into the gun. On most double-action-only pistols there are no manual safety mechanisms. The 24/7 has one along with the Taurus Safety System on the right side of the slide that can key-lock the slide and action and make the gun unable to fire. The ambidextrous thumb safety on the 24/7 also locks both the trigger and the slide, and there is also an internal striker block. Plus, if you push the thumb safety above the safe position, it de-cocks the striker, returning the trigger mechanism to double-action mode.

Other features are a loaded-chamber indicator, internal trigger safety and the ever-important, ergonomic grip design. The OSS has a very comfortable grip and feels much smaller than a typical double-stack pistol. I have big mitts and immediately liked the feel of the pistol in my hand. The palm swell makes the gun controllable, and the deep indent at the thumb web puts your hand high on the back strap, which lessens recoil and reducing recovery time by aligning your hold more closely with the bore. This is a problem I have with Glocks. They don’t fit my hand at all and therefore seem hard to control when I am shooting one.

There is the rail for mounting a light or laser like on every pistol out there. I currently have a Streamlight flashlight/laser combo and am happy with the balance. The Streamlight package is one of the best on the market in my humble opinion. Trigger Time Taurus says on their website that bad guys better beware of the 24/7. Ain’t that the truth! The .40 S&W Taurus came with two 14-round magazines. Loaded with ammo, the 5.25" barrel sent round after round into the same basic area I pointed it at. What I’m getting at is that this is an accurate handgun. I like accurate guns. It didn’t take a lot of tweaking and testing either. Some guns take forever to find the one "magic" round that will align the accuracy planets. Not the case here. I could go on and on about how nice this pistol was to shoot but I don’t think I need to. It’s a shooter, ‘nuff said.

The fit of the gun makes recoil very manageable, allowing me to shoot it as much as I wanted to. I had my wife shoot it and she easily handled the recoil as well, saying the grip fit her too. The grip is checkered for traction, but not rough enough as to hurt your hand. There is plenty of room in the trigger guard for gloves.

The Outwrite Truth
Of all of the "Tactical Tupperware" type guns out there, I am very pleased with the Taurus 24/7 OSS DS. I like how it fit and the features alone make it worth the price of admission. The fact of the matter is, this pistol doesn’t cost as much as many of its competitors on the market AND has features they don’t have. Add to that reliability and accuracy and it is easy to see why this is a winner. Taurus lately has released handguns that seem to have the shooter in mind. Their 1911 is one of the best buys out there in a 1911 format and the 24/7 OSS is right there in the same league.

Specifications:

Model:  24/7-OSS-DS40      
Caliber:  .40 S&W      
Capacity:  15+1     
Barrel Length:  5.25"      
Action:  SA/DA     
Grips:  Checkered Polymer      
Weight:  32 oz      
Construction:  Polymer/Steel      
Frame:  Large      
Front Sight:  1-Dot      
Rear Sight:  2 Dots Novak Sights      
Trigger Type:  Smooth      
Length:  8.25"      
Grooves:  0      
Safety:  Firing Pin Block,Manual Safety,Manual Safety