Opinions on Taurus Tracker 44 Magnum

How much is it?

I owned one and considered it a very good gun. I would buy another in a heart beat. The only thing I can say that might be taken as negative by some, is that it is a .44 Special gun that can be shot with standard .44 Magnum loads from time to time. If you want a .44 Magnum to shoot regularly I would buy a heavier frame revolver. I never considered my gun as a .44 Magnum ,as my need for that cartridge is very minimal for me. I did like the fact that I could use it to shoot .44 Magnums, but I think a steady diet of them would shorten the life of the gun. If it is in good condition treat it like it is a .44 Special and you will love it for years. If you feel you need the extra power of the .44 Magnum, use only standard loads and your not going to hurt the gun with them shooting a cylinder of Magnums occasionally. Stay the hell away from the hot stuff - it would not be good for the gun. The dinosaurs are all dead anyway.

I have had so many guns made by them I am not sure any more how many. All of them have worked well enough to not go back. None of them were as nice and smooth as the ones costing a lot more but I did not expect that for the price. So if you have handled it, and feel you can live with the action? All there is now is price. The Co makes a LOT of guns. Most work. They have a rep for the bad ones as it can be a hassle some times getting one fixed. So if the price is low enough that you can feel comfortable? Hell yes buy it. It will of course never be a S&W 29 series but I have to guess you are not paying near what one of those runs for this?

My tracker gets carried more than anything else. Love it more than the smith 69 and my ruger toklat. My only gripe is the factory grips, spend the $20 on amazon for the hogue grips. Well worth the money. As far as ammo goes, It shoots the 305 grain hardscast HSM “bear loads” at 1120 fps, plenty of power for any bear.

We also bought a Taurus 44- 44 magnum 6.5" barrel for a low price. Now that we have shot it many times. We wouldn't hesitate for a second to buy another one ,even if the price was higher. If we had the funds at that time. Love the gun.

I’ve put 2 cylinders through one. Shot well but it definitely has a serious boom to it with the ported barrel shooting full magnum loads.
I think using a hot 44 special would be a better cartridge for the gun. If you handload the world is your oyster, if not check out the heavy 44 special loads from Buffalo bore. If I ever see one in 41 mag floating around you all better look out because I’m diving on it, again as a great 41 special gun

My wife has a 357 tracker and I owned a 44c for awhile, it's basically a snubby of what you are looking at.

I really like the ribber grip and the porting, helps a lot with recoil. 44 isn't where I'd go for HD but it'll do for what it is. I'd stick with specials for people though

How good of a deal?

(like anything these days) if you get a good one it's likely to be good for awhile. I had a model 85 snub I wish I never sold. Man could it should.

44 special done right at standard pressure (see buffalo bore) will get it done. Maybe load magnums if hiking in bear country.

Also ifired thousands of heavy 44 mag thru my 44c, it held up fine

Won one at a Friends of the NRA dinner some years back, never wanted a 44 mag, but now I’ve got one. Probably less than 100 rounds through it and only about a 20 full house 44 mags, it’s snappy! I’m a 45 guy but I really should shoot it more often. I’ve got a few other Taurus handguns, it’s not a Blackhawk or Anaconda, but so far it’s fine, for free! Well maybe not free, 10 years a sponsor and other games and drawings where I came up dry! It was a $100 a ticket, 10 ticket drawing that I won, so I just tell myself it was a $100 gun. I’m very satisfied with all my Taurus handguns and the two service issues I’ve had were handled extremely well. One was only gone 6 days and the other was a Rossi recall. They were supposedly non repairable so they sent me a new Taurus 8 something and $50 for my trouble. Though I liked the Rossi better but they supposedly had an issue with the potential of going band if you dropped them just wrong. If I had known they wouldn’t fix it I would never have sent it in.

A second to it makes a great .44 Special and a difficult Magnum...

I don't have the .44 version but do have one of the .41s..and a .45 ACP. Makes the perfect .41 Special with it's shorter than average cylinder.

Your load of 8.7 grains of W-231 with a 200 grain bullet.... Speer made what they called their Gold Dot Short Barrel Load....with a 200 grain GD HP run at 1080 fps from a 4" barrel. To duplicate the load one runs 10.0 grains of W-231....so your load should work fine in the Tracker. I used to use it from a S&W Mountain Gun and it was very easy on the hands...

It was a much better load than the .44 Special version with the same bullet...it would turn inside out every time...

Bob

The joke around the USPSA Revolver shooters is that the Taurus makes a great revolver... You just need three of them... The one your shooting the match with, the spare in your range bag, and the one back at Taurus being serviced, rotate frequently.

That said my brother has one of the Taurus M44 and it has well over 1000rds of trouble free shooting for him. It's not a bad shooting revolver until you shoot a cylinder full through it and then immediately lay it down and pick up and shoot a cylinder through my 6.5 inch full underlug M29. The M44 is a very serviceable revolver but in direct comparison to the M29 and you really see the corners that were cut to bring that much more attractive price.

Charlie Martinez said:

I think I can pick it up for less than $200.

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That is a steal of a price.

Targa said:

That is a steal of a price.

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Absolutely!

I like it. I wouldn’t mind a Taurus revolver of some kind as a extra in the rotation

Antihero said:

Also i fired thousands of heavy 44 mag thru my 44c, it held up fine

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Just to clarify for those who may not know, The C model has a larger frame than the Tracker

Edit : I was incorrect on the 44c . I was thinking of a different .44 model. It is a medium frame gun like the Tracker. I guess I made a mistake. It is sometimes hard to be a perfect human. If my error twisted your panties to tight and turned you into a whiny child you can get together with Antihero and start a club.

Charlie Martinez said:

I think I can pick it up for less than $200.

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I like my Taurus Tracker 41 Magnum - a lot more than $200 worth!
It was the gun I carried when we were backpacking in grizzly country. Although, truth be told I always felt more ill at ease when my wife and I were at the trailheads (where we were more likely to encounter two-legged miscreants) than when we were 20 miles into the Idaho wilderness - where there were bears and lions, and wolves, oh my!

Targa said:

That is a steal of a price.

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I will give you $300 + USPS cost to my FFL if the gun is in a no problem condition. So take that to the bank as they say. $200 is a total steal

mnrivrat said:

Just to clarify for those who may not know, The C model has a larger frame than the Tracker

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Just to clarify mnrivrat is one of those who don't know.

The 44c is a snubby version of the 44 tracker. It's from the tracker line and it's the exact same frame. I literally have had a 357 tracker and a 44c in my hands at the same time in the last few days.

Misinformation hurts us all

At 200 I wouldn't even hesitate. If that deal came up here. Wouldn't be worth my time to make a thread! It's 100% worth the chance , odds are in your favor you get a decent one.

mnrivrat said:

is that it is a .44 Special gun that can be shot with standard .44 Magnum

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I feel the same way about the newer 29 or 629. Ive never shot the Taurus but I sent more than one Smith back to the company battered by relatively few 44 magnum round. For real use as a full time 44 magnum I'd take a Redhawk or a single action any day. Blackhawk/ FA/BFR. Granted, the Smiths feel much better in the hand IMO. They pay for it in durability. Also IMO

Alaskan Ironworker said:

My tracker gets carried more than anything else.

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If they come with the "ribber" grips I agree. They are the worst grip I've ever owned. I bought a 45/410 tracker when they first came out (2004 or so) and felt the same way as you. A cheap hogue is 100x better and I usually don't even care for Hogue or any other non-wood grip on a revolver.
As far as that tracker goes I won't speak to durability because I'll likely never shoot it again. But it was pretty accurate with 45 colt rounds. Useless with 410. Trigger was great in SA and good in DA. Worse than any Smith I own but better than my best Redhawk trigger wise.

I don't care for Taurus. But I don't hate them the way some do. Id gladly pay 2-300 for the 44 though.

For $200 I’d snatch it up in a heartbeat

Yep, up here a used one goes for $400-$450