Taurus 85 owners sound off

PSA is trying to take my money against my will again. I mean, I have 2 of them, but none in stainless...and my wife's stainless M605 looks very nice.

http://palmettostatearmory.com/taurus-model-85-revolver-38-special-p-2-2-850029fs.html

Just like any revolver, it's best to check out a Taurus 85 in person before the purchase. My 85UL passed the in person check out, while the 85UL next to it in the display case did not.

The only issue I had with my 85UL during breaking in was the ratchet teeth on the extractor developed burred edges that I had to clean up with a jewelers file. After that, all has been good.

maxxhavoc said:

I say go for it. Here is my old-school blued model and my UL. Both run perfectly and have good triggers (the blued one has a GREAT trigger.) The only issue I have is the crane screw walks out when shooting stout loads. Happens with my Smith too, spring loaded screws like to come out.
View attachment 760885

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I resorted to blue Loctite for my 85UL's crane screw.

I have a 2007 Taurus® Mdl85SS2UL that I bought new that year. So far I have put a little over 11K rounds through it with nary a hiccup. I carry it daily with Federal® Premium 38 Special Standard Pressure 125gr Nyclad® HP. POI and POA are identical out to 15yds.

My current Taurus battery...
2003 617SS2 357 Mag - Repaired twice, 2009 & 2017.
2007 85SS2UL 38 Spcl - No Issues
2012 605SS2 357 Mag - No Issues
2012 425SS4CP TRACKER™ 41 Mag - No Issues
2013 992B4 TRACKER™ 22LR/22Mag - No Issues

I had a good steel 85 that I bought around 1990. I shot it a bunch. It was stolen about 15 years later. The trigger was very nice

I replaced it with an 85UL. It has never malfunctioned. Its trigger is okay. Since I bought it I have heard that the UL version is not a heavy-duty, tens of thousands of rounds revolver, so I shoot it occasionally and not too many rounds. I have plenty of other snubbies to practice with.

I have only the polymer 85, but it's been problem free so far. Just have to make sure the cylinder is pushed into the frame all the way after loading.

I have too many S&W and Rossi snubbies to justify a Taurus collection as well. However, I do also have about a 40 or 50 year old Taurus 82 (full size six shot) .38 in nickle as well as a blued version that I bought brand new. No real issues with them either. The strain screw had to be adjusted on the old gun, and the new gun got a bit of bore leading, but other than that, 100%.

My wife has been carrying one for decades. Goes bang every time, and you do not want to be the target when she's shooting it.

I have one that I traded away an excellent Taurus 990 22LR for (the LAST time I will EVER get rid of a gun I like!!) Man, did I enjoy that 22. Even my 62 year old mother enjoyed, a great deal, shooting 12 ga hulls at 7 yards with it.

The 85UL I traded for; I disassembled it right when I got it, to clean out the action as I always do with a new to me firearm, especially on this one because I felt the cylinder release was way too difficult to operate. Immediately I knew something was up as the firing pin retaining pin simply fell right out. As it turned out, the firing pin is totally unremoveable from the frame. Maybe the guy traded it away after firing loads that were too stout?

Well, I totally buggered it up after that. Upon reassembly I couldn't get the "hand" (?) to grab the cylinder as it rotated. Disassembling again to double check my work, I lost the sear spring and the sear spring pin (poor attention to detail and didn't use a plastic bag as I might usually do, in my unacceptable haste). I believe my past maintenance on revolvers was pure luck given everything I got wrong on this one.

It has been over 2 years that I have owned it and I still have the revolver totally disassembled in pieces in baggies, never having shot it a single time, because I just can't justify spending 80 dollars on shipping to Taurus to troubleshoot the possibly mushroomed firing pin, replace the parts I lost (they are never available on Numrich), etc. I am sure the shipping and the bill they will give me will far outweigh the cost of just buying a new one. In the back of my mind, sometimes I wish for a gun buyback to come to a nearby police department so I can simply take my fifty dollars and buy ammo for something else.

I've got a stainless M85, that I bought last year. It had quite a bit of drag between the cylinder and crane, which was helped greatly by the judicious use of Mothers Mag Wheel Polish. It spins quite freely, now. That is, as long as I don't put the big spring back inside of the crane/cylinder. While it's still much better than it was, that spring causes a lot of drag, and I can't figure out why. It's still better than it was, but not what it really should be.

I am not a fan of most things that have a cylinder that aren't marked Smith & Wesson....

BUT...having said that, I really do like the little Taurus 85s. I especially like the UL series of ultra light snubs. I have three of them laying around the casa in handy places.

I do not own an 85 but do own four other Taurus revolvers. All SS or blued steel. They are fair quality for what they cost and always go bang and hit what I was aiming at when I pull the trigger. Polishing things helped with trigger pull--now not a gritty feeling. They were all purchased more than 10 years ago so the new ones I have no experience with either.

Palmetto State Armory currently has them for just over $200. I carried one for about 5 years, and shot it every couple of weeks. I never experienced any problem with it, but a relative needed it more than I did. I may jump on the PSA deal just to have one laying around.

I think a lot of the older guys got Taurus shy back in the late 1980's or early 1990's when Taurus released a bunch of 85s with a very small barrel cylinder gap. Folks would show up at the range my club was running and after a few cylinders of elcheapo local guy lead reloads experience a "jam" where in they could not cause the cylinder to rotate or in some cases even open the cylinder. The cylinder was wedged against the forcing cone by lead and powder debris.

My biggest concern was not the issue with the revolvers, but that the owners always walked down to the range officer with the thing in hand and as often as not finger on the trigger and sweeping the line and range officer as they walked!!!!!

We would open the cylinders, with a rubber mallet if necessary, and run yea olde lead removal cloth about the cylinder face and forcing cone with a nylon brush between scrubs with the cloth. We then recommended quality ammo of a semi jacket type and possibly having a gunsmith take a teenie bit off the forcing cone and off they went.

Yes, you can make a barrel cylinder gap TOO TIGHT, and briefly Taurus did so on a fair number of guns.

If I had been that sort of person, I likely could have had a couple or three very cheap, near new, Taurus 85s that with five minutes with a file and emory cloth would have been great revolvers.

-kBob

The Taurus 85 to me, is the company's flagship revolver (one could make a case for the Raging Bull or the Model 66), I always wanted one of the older shiny blued model but I never got one. My wife for my bday a coupla years ago got me the Taurus 85 UL, now prior to this I carried a model 36 no dash with a pinned barrel, the 85 has been dubbed the "J-frame killer" why? Because I have shot over 7k rounds out of it from light cowboy loads to plus p self defense loads and it keeps on trucking, I love the lil gun. Now one thing so few people pick up on the 85 vs the other plethora of small .38's out there is the profile of the hammer, its in such a way that it doesnt suffer the same drawbacks as others do when drawing from the pocket like many others do. Heck I even found the link to that old bday thread here.
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/a-taurus-birthday.793634/

I had two, but let my son have one. Every young man should have a good wheel gun for his nightstand. I gave him the shiny one.

Bought a NIB stainless Taurus 85 in 1986 for my then-wife, though I shot it more than she ever did.
Excellent, solid gun, fully the equal of a steel J-frame S&W, or better.

Later traded it, but I wish I'd kept it.

Dunno if current Taurus offerings are up to par in quality, but I doubt it.

A big plus (maybe the biggest plus) of Taurus over S&W is the internal lock on the Taurus is much better designed and does not ruin the looks of the gun.

I just bought one and so far shoots very good! An 85 steel model.
I have a Tracker Titanium 45 acp a good friend left me, and it is a tack driver!

kBob said:

I think a lot of the older guys got Taurus shy back in the late 1980's or early 1990's when Taurus released a bunch of 85s with a very small barrel cylinder gap.
-kBob

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I have a collection of old and used Rossi revolvers, and they had the same issue sometimes. Otherwise fine guns could leave a bad impression on people because of a malfunction that was pretty easy to resolve.

Why doesn't Taurus put out a copy of the old Chief's Special? That's a gun you can just slip in your pocket.

^^ Little demand for such an animal compared to that for the micro-polymers. With the 85 as already a good product placement, the development and implementation of a new, but very similar, model to run alongside it probably wouldn't be a money-maker.

Rossi did, though, a while back. Unfortunately, US import requirements mandated that they arrive here with longer barrels than a CS would have had.

My old Charter Arms Undercovers can also be easily pocket-carried, but I think the current ones, like the current 85 Taurus guns, have a bit more size due to the shrouds and bigger stocks.

The Taurus 85 is cheaper right now than the Armscor 206 / Rock Island Armory M206.

A bit late but here goes......

I own an M85 (stainless steel) purchased 6 months ago. It is one of my EDC choices.

The lead RSO at my range mentioned that he bought one for his significant other. So I decided to rent one to try it. I really liked the grip, trigger and how well I could shoot it.

At the time I had an LCR 327. I never really shot it well. I own an LCR 22LR and like it very much, just didn't have confidence with the 327 model so I sold it off and picked up a new M85. It has been 100% reliable. Have bobbed the hammer and equipped it with Crimson Trace Laser grips.

I have had good experiences with my Taurus revolvers. Also purchased a new 4" M85, and 617 (357), both have been 100% reliable. My two used M94 revolvers (2" & 4") are both reliable as well. Did perform a trigger job on my 2" M94 as the pull must have been 20 lb. The 4" M94 trigger pull was much better

The deal on the M85 is a good one, tough to pass up at that price. Some folks don't like the new black finish so the SS may be a better choice.

Confederate: I like the notion of the old Chief's Special revolver. But like MedWheeler said it's prob not gonna happen for the reason he mentioned.

My first M85, the aluminum framed version. I think I paid a total of $250.00 out the door. The pistol shoots to point of aim, is accurate and reliable. I took the side plates off and examined the interior. It was the equal of a S&W in terms of tool marks and precise parts fitting. What's not to like.



This one was around $275 and was in stainless steel.



I have only fired around 200 rounds, it shoots high and to the left, but I need more rounds downrange to really evaluate that. The trigger is excellent, just as the Ultralight. No problems what so ever with either pistol.