Beginner Gun Review: Taurus 738 TCP
For the longest time, if you wanted a small gun to carry in your pocket your choice was the Walther PPK, a little .22LR folding revolver, a 2 shot derringer, a J-frame style revolver or a .25 caliber pistol that probably won’t work. While the PPK was the choice of James Bond, it’s also remarkably heavy. The .22LR folding revolvers are spotty in reliability due a combination of the .22LR round itself as well as shoddy craftsmanship. Plus, there’s a lot of fumbling involved before you can shoot it. The derringers have the same problem: too much fumbling. Combine that with only 2 rounds and a complicated reload process, they’re best reserved as a “last ditch effort” gun instead of primary defense. The J-frame revolvers good and reliable but those .38 special or .357 Magnum rounds hurt like the dickens in that little pistol and, personally, I’m not fond of revolvers. Don’t even get me started on those cheap .25 caliber pistols. While I’ve spoken at great lengths about my love of the .25 round, there hasn’t been a decent pistol made for it yet.
In the end, it was looking like pocket carry was a lost cause. In many ways, it was a niche market. Then, along came Ruger and their LCP. That gun captured the imagination of the consumer and suddenly every company out there was marketing their own .380 pocket pistols like crazy trying to keep up with consumer demand. You couldn’t open a magazine without seeing ad after ad about some company’s tiny gun.
Now, I’m not forgetting the efforts of Kel-Tec, Kahr and other pistols. They hit the tiny, light .380 market long before Ruger but, for whatever reason, they never blew our collective skirts up. Heck, in looking at the two guns side by side, I can see why there’s the rumor about Ruger copying Kel-Tec P-3AT’s design. In the end, however, it was Ruger’s marketing and price point that really got people’s attention.
That’s not to say the LCP is the gold standard. There are certain features I like to see in a semi-automatic pistol that the LCP just doesn’t have. First and foremost: price. The LCP is a bit more than I would like to spend for such a tiny, one purpose pistol (that isn’t really much fun to shoot at the range, I might add). Also, while I appreciate safety features, Ruger tends to go a bit overboard with theirs. Finally, I like the slide to lock back when the magazine is empty. The Ruger doesn’t have that.
The Taurus 738 TCP, however, does have those features. First off, it’s got an MSRP of $249 which is much closer to my budget (if you could call it a “budget”). Secondly, it has that lovely slide release which means I don’t have to keep a running ammo count in my head while trying to keep Baddy McMuggerpants away. Did I mention it’s $100 cheaper than the LCP?
Years ago, I probably could have made a joke about “The only downside is that it’s a Taurus”. Those days look to be gone. Mark Kresser has really done a good job turning this company around since he took over. Frankly, he was presented with one heck of a mountain to climb. The company’s quality assurance was non-existent and its customer service was…lacking…to say the least. From the moment he took over, he started reworking processes across the board. Things like rewarding people on the assembly side of things for finding problems instead of punishing them, for example. He’s expanding the customer service department and is trying to reduce turnaround times as much as humanly possible. The only thing left to do really is to repair the perception held by the gun community. Considering how stubborn the community is, that’s another mountain to scale in and of itself. From what I’ve seen so far, however, he has this gun geek convinced for sure! If he keeps this up, in another couple of years and I think we’ll see Taurus as one of the top manufacturers in the industry.
But enough company profile, what about the gun?
The TCP is a polymer .380 pistol that holds 6+1 rounds. It is a tiny 5 inches long with a weight of only 10 ounces. The double action only trigger has a long pull but it’s very smooth. When I hold it in my hand, it makes me chuckle just how light this gun is. It just feels impossibly small. The ergonomics, however, seem to be spot on. It fits my hand quite well and I don’t exactly have tiny hands. My fingers are a bit on the slender side, though. When I grip it, my pinky does hang off the bottom. It it was any shorter of a handle, my ring finger would be hanging off too. Your mileage may vary but there are some aftermarket pinky extensions available for those that need it.
As with most pocket pistols, the recoil is going to be a bit on the snappy side. Because this gun is so light, that recoil is going to be a lot more noticeable than on, say the much heavier SIG P238. It’s still nowhere near the recoil on my Ruger LC9 but unlike the SIG or XDs, this isn’t a gun I could spend all day shooting. Halfway through the box of ammo, my hand was stinging.
One other thing: this is a slick looking gun. The angles on it have an almost sci-fi feel to them. You know, the way a gun functions is and should always be the highest focus. If a gun is butt ugly it almost doesn’t matter how good it shoots, people aren’t going to buy it. See “Hi-Point pistols” for a good example of that. In this case, the look speaks to my inner geek.
Could this be the gun that breaks my long standing rule of “your carry gun shouldn’t be your first gun”? Let’s go through the tests…
Ease to breakdown
Lock the slide back then pull a pin out. After that, push the slide forward until to separates from the lower. Then it’s just a matter of pull out the spring and the barrel. Putting it back together just requires you reverse the order. That’s pretty much what the instruction manual says, in practice it’s a bit more than that. While I assume it will loosen up as time goes by, getting that pin out is a pain. It’s really wedged in there and trying to pry it out will have you using all kinds of colorful language. It wasn’t just a matter of grab the pin with my nails and pull either. It’s somewhat flush fitting so I had to use a tiny screwdriver to get it started. A knife or razor blade might have worked also. Then I had to use a pair of needlenose pliers to get it out the rest of the way. With all the fumbling and prying and such, I wound up scratching the paint on the slide the first time I tried to break it down. Lots of colorful words were spoken. Putting it back in was even more fun. Trying to keep the barrel and everything else in the right place was a test of my patience.
It’s not a Ruger Mark III but the fact that I had to get out the tools and swore a lot doesn’t help the score. 2 out of 5.
Maintenance
Once you’ve got the thing pulled apart, it’s surprisingly easy to clean. All you need is a few cotton swabs and a can of compressed air and you can get this thing sparkling. Compared to breaking it down, cleaning it was a breeze! 5 out of 5
Reliability
With the ammo shortage, I haven’t been able to test guns with as many different kinds of ammo as I usually prefer. Regardless, I put some really crappy rounds through this gun and it just kept firing. For a tiny gun, that’s pretty impressive to me. As I’ve said before, when it comes to a concealed carry gun, I would be surprised if I ever found one that scored less than a 4 in this category. In this case, I think a tentative 5 out of 5 is warranted.
Safety
There isn’t much to this gun. The only safety in place is a long double action trigger pull. I like that Taurus didn’t overdo it with the trigger weight as well. It’s just heavy enough that it won’t get pulled by accident but light enough that it won’t affect your accuracy when shooting. Other than that, there’s no external safety, no complicated trigger safety lever or grip safety. It’s just a double action trigger and your own safety practices between you and a negligent discharge. Remember the 4 rules of safety here, folks.
3 out of 5
Poor technique
I’ve tested quite a few pocket pistols so far. With the exception of the Sig P238, they’ve all suffered from that dreaded “tiny gun syndrome”. That’s where the tight tolerances and size of the gun make it very unforgiving for even the slightest flaw in your technique. I’m happy to add the TCP to the very short list of pocket pistols that didn’t have that problem. Aside from once or twice where limp wristing the gun caused the slide not to lock back on an empty magazine, everything else functioned flawlessly. There were no jams or stovepipes or failure to feeds at all. Color me totally impressed! 5 out of 5!
Starter kit
It comes with a little plastic cube lined with foam and a single magazine. Like all Taurus pistols, it also comes with a free, one year membership to the NRA as well as a lifetime warranty. I’m really grasping at straws here. This is one of the ways that Taurus has classically kept their prices down. On one hand, I loves me some accessories. On the other hand, I love saving money. For a sub $250 pistol, I can’t really ask for much. Still, I feel like a second magazine could have at least bumped it up to 2.5 or 3 hats. Right now, I have to give it a 1 in this department.
Accessories/Upgrades
Frankly, pocket pistols aren’t really meant to be tricked out. In this case, the sights are fixed, there’s no removable grips and there’s no accessory rail. Crimson Trace does make one heck of a laser for this gun though and, when attached, it looks like it was built as part of the gun itself. Aside from a bunch of holster options and the grip extensions I mentioned earlier, there’s not much out there for it.
2 out of 5
Final Word
These reviews aren’t a measure of whether or not a gun is a good gun, it’s a measure of whether it’s a good first gun. In this case, I think the Taurus 738 TCP is a great gun. I would gladly recommend it to anyone looking to buy a pocket pistol. If you’re looking to buy a gun to learn to shoot on, this isn’t the gun for you and neither are any other pocket guns. I applaud Taurus for making such a good little gun, however, as well as their efforts to improve their company as a whole.
Final score is 3 out of 5 hats. If you’re looking for a concealed carry gun, why not give this little gem a look? If you’re looking for a first gun, might I recommend the PT-92?
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