Deangelo J Vickers sends his pocked dump to us entitled, “Wearing Black.”  Courtesy of the good folks at Everyday Carry.

Deangelo describes himself as working “public safety.”  His carry choice?  A Taurus G2C.  Holster unknown.

Now I have had plenty of harsh things to write and say about Taurus’ semi-autos in the past, but this G2C have restored at least a smidgen of respect for their semi-autos.  I’ve seen the G2Cs on sale for under $185 here in Illinois, and they have a decent trigger.  About as good as a factory GLOCK.  Unless the couple of specimens I’ve played with are exceptional, this little gun might just make very affordable semi-auto for the budget-conscious consumer.  Assuming it runs reliably, of course.  Maybe others who have these or even Deangelo can chime in below in comments…

What else does Mr. Vickers carry?  A Trayvax Axis wallet.  I clicked through to learn more.  It sells on Amazon for (gulp!) $499.  Wait a minute?  Vickers carries a wallet that cost twice as much as his gun?

The Spyderco Tenacious blade is fairly middle of the road on folders.  Not Chinese junk, but not in the $500 wallet category either.  And then there’s the Inova T1 flashlight.

I still can’t get over the $500 wallet.  Wow.   Far too rich for my mere mortal blood.

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59 COMMENTS

  1. A $500 Wallet and @Amazon.com to boot? And a $185 pistol? Seems like misplaced priorities to me. Yes, my holsters and belts are expensive and my pistols I EDC are considerably more but they have a lifetime use as opposed to a wallet which at best may last 4 years.
    I am no body but my life is worth a whole lot more than what this guy is spending . Good luck to him.

    • You beat up your wallet if it only lasts 4 years. I used a cheap nylon and velcro wallet for longer than that and only replaced it because someone gave me a not-as-but-still-pretty cheap leather one when they knew a stitch securing one of the four sides of the hook square failed (it still worked, just annoying to open).

      • Yep, I got one from Brigade Quartermaster 30 years ago and although the velcro has lost it’s magic the fabric and stitching shows no wear.

    • Sometime in the nineties, I came across a leather wallet for sale in a shop at the El Paso, Texas airport. It was just what I wanted. Many pockets for cards but no transparent plastic sleeves that get brittle over time. Price was far less than $50. It’s still in great shape despite daily carry starting right at the airport.

  3. Looks like that wallet is available for $40 direct from manufacturer. Amazon seller has a little markup added I would say.

    https://www.trayvax.com/products/axis

    Taurus handgun is not something I would buy but a lot seem to like them and if at least a couple hundred rounds has been put through it that would be good. Problems often pop up early in the round county cycle with most new firearms.

    • The G2C handles better than my cousins police issue Glock 19 and 43. 1,000 rounds and no hiccups other than super tough to load mags but a speed loader fixes that issue. And my G2C hardly shows signs of wearing other than the gun powder residue that burned to the coating from cheap steel case ammo.

      • Well that is good to hear and a good start. I wish there were some documented longer term durability tests on that Taurus such at least 10,000 rounds for an individual pistol. I miss the tests that Todd Green used to do where he ran more than 50,000 rounds through a pistol to test it’s durability. I remember the HK45 went over 31,000 rounds before it had any issue at all and that was a minor one.

        • My Pt111 G2, the same gun with the stupid lock on it, has gone 2000+ without any issues. It’s sole misfire was on the 3rd round fired, it jammed up hard. After that, it’s chugged through all different bullet weight ammo, HP’s etc, without any problems. I have 3 of the now, one NIB, one with aftermarket sights and recoil spring, with about 400 rounds through it, and the original one, with those mods and the “improved” striker channel. The striker channel mod got rid of the “catch” the original trigger had and makes the gun really pleasant to shoot. Not that it was ever bad. I’ve had good Tauruses in the past, and a couple of very bad ones, and the G2C, and the TH9 and TH9C seem to be pretty damn good.

    • If Taurus would do something about their inconsistent customer support I might consider one. I would venture to say that most people like their prices but don’t consider their shoddy support. I personally would never rely on one for self defense.

      • I would bet their average customer shoots very little and a surprising percentage don’t even shoot their pistol after purchasing. Around here a trip to the indoor range will run one about $50 for rental and 3 boxes of ammo. But having a pistol for self defense is better than not having one.

        To me it makes a lot more sense to buy something like a S&W Shield or Walther PPS for not that much more these days at many retailers.

  5. I dont really care what his wallet costs.

    More important or interesting is what he deems necessary.

    He doesn’t capture his holster or I’d hematoma spare mag (many dont carry a spare).

    People spend their money on what they like.

    This fellow evidently thinks a high end wallet is important and a low end Roscoe is good enough.

    That’s what is interesting. Glad he is carrying, just might not be for me.

    But I’m sure some posters will add some sardonic wit to impress the rest of us.

  6. Does anyone still use a basic leather bi-fold or tri-fold wallet? I’ve never been motivated to use anything more “innovative.”

    • Yes.

      Plastic wallets don’t really appeal to me for a variety of reasons.

      Though my current wallet does have a “deployable” portion that holds my IDs, pocketmonkey tool and credit cards so I can pull that out and go “light” if I don’t want the rest of the wallet with other cards, cash etc.

      A quality leather wallet lasts a long time.

      • Wouldn’t a plastic or metal wallet be REALLY uncomfortable to have in your pocket?
        Leather shapes itself to your body nicely…

        • My wife got me a Dango wallet for christmas a few years ago. It can be more noticeable in the pocket, I carry in the front pocket, at times but not in an annoying way.

          It _is_ more difficult to use though.

      • Last cowhide wallet I had was about 30 years ago, a gift from a family friend in Denmark. It was really nice, and unfortunately, it being cowhide, my rawhide eating dog decided to snack on it. I was asleep and he got into bed with me and started working on it. Luckily, I woke up and felt what he was chewing, and took it away before major damage was done to my D/L and insurance cards, etc. He was very disappointed, he was a Master Chewer, with scary jaw power, and he loved rawhides, eating probably a dozen or more hunks of it (We bought it mostly by the 20 pound bag and tossed them all over the house) a day. The wallet itself was in bad shape, so I went out and bought the first of many nylon wallets, which didn’t interest him. When he went at 14+, his teeth were still basically perfect. All that rawhide kept them spotlessly clean. I wonder how many tons of it he ate over his lifetime? I still miss that guy..

    • Wallets? DL, 3 CCs, 2 club cards, and 5-20 bills of any US denomination. Money clip, front pocket, always know exactly where it is…

      • I’ve wondered about this for a while, so I’ll bring it up now…how do other people deal with the proliferation of cards you need to carry around? Maybe it’s just cause I’m older?
        Just checked my wallet:
        DL
        2 CCs
        4 health insurance/prescription cards
        1 car insurance
        1 AAA
        1 CPL
        1 lawyer’s card (with instructions on what to say after a defensive shooting)

        How do other people manage with just 3-4 cards?

        • I wonder about that too! I have about 20 cards and licenses of various kinds, and even if I go through and remove every non essential thing in my wallet, it’s still about 5/8″-3/4″ thick, so I just carry it all, and it’s about an inch thick. I would have to change stuff out constantly if I really cut it down to the basics. I carry my wallet in my front pants pocket, so it doesn’t bother me. I always hated putting it in my back pocket, it annoyed the hell out of me when I sat down.

    • I carry a 27 year old nylon bi-fold wallet, but I’m thinking of getting one of those Couch Guitar Straps wallets made from car upholstery. They offer one made from Toyota Prius material that I could claim is a hunting trophy.

    • Duluth Trading makes a trifold wallet from very durable bison hide. Runs about $50 and is indestructible.

    • aldo napa slimfold. haven’t sat on it since work forced cargo pants. it is the second wallet i have had in this lifetime. a little “racer’s tape” kept the first one going, but a gift certificate inspired me to replace it.

  8. Amazon sellers are unscrupulous.
    A certain brand of melatonin was discontinued and Amazon sellers started selling for over 10 times what it originally cost.

    • How is charging what the market will bear for a rare product “unscrupulous”?

      DeBeers is unscrupulous. Amazon sellers are just normal business people. In this case, since the MSRP was apparently $49.99 I’d suspect someone just fat fingered that to $499.99 and if you’re dumb enough to pay that much, well you didn’t do your research and you deserve to be out an extra $450.

      Caveat Emptor.

  9. My Taurus 111g2 & 709 have never had a hiccup. Made in Brazil with (I’m sure) some cheap labor. At least Brazilian guns aren’t made by Turkish jihadists😄My wallet was given to me by my son…

    • A lot of people really like to hate on Taurus guns, but of the 4 I’ve had over the years I never had any malfunctions. I guess those really REALLY terrible early generation Millennium/P111’s soured a lot of people on their polymer framed guns when they started having frame cracking issues.

      Ultimately I don’t think I’d personally reach for a G2C as my first choice for a defensive gun. But for $200 I wouldn’t mind having one as secondary choice in my collection of handguns.

      • Same deal with Bersa out of Argentina. I’ve had a couple and never had any reason to complain about anything. The mags are kind of a rarity and therefore a bit expense compared to say, a Glock, but they’re pretty much on par with H&K .

        However, if I’d done my research I’d have known about the mag issue before I bought them. I didn’t do that research. So, either way, I have nothing to complain about because it’s on me.

        • not much on the c&r boards these days, but there are still some cz82 9×18, and the star bm’s (unfortunate handle). the latter for 199.

  11. I EDC a $35 Gerber Evo and a $140 LLOD Holster. I believe most folks’ knives are 2 to 5 times the cost of their holster and that’s fine.

  12. I’ve had a few Taurus fire gunms. They all worked okay for me. The one exception was their 24/7 in .45 acp it’s trigger kept resetting to double action which I fixed by adding a stiffer spring on that reset lever. The spring I used was out of a Bic lighter cut down. Just in case someone else has one with that problem and doesn’t want to send to factory. ….. Wallets are whatever I get when I say “stick um up, give me your money.”

  15. The advantage of an expensive wallet is when you take it out in public to show someone, there are no screams or 911 calls.
    Don’t try this with your handgun.

  16. Excerpt:
    The Spyderco Tenacious blade is fairly middle of the road on folders. Not Chinese junk, but not in the $500 wallet category either. And then there’s the Inova T1 flashlight…
    __________________________________________
    1. I have a decent cutlery collection…I have a Spyderco Tenacious–it okay…Made in China, purchased a Wal-Mart.

    2. …And I DO have a few Amazon purchased “NOT SO, much like Chinese Junk.” But , actually half way decent folders…Like cheap and inexpensive folders from Eafengrow…I have a couple of their Tactical style folders. These folders have quality fit and finish you’d see in “Mid-tech knives” that cost over $100 to 200, or more $$$! I purchased them for 26.00- 40.00 !!! Solid d2 blades and titanium handles/lockbars, or G10 with liner sturdy linerlocks…Razor sharp out of the box…
    Two-Sun, and Tactical gear have similar quality..Also, I love my Cold Steel Spartan and Voyager Vaquero Xl..As well my CRKT patterns…

    3. Inova used to be cool when it was made in Rhode Island by the original company. To old fashioned now a days…When compared my 1000 lm Fenix PD35, my 1500lm Jetbeam , or my 1700 lm ArmyTek Predator/Doberman…

    • I like the tenacious, especially for sub 40 dollars. It does everything I need it to around the house and the Spyderco 8cr13mov is better than that of other brands. For work I use a Kershaw Blur. I’d like to get into knives more but it will be a slow process.

  17. You would think the author would have the integrity to correct the facts after blaring misleading data on the price of the wallet. Anyway, I have a Taurus PT111 Gen 2, its a decent gun for what it is, a low cost plastic fantastic 9mm “tweener”. By this I mean bigger than a single stack 9 sub compact and smaller than a G19 or clone. It feels good in my hand and had not malfunctioned in 1000 rounds. It looks good and the construction is solid. Taurus really outdid themselves on this gun, design wise. I would shoot it more, but its not an outstanding gun to shoot. The trigger is a bit long and heavy for target work. Its not as accurate as my more expensive range guns and not as small and easy to carry as a modern single stack 9. I am not at the point I would sell it, but neither does it get much use.

  18. Disney had a 2 or 3 part Western on “”The Wonderful World of Color” back when I was in grade school. It was called “The Tenderfoot”. The first line of the theme song reminded me of this. It went, “Ten dollar Stetson, two dollar gun, here comes the Tenderfoot, Ridin’ T’ward the sun…..”

  19. Use YouTube to do a search for variations of “Taurus PT-111 Millennium G2” and ditto but with “G2C” on the end. You will find a ton of videos from all sorts of people and the vast majority of them are very positive. As with ANY new handgun, be sure to put at least 100 – 150 rounds through yours to break it in a bit before forming any hard opinions. It won’t be new and stiff for long.

    Here is one example search link:
    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=taurus+pt111+g2c

    * * * Aftermarket parts availability: * * *
    Lake Line LLC offers G2/G2C Tritium night sights and/or fiber optic sights, and replacement firing pin springs, and most notably, stainless steel recoil rod / recoil spring sets. Very nice.
    https://lakelinellc.com/product-category/taurus-pistol-parts-and-accessories/

    Galloway Precision gives you a choice of a replacement stainless steel recoil rod with factory strength 16 lb recoil spring, or you can opt for their 18 lb recoil spring if you want a little less perceived recoil, among various other things. Those of you who insist on snappier loads will appreciate the stiffer recoil spring.
    https://gallowayprecision.com/taurus/millennium-g2-pt111-g2-and-pt140-g2/

    Anyone not mentioning aftermarket parts availability to help fine tune that inexpensive little firearm to best suit your needs, is obviously missing something potentially very important. Not bad for a sub-$200 handgun that the vast majority of real world actual owners like very much. A lot of folks ccw carry these, and that kind of trust speaks for itself. My experience: There are 3 of these in my immediate family, two G2’s and one G2C, and they have each proven to be very dependable in use – they go bang every time and happily eat most any ammo we put through them – and they’re as suitably accurate as you could expect from _any_ handgun with a little 3.2″ barrel.

    I don’t mind the complainers spouting off about other and/or earlier Taurus models, as it keeps the prices low for the rest of us who quietly and carefully research such things, and thus know a good deal when we see one. No skin off my arse regardless of what others may think or do, but the above is solid aftermarket info for those who own these. Bookmark those pages, just in case you end up buying one on sale cheap. 🙂

    ClassicFirearms.com has these on sale AND there is a factory rebate going on for these G2C’s right now. $175-ish after rebate looks pretty damn good.

  20. Of the 3 that I have purchased, all have been flawless.
    Feeds anything that’ll fit in the mag. More accurate than I am and even though the trigger has a long takeup, it’s pretty decent once you get the slack out; reset is great. I’ve got about 2000 rounds through mine with zero issues.

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