Literal first shot straight out of the box,
I've done nothing except load the mags. Will the Montenegrin pistol work? That is a fantastic start. Thanks for tuning in to another
video on ForgottenWeapons.com. I'm Ian McCollum, and this is the Tara Perfection TM-9. Now Tara Aerospace is a factory in Montenegro. If you are not familiar with Montenegro
it is located on the Adriatic coast, nestled comfortably between Albania to the south and Bosnia and Herzegovina to the north,
just across the sea from Italy. There is one significant firearms
manufacturing facility there. It was formerly a government run arsenal,
it was privatised in 2013 or 2014. And it was purchased ... at least
in part by one Heinrich Thomet, ... previously of Brügger & Thomet.
And if you've seen the movie <i>War Dogs</i>, Bradley Cooper's character in <i>
War Dogs</i> is based on Heinrich Thomet. There's a reason he is not
part of B&T anymore, ... not the best reputation
following that gentleman around. But Thomet sees this factory
and presumably, I think, says "Ah, look how cheap that factory is down there in a particularly economically
depressed part of the Balkans. I can buy that factory, we can make pistols,
because how hard can it be to make some pistols? And then we'll sell them at a tremendous profit to the Americans who will buy basically
anything. Sounds like a great plan." So the first pistol they come out with
is this, the TM-9, and it's terrible. It has significant
quality control problems that Thomet probably didn't recognise
when he got into this whole deal, or he might have thought twice
about doing it in the first place. But, ... I'm speculating here a little bit, I'm filling in some of the
cracks with intuition here, I suspect after making a
couple of thousand guns the factory is in need of cash flow,
they have to sell something. And so the TM-9 is
not a very good pistol, but they sell approximately 3,000
of them to a European distributor with the understanding that they are
not going to be sent to the United States. The US is an important, valuable,
market for a firearms manufacturer. And you don't want to
destroy your brand reputation in the United States if you plan to
make a lot of money selling stuff here. So it's not clear if there
was a formal contract that these wouldn't go to the US, or just
some sort of handshake understanding. Or maybe it was a one-sided understanding that
the European distributor didn't even know existed. But what ended up happening
was Century International Arms ended up buying them all
out of Europe to bring into the US. Which came as a rude surprise
to Tara when they discovered it. So Century buys them stupid cheap. They are polymer framed, striker fired,
very modern-looking service pistols that came with three
magazines each originally. And they were so cheap that Century
basically looked at them and went, "You know, ... we really can't go wrong." Turns out they could go wrong. So they bring them into the country, and
Century's gunsmiths take them out on the range to see what they're dealing with and
discover that the guns just don't work. In particular they have problems with the
slide not going all the way back into battery. So it'll feed part way, but not all the way. Spoiler - we're going to take
this to the range and we might or might not see exactly
that problem with it. But Century is now kind of
stuck with these guns, like at a certain point they're so cheap how
can you go wrong, but none of the guns like actually work, so they
clearly have gone wrong. Century is trying to figure out what to do with
them and they get an offer from Gander Outdoors. ... The retail store is Gander Mountain,
parent company is Gander Outdoors. Which was at the time buying
and selling new and used guns. And they were associated with an
outfit called America's Gunsmith Shop. And the deal that went down was essentially
Gander will buy all of the guns as a batch. Century will throw in
3 cartridges for each gun. And Gander will just have
the Gunsmith Shop fix them all. And so this sort of basically happens, except before ... Gander can
actually sell the guns they decide that "You know what, actually screw it. We are getting out of
the gun business, we just don't want to deal with this." Unclear if this was because of the
direct experience of the Tara TM-9 or if it was just coincidental,
probably just coincidental. But ... Gander is now sitting on 3,000 of
these guns that may or may not work now, having been at least to some extent
worked over by some gunsmiths. And they're not going to sell them
and so they go back to Century and like, "Hey, will you buy these back from us?" And so Century agrees, and buys them back for
presumably less than they sold them in the first place. Now Century once again is stuck with
these guns that might actually be better now. At this point they do start selling some
of them, they get out onto the market. And the American consumers who
buy them discover how badly they suck. That even with the work that
the gunsmithing company did, they were still not reliable guns most of the time. And this comes as very
unpleasant news to Tara. Tara never wanted these guns to be in the
US because Tara knew that they were crap. And the unspoken part here is
apparently Tara was perfectly happy to screw over its European customers. Which I can say I kind of understand from some
experience working with European gun owners. Once a firearm crosses
international boundaries in Europe it can be really hard to send it
back for any sort of work or repair. Even with top level brands who would
normally be happy to support their customers, if they don't have an established
presence in a European country, European owners of that brand are going
to have a really hard time dealing with them. And in this case I suspect Tara was ... like, "We're going to sell these to
some dudes across Europe and we don't care if they don't work because what
are they going to do about it? Who cares? There's not that big of a market for modern
handguns to European civilians anyway." And what they wanted to do was
raise money to keep working to develop a better pistol
that they could sell to the US, where their brand reputation is more
important, and make a ton of money. So they find out that their guns
are now being distributed in the US. And this is a problem. And the explanation
that they come up with, and I certainly don't want to be
guilty of misrepresenting here, but if you go look at Tara's website
they have a warning on their website from just a couple of
years ago that says that the first batch of experimental TM-9 pistols
were only intended to fire rubber bullets. They were not intended
to use real ammunition. And someone got misled
somewhere along the way. And they got sold in the US as real
guns, but they're actually not real guns. And you should not shoot
them under any circumstances and they should all come back or
be thrown in a bucket or something. This being the excuse for why does
the gun suck and not run reliably. Now, I defy you to show me what on earth on
this pistol makes it designed for rubber bullets. This to me sounds like
a completely fabricated story, because like I've seen guns ... designed
specifically for non-lethal cartridges. Whether it's like the Russian style
of traumatic projectile thing, they are pretty clearly distinguishable from
real guns, and this is a real gun right here. Also I've run 100 rounds
through it, and while it didn't run most of them reliably,
it certainly didn't explode. There's nothing to suggest that this
is not intended to be a regular pistol. Anyway, Tara is also at this point
trying to sell Century its new guns. "Like, we have the new one." And I'm pretty sure
that this is the TM-9X, which is the tactical model. Which is also now available in
some numbers in the US somehow. I'm not sure who exactly
brought them in, but it apparently is an improved version and Tara
is trying to sell these to Century. And Century is going back to them and basically
saying, "Look, we'll consider buying more stuff from you because it's what we do, but you've
got to take this thing off your website that says that these first ones
that we got are going to hurt people. Because they are not going to hurt
people, like this isn't going to work." Well fairly recently Century
actually did find a buyer for them. And all the remaining stock was sold to ...
Centrefire Systems who is currently selling them (with pretty much this whole story explained on
their website) for dirt cheap, they are under 200 bucks. This one didn't actually come through
them, I bought this prior to that happening. I found it on GunBroker for
185 dollars plus shipping, which ... kind of like Century I figured,
"How can I go wrong for that?" Now also in fairness, I recognised in
advance how bad of a pistol this was. It's funny, when Century bought
these initially, they bought them and then they went to one of their representatives
in the Balkans who had some local knowledge and said, "Hey, ... we're looking at these
Tara pistols, what do you think about those?" And their rep went back and went, "Oh jeez,
don't buy those things, those are total crap." And Century's response was, "Well oops, we already
bought 3,000. I guess we'll sell them to somebody." So had they done
a little bit more research, they probably wouldn't have been
stuck in this situation in the first place. But that's the whacky story behind
how the Tara TM-9 came into the US and what it's gone through since it got here. Now mechanically this is a very
basic pistol. It's a polymer frame. It's a Browning action, so it's a
short-recoil tilting barrel. It's striker fired. The one thing that makes it a bit
distinctive from other modern service pistols is the fact that it has a
double-action only fire control system. Now Tara calls this DARE,
Double-Action Rapid Engagement, which is just marketing
lingo for "it's double action". And the reason that it's
double-action is because it is simpler, ... The internal mechanism of the trigger can leave
out a number of parts if it's strict double-action. And by the way, double-action
on a striker-fired gun means in its current state,
when it's just sitting there, the striker is all the way forward
with absolutely no spring tension on it. It is not protruding out of the breech face
because there is a firing pin safety to prevent that. But this cannot conceivably fire
without the trigger being pulled. Most striker-fired pistols made today have a striker that is ... basically
halfway cocked when the slide is cycled. So that's why if you dry fire a Glock
or any other generic striker-fired pistol, you dry fire it once you get a click, if you
continue to pull the trigger you don't get anything. Because ... you have to rack the slide
for the striker to reset back onto the sear. On this the striker always
resets all of the way forward. Which means the trigger pull is responsible
for pulling the striker all the way back and fully compressing its spring
before releasing it to fire. That makes it simple and very safe,
much like a double-action revolver. But it also means the trigger pull
is very long and very heavy. So most of the manufacturers out there
look at this trade-off and decide to go with a partially pre-cocked striker in
order to get a better trigger pull. Tara looked at it and
went with the other option. Probably not because they
wanted a safer trigger pull, but probably because they wanted a ...
simpler and cheaper to manufacture pistol. So, with that out of the way, let's go
ahead and take a closer look at this. And then we'll take it out to the range
and do some shooting because, why not? It's not like it's only made for rubber
bullets and it'll explode and kill me, right? The gun arrived in this little zip carry case,
... I mean you say Glock knockoff? Well. And Tara Perfection right there.
And this is the factory logo there. Inside we've got a pistol
with two magazines. And an instruction manual which we
don't need to even bother looking at. Take a look at the markings here,
Tara is the factory that made it. <i>Crna Gora</i> is Montenegro in Montenegrin,
so that's the name of the country of origin. This being a polymer framed pistol,
not one of the modern chassis systems, we have a metal insert with the serial
number there on the bottom of the frame. Also Tara and <i>Crna Gora</i> on the frame itself. Our serial number up here, calibre 9x19,
and designation: this is the TM-9. These are our ... US importer markings. It's worth pointing out that since this came out,
a few years later they also introduced the TM-9X. Which is the tactical version
which makes a number of changes (most of them basically
aesthetic) to the pistol. The magazine is pretty standard typical stuff,
double-stack single-feed 17 round capacity. It is nice that ... there is a witness
hole for every round of capacity, so you can tell exactly ... how
many rounds are in it at any time. The only two controls here are the trigger and
the mag release, both of which are ambidextrous. The mag release works from either side,
obviously the trigger is ambidextrous. There is no manual safety, and you may
notice that there is no trigger safety. There is no trigger dingus in there, and that's
because this has a true double-action striker pull. So ... when the gun is at rest like this
the striker is completely de-tensioned. And pulling the trigger pulls the striker back,
and back, and back, and back, and back, and there we go, there it fires.
And your reset is right out there. Now this does a couple of
things: it simplifies the gun, you'll see inside there are a lot fewer parts than
you'd have on a gun with a partial striker reset. It negates the need for a manual
external safety or a trigger safety because the trigger pull
(like a ... double-action revolver) is so long and so heavy that it really
provides its own safety mechanism. Like you'd have to drop this from
outer space for there to be enough inertia to fire this trigger if it gets
hit on the back of the gun. So it really is a safe system in that way. Good points to it. There are interchangeable
back straps to change the fit of the gun. Although mine didn't come with any different
ones, just this one that was in the gun there. We've got three dot sights.
They are dovetailed in place so in theory if you want to
replace the sights you can. The lock-up is totally standard,
it's a Browning style system where the locking surface is the front of
the barrel and the top of the slide there. We do have a rail on the front
if you want to put a light on it. And then to disassemble it. ... (If you are going to copy the Glock, well you
pick which version of the Glock you want to copy. We do have finger grooves on here, on
the tactical model they got rid of these.) To take it apart we are
going to lock the slide open, pivot the disassembly lever down
(this is pretty typical stuff) slide goes forward,
comes right off the frame. So let's start with the slide up here, we have
a self-contained recoil spring, that's good. We have a barrel.
This is all, again, pretty basic stuff. There's our striker. We have a safety here, so
if this is not pushed upward, the striker can't come forward
far enough to protrude and fire. When I do push that down, the striker
can protrude and actually fire a round. So we've got a back plate in here, and I can pry that out with a screwdriver. Polymer back plate. There's our striker assembly and its spring. Here is the extractor spring. So we take that out, and then the
extractor is going to just come out like that. This looks a lot like a SIG extractor. So, there's your slide disassembled,
not fully but close enough. And then the frame is
just a polymer frame. There is a sheet metal piece in
here to provide some slide rails so the slide is not just
running on polymer. And then the trigger mechanism
right here is, as I said, very simple. So we've got this bar
which is going to come back. It's going to push the striker back with
that tab until at the very end of travel. And then we've got the
trigger mechanism here. So it's a complicated looking
part, but it's basically just one component here that comes
back when you pull the trigger. So this little tab right there is
what pushes the safety right there, the firing pin safety,
up and out of the way. If I turn this around, this tail right here is going to grab the bottom of the
striker and it's going to pull it back until at the very end of travel it
drops down just slightly, right there. It's kind of hard to see here,
but right at the end of travel it drops, and that
releases the striker to fire. And you don't need a disconnector
because if you're holding the trigger back this has dropped down
and the slide will cycle. And the striker will not be held back,
it's just going to snap forward. And so you have to release the trigger and
pull it a second time to fire a second shot. So making sure that this only
fires semi-auto instead of full-auto is really pretty simple on a system
that doesn't reset the striker. On a system this simple. So that's kind of it.
We've got our slide hold open here. We've got two more metal tabs
that act as slide rails at the back. And that's about all there is to it. There's basically all the
parts of a disassembled Tara. It's a simple pistol to make,
and if it is made well there's no reason it
wouldn't function just fine. The trigger pull is a real user taste thing. The downside to it of course is
that the trigger is long and heavy, and it's going to be
more difficult to shoot this accurately and effectively
than it would a lighter trigger. And that's why the lighter triggers are by far
the more popular option for most companies. But if you want to totally max out on economising on the construction of
the pistol, this is a pretty good design. So let's take it out to the range and see how
it does with more than just a couple of rounds. Alright, let's do a little more shooting
and see if it continues to malfunction or if it breaks itself in,
or if it just breaks itself. Just have to push it back into battery. There we go. I can actually feel the slide
kerchunking the last little bit into battery as I release
the trigger each time. It's actually getting a little bit better.
The trigger press is still really quite heavy. The back strap is a bit
uncomfortable, like right up here it's a little bit too square
and it's hitting on the thumb. That blood blister by the way,
is not from the Tara, but. There's a little secondary
encouragement, like most of the time. Alright, so, I am still holding the trigger back,
this is what's happening every time. ... So I think what's happening is
... like it's holding the striker back. And when I release the trigger
the slide clicks back into battery. Well, but not always. Oop. Interesting that if I fire it a little faster
that problem goes away, at least a little bit. So. Alright, it is cool how simple ... Yes, pulled out that patch specifically
for this video. Thank you, Bloke. Ah, it's a simplistic gun. Like there isn't anything revolutionary
about this style of pistol any more. By going with straight double-action
they've simplified the mechanism, it ought to be fairly simple to
put together and get working well. For the price, like I mean I dunno,
this thing was 180 bucks plus shipping. So I guess, what do you expect? But on the other hand, if it doesn't work
reliably is it worth even a really cheap pistol? [We came back for a second range session
to give it another try a bit later ...] Holy cow, that trigger's heavy. Yeah, well. Alright, so two failures to
go completely into battery. The edge of the back strap
here kind of cuts into the knuckle of your thumb a little bit,
it's a little bit uncomfortable. The trigger is just super long. It really is a true double-action trigger. Which simplifies the gun, but it
sure doesn't make it easier to shoot. Just for kicks I've got a mini-Mozambique
out there at like 25 yards, 20 yards. That's going to be a little harder. There's another. So you can see here the
barrel is not quite all the way up in battery. The slide is slightly too far back. And all it takes
is a little push, but it does take that little push. Also, it throws the brass directly back into my
hat every time, which is a little bit distracting. There you go, that's what's
going on in slow motion. I apologise for the
excessive muzzle climb, I was doing that weak hand one side
so we got good lighting on it. But that's what we got going on here. Except it doesn't always come back. Right onto the microphone. It appears if I run the trigger
faster it works more reliably. I just don't hit as much because I'm
not reacquiring the sights each time. Alright, didn't lock open on the mag. The malfunctions are ... multiplying now. That's really crazy, it's like literally
if you gank the shot it works. But if you try and take a close, careful, like proper
follow through on the trigger shot, it malfunctions. The gun is specifically
designed to be shot badly. Right in there! Every time, works flawlessly.
Now my long range target. Alright, well it did lock open. So there's your Tara TM-9
Montenegrin Perfection. Thanks for watching.
