Taurus G3c Pistol Review

The affordable price, reliability and shootability of the Taurus G3c make it a perfect choice for concealed carry.

December 23, 2020 By J. Scott Rupp

This is the Golden Age of small carry pistols, and the new G3c from Taurus is the latest evidence of that. While not as small as competitors like SIG’s P365 or Springfield’s Hellcat, it’s still a gun sized right for concealed carry and provides 10+1 or 12+1 firepower—at half the price of the other two pistols I just mentioned. And it’s U.S.-made in Bainbridge, Georgia.

The G3c is plenty small: 6.3 inches overall length, 5.1 inches high and 1.2 inches wide. At just 22 ounces unloaded, it’s not going to be a pain to carry all day, every day.

The alloy steel slide features front and back cocking serrations. They’re not overly aggressive, and there are only three of them in the front, but they get the job done. The slide is treated to a Tenifer finish, which is both wear- and corrosion-resistant.

The sights are steel. The front is pinned and features a white dot. The serrated rear is set in a dovetail. I’m a fan of this setup because I find rear white dots to be distracting for most shooting, and I like the relationship between the G3c’s rear sight notch and the front post. It’s a clear and fast-to-acquire sight picture. The rear dovetail is cut to accept a wide range of aftermarket sights if you want to change the setup.

taurus-g3c-review — The gun comes with a well-proportioned manual safety and a flat-faced trigger. “Memory pads” on the frame help you locate your thumbs consistently for better control and accuracy.

The grip portion of the frame has a subtle palm swell and a slight beavertail, and it features panels of aggressive stippling. There are also dished-out “memory pads” on either side to help both righties and lefties get their firing-hand thumb in the right spot. Similarly, there are dished-out spots on both sides of the front of the frame for locating your support-hand thumb. Underneath you’ll find a single-slot accessory rail.

The front of the trigger guard is squared-off but not serrated. The rear of the guard features a slight undercut that helps attain a high grip on the gun.

The G3c ships with three magazines. My sample came with 12-round magazines, and these magazines have an improvement not found on the full-size G3. Taurus has added a small scallop on the extension on the 12-rounders to give your fingers extra room to grip a magazine should you have to strip out a stubborn one due to dirt or grit.

It’s a good feature, although I didn’t experience any issues with the mags during testing. They all dropped free smoothly. They were easy to load to capacity, and they have bright yellow followers. Highly visible followers are something I appreciate in a defensive pistol. Numbered witness holes on the 12-round mags are located at the half- and full-capacity marks.

Taurus describes the trigger as a single action, and I guess that’s accurate, but don’t be thinking it’ll feel like a 1911 trigger. The trigger does have a flat-face design, which can be a big help in pressing the trigger straight to the rear without disturbing the sights.

The pull has a half-inch of low-resistance take-up before finishing with a fairly crisp 4.5-pound break. In fact, it breaks at less than that because about half of the total pull weight is taken up in the initial press—almost like a two-stage trigger. There’s a little bit of creep in the actual break and some overtravel.

Taurus has long featured second-strike capability in its semiauto triggers, and the G3c is no exception. The restrike pull feels more like a double-action revolver pull, with resistance throughout its travel as it reloads the striker and releases the sear. That total pull is closer to six pounds, but it’s certainly manageable.

While I don’t opt for thumb safeties on guns of this kind, the G3c’s is certainly a good one. It’s not too small to activate and not so large it would snag on the draw. The on/off tension is just right. The tab on the slide-lock lever is serrated and easy to operate as a slide release. All the controls are Teflon-coated.

I put close to 200 rounds through the G3c, and it was accurate and completely reliable, thanks in part to its beefy external extractor. Between the stippling on the grip and the 22-ounce weight, the gun was really controllable. I was impressed by how fast the pistol came back on target. I thought it performed particularly well in drills like the Failure Drill—two to the body, one to the head—that require recoil control for fast follow-up shots as well as pinpoint accuracy.

I think it’s impressive to get a pistol of this level of quality and performance (not to mention three magazines) for a suggested retail price of just $306. Street price will likely be in the mid to high $200 range, which is a heck of a deal for a pistol that boasts 100 percent reliability and excellent shootability.