You should learn everything about the anatomy of the gun before you carry it for defense.

One in the chamber with the safety on is the quickest way to have it ready in a defense situation. Just train yourself to flip that lever down as you draw it, and don't put your thumb somewhere where it will flip the lever back up when you fire.

You are right - I should know more about it. I've been around guns for years, I'm comfortable with shooting/handling/cleaning them, but I have a limited understanding of the actual machanics of what makes it fire. That's part of why I am here. Any thing you can point me towards that would be worth reading/looking at? Google?

So you would feel comfortable carrying the Taurus loaded?

That is how I carried my PT745.

I got into the habit of using the edge of the safety lever as a thumb rest.

I wish I had it in front of me so I could take some pictures, but I'm still waiting for Taurus to fix it and send it back.

Other than the manual, I can't recommend any reading material. I can name a few mechanisms you should know about.

Transfer bar and firing pin block
Loaded chamber indicator
DA/SA trigger assembly

Once you know what those are, take the slide off, look inside the frame, wiggle the trigger, and see what moves, so you can figure out what is what.

Originally Posted by Gearheart

I wish I had it in front of me so I could take some pictures, but I'm still waiting for Taurus to fix it and send it back.

What happened to it? Taurus treated you well?

It had jamming problems out of the box. I thought it was just breaking itself in, as new guns do, but it got worse.

http://handgunforum.net/showthread.php?t=16915

I mailed it to Taurus, at my own expense, a month ago and I still haven't heard anything from them. Calling customer hasn't done any good. Bad experience all around.

It's still a solid design though.