Taurus - Thoughts?

[tkdguy]

PASS ON TAURUS! BUY USED SW OR RUGER. RUGER BUILT AS A TANK.

 

[CountryGent]

If I could get one of their revolvers for a super cheap price I would.

I've only had there wheelguns, but as mentioned above, they are good. Seems like most of the complaints I see online are about their autos being junk. Totally anecdotal, of course, but that is what I've observed.

But, as you alluded to, at the price point the sell for normally, why bother.

 

[tkdguy]

No, lots of complaints about their revolvers as well. Why take the risk and almost always loose the money, resale, and acquire fustration when good SW or Ruger are the way to go? Maybe this person should either same some more money or sell something and buy the SW or Ruger?

 

[leadcounsel]

Real case in point. Today on local gun sale classifieds. Locally there's a nice looking used Taurus .38 SW clone for $275. I thought about it for a few minutes. Then thought, $275 for a 6-shot .38 Taurus revolver?! Heck for a few bucks more you're into used Walther/Glock/Sig/XD/SW semi-auto 9mm territory, with twice the capacity, starting around $300-325.



And if I really wanted a used .38, there's a really beautiful used SW .38 model 67 stainless locally for $450. So for $175 more, which isn't a whole lot in the gun world, you upgrade to a actual SW which will appreciate in value faster than that Taurus and it's almost certainly better quality.

Unless you're just broke, that SW is almost certainly a far better gun and purchase for just a little bit more money.

 

[Knebel]

Well,I bought a used taurus ultralight a few years back that had some issues with the action hanging up, anyway, I have fixed it myself and have no more issues except the thing is looseygoosey on the cylinder lockup and horribly inaccurate at anything farther than 10 yards or so. Having just bough and shot the new colt and the taurus side by side.... id say the taurus is junk. But thats comparing a ferrari to an 80s camaro.

 

[Dirty Cary]

So much hate, lmao. You guys hate taurus as much as I dislike keltec and glock.

 

[Dirty Cary]

Both of these have over 5000 rounds and still look new and ZERO malfunctions.

 

[orygun]

Looking for a 3-4" .357 mag. Taurus fits my price range, but the fact that they are so much less than S&W and Ruger prices gives me some concern regarding quality.

Any experiences out there with Taurus revolvers?

Jerry

In the mid to late 80's my friend bought a brand new Taurus 66 6" 357. I had a Smith 65 about the same time.
Frank's Taurus was not the "cheap POS" that I'd been told to expect from Taurus. Beautiful finish and a trigger pull (both DA and SA) that was easily as good as my Smith. He still has the gun.
Remember, this was before new manufacturing methods driven by the need to make things cheap. The Taurus 8 shot 22 revolver that I got for my nephew 6-8 years ago is a decent enough gun, but the trigger pull and finish of the gun isn't as nice as Frank's old 66.

 

[nammac]

In the mid to late 80's my friend bought a brand new Taurus 66 6" 357. I had a Smith 65 about the same time.
Frank's Taurus was not the "cheap POS" that I'd been told to expect from Taurus. Beautiful finish and a trigger pull (both DA and SA) that was easily as good as my Smith. He still has the gun.
Remember, this was before new manufacturing methods driven by the need to make things cheap. The Taurus 8 shot 22 revolver that I got for my nephew 6-8 years ago is a decent enough gun, but the trigger pull and finish of the gun isn't as nice as Frank's old 66.

Yup, mid to late 80's was the golden era for Taurus revolvers. Still true copies of Smith's and as you mentioned, old manufacturing methods. Had several myself from that time frame, an 82, 85 and 66... I do regret selling off the 82 and 66, as you say they were smooth and had triggers that rivaled Smiths of the day... New ones, not so much...

 

[The Heretic]

Neither of the Taurus revolvers I have owned were cheap POSes. I liked the design and materials.

But the quality control really sucked on the TTT - it only takes a few seconds to check the cylinder/barrel gap. So either they did not do this, or someone said "close enough - ship it". That is my impression of all Taurus products. Flip a coin as to whether this will be your experience.

YMMV

 

[The Heretic]

Real case in point. Today on local gun sale classifieds. Locally there's a nice looking used Taurus .38 SW clone for $275. I thought about it for a few minutes. Then thought, $275 for a 6-shot .38 Taurus revolver?! Heck for a few bucks more you're into used Walther/Glock/Sig/XD/SW semi-auto 9mm territory, with twice the capacity, starting around $300-325.
View attachment 656173


And if I really wanted a used .38, there's a really beautiful used SW .38 model 67 stainless locally for $450. So for $175 more, which isn't a whole lot in the gun world, you upgrade to a actual SW which will appreciate in value faster than that Taurus and it's almost certainly better quality.

Unless you're just broke, that SW is almost certainly a far better gun and purchase for just a little bit more money.

View attachment 656174

My TTT did not appreciate - it devalued over time.

 

[fredball]

I have a model 66 / 6" and a 605 snub never any issues with either one save the extra and buy ammo with it.

 

[Certaindeaf]

. Had several myself from that time frame, an 82, 85 and 66... I do regret selling off the 82 and 66, as you say they were smooth and had triggers that rivaled Smiths of the day...

Then there must be ten other reasons I've never seen a Taurus PPC gun.

 

[leadcounsel]

View attachment 656182

Both of these have over 5000 rounds and still look new and ZERO malfunctions.

That "Taurus" is a Beretta. Made on their old tooling by their old trained employees for decades.

I also have 2 of them.

Taurus can make cloned guns pretty well. In other words, they don't usually screw up too badly when they plagiarize.

 

[leadcounsel]

In the mid to late 80's my friend bought a brand new Taurus 66 6" 357. I had a Smith 65 about the same time.
Frank's Taurus was not the "cheap POS" that I'd been told to expect from Taurus. Beautiful finish and a trigger pull (both DA and SA) that was easily as good as my Smith. He still has the gun.
Remember, this was before new manufacturing methods driven by the need to make things cheap. The Taurus 8 shot 22 revolver that I got for my nephew 6-8 years ago is a decent enough gun, but the trigger pull and finish of the gun isn't as nice as Frank's old 66.

Today what is the value price difference of the two guns? Curious.

 

[bbbass]

They have handgun specific 410 loads, I've tried them all and at 50ft using 3 buck shot load out of 5 shots there were 9 holes in the kill zone.
Using pdx1 at that distance the disc were all on paper the bbs were all over the paper.. You can always us 45lc for accurate shots.

IMO 50' is not the distance that the Judge was intended to be used. That's over 15yds. I own two Judge revolvers... the useful distance is, IMO, more like 3yds. And I have mine loaded with 3" PDX1.

It's a bedroom gun, or a snake gun if used with #5 shot. Trying to make it into a range gun is not gonna work out well. They do smash watermelons nicely at 15' though!!!

 

[bbbass]

It would appear, after all the blah blah blah, that if one is considering purchasing a Taurus revolver, that an older/used one is the ticket. But not too old.

 

[leadcounsel]

It would appear, after all the blah blah blah, that if one is considering purchasing a Taurus revolver, that an older/used one is the ticket. But not too old.

Yup. A low priced, pristine safe queen clone of another successful model (SW, Beretta, etc.) from decades ago that you can personally carefully inspect is the way to go.

 

[The Heretic]

IMO 50' is not the distance that the Judge was intended to be used. That's over 15yds. I own two Judge revolvers... the useful distance is, IMO, more like 3yds. And I have mine loaded with 3" PDX1.

It's a bedroom gun, or a snake gun if used with #5 shot. Trying to make it into a range gun is not gonna work out well. They do smash watermelons nicely at 15' though!!!

If you are shooting a small pest like a rat, or see a grouse at ten feet, then .410 from a pistol might be ok, but for self-defense, you are better off with the .45 Colt load - the .410 will generally not give you what you need or want. For rats, mice, etc., I think the shot loads from .44 or .45 should be sufficient at close distances. This summer I intend to find out; when I mowed some of my property last year, there were mice every ten feet or so.

 

[Lee Goodwin]

I have two Taurus,
one the cylinder push rod needs frequent tightening, and, tightens left handed, so, I forget sometimes, between outings, no loctite, otherwise shoots well.

One, has light hammer strikes if you shoot from double action. Works very well otherwise.
I was looking at a brand new 44 mag and in opening the cylinder it got stuck open and the counter guy and myself could not get it to go back into battery.
So, maybe look at it , in hand and decide.
it is probably worth it to spend 300 to 400 more and get the smith, or ruger.