In 1974, the Brazilian army issued a large contract for the Beretta 92, for which Beretta set up a factory in São Paulo, Brazil. After the contract's expiration, this factory was sold to Brazilian gunmaker Forjas Taurus in 1980.
Shortly thereafter, Taurus closed down the factory and transferred the original Beretta tooling to its factory in Porto Alegre, using it to make its own pistol; a copy of the original Beretta 92 design, no longer being produced in Brazil.
Taurus was able to directly adopt Beretta's design without the need for a license or royalty payments, as the patents for the design had expired since.[1]
Like the Beretta, the Taurus PT92 utilizes the open-slide design where the upper portion of the slide is cut away exposing much of the barrel itself.
The model has also undergone many revisions in design since it was originally produced in the early 1980s.
Despite that, the PT92 still retains many of the design elements from the original Beretta 92, such as the shape of the trigger.
Recent models
More recently (as of 2005), Taurus has begun manufacturing the PT92 with a thicker trigger guard hook and built-in accessory rails on the frame, a feature found on the newer Beretta M9A1, a military upgrade of the Beretta 92 from which the PT92 is derived.
Taurus also started equipping 17-round magazines for the PT92 to match that of the Glock 17.
Variants
Taurus has created PT92 variants which include the PT99, which has an adjustable rear sight and a taller front sight, the compact PT92C, and the PT100 and PT101, which are .40 S&W versions of the PT92 and PT99, respectively.[1]
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