S&W Governor?
- Thread starter jski
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mcb
Member
Correct. The Thunder 5 pre-dated both.
Good call I had forgotten about that little beastie.
Outlaw75
Member
URIT
Member
I've owned a Governor for years and keep it under my nightstand in a Hornady Rapidsafe. I haven't had any performance issues with my Governor and it is my go-to gun to defend against an intruder in the middle of the night. It is not a gimmick.
Elm Creek Smith
Member
My Dad LOVED gimmicks! He mounted a holster on the back of his headboard. Just sayin'.
unclenunzie
Contributing Member
A bit of a reach, considering one is a product priced within the bounds of reasonable utility, while the other is the reference example for the madness of crowds. Still this is somewhat off-topic, so I'll leave this as is.
P5 Guy
Member
mcb
Member
Outlaw75 reminded me of that at the top of this page of the thread.
In this case (a historical first), the Governor is the imitator. The Judge came first and I find the irony delicious!
Obturation
Member
We had the judge, then the governor . what's next, the ruger "speaker of the house"? Or maybe the colt "president"? It's such a hokey bunch of hoopla
Vern Humphrey
Member
Let's put it this way -- a lot of people bought Judges and Governors. And a lot of people voted for Bernie Sanders.
Zaydok Allen
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It’ll just be a rock called “The Pelosi”.
AK103K
member
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- Dec 27, 2002
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- 7,610
Ive had a Governor for a little over a year now. For a long time, I didnt see them (and mostly the Judges) as much more than something someone who wasnt a shooter was sold a line of goods at the local gun shop.
I do think the Governor is a quite a few steps above the Taurus Judges Ive seen. The S&W is light, well made and well balanced, and feels a lot better in the hand than it might look. It points and shoots a lot more naturally than you might think too. It has a comfortable K/L frame grip, and is comfortable to shoot.
Now that I have one, and shot it a good bit, my opinion on them has changed.
As has been mentioned, I think the shotgun part of this is best reserved and served for little critters and snakes. The buck loads shoot OK, and are accurate, but I dont know how effective they would be. Guess the only way to find out, is actually shoot something living with it.
Now the 45Colt and 45acp are a different story, and both shoot well in mine, and the 45acp seems to shoot the best, which kind of surprised me. The other advantage to the acp is, they use the same moon clips as my 625, and are quickly reloaded.
You can also use the HKS speed loaders with the 45Colt.
I keep mine in an El Paso Tanker and in it, its very handy. The pouches hold a mix of bunch of 45acp on clips and 410 shot loads.
Its been awhile now, but Im pretty sure these were all shot at 10 yards. The first was a couple of Federal #4 shot 410....
This was two or three cylinders of 45Colt....
And this was two or three of 45acp....
This was a couple of rounds of Federal 000 Buck (4 pieces of buck). The first round was shot at "the nose" and impacted a little right. The second round was shot in the light area to the right of the head, just to see if the vertical stringing was what was the norm, which it was. Those were also shot at around 10 yards.
I also shot one round up close at around 5 yards, and that is just under the "collar". As you can see, its a bit tighter too.
They seem to shoot consistently and accurately, and it would likely still spoil someones day at close range. I think like with a shotgun, many seem to think they are going to get doorway filling spreads at across the room distances, and thats just not going to be the case, with either. Just like anything else, you need to pick the target and shoot it.
Both the pistol calibers were shot pretty quickly DAO. I wanted to see how the gun actually shot, and wasnt trying to shoot for groups.
While it is kind of a novelty gun, I think its a very viable "field" gun, that would work pretty much anywhere, and quite well in that role.
I do think the Governor is a quite a few steps above the Taurus Judges Ive seen. The S&W is light, well made and well balanced, and feels a lot better in the hand than it might look. It points and shoots a lot more naturally than you might think too. It has a comfortable K/L frame grip, and is comfortable to shoot.
Now that I have one, and shot it a good bit, my opinion on them has changed.
As has been mentioned, I think the shotgun part of this is best reserved and served for little critters and snakes. The buck loads shoot OK, and are accurate, but I dont know how effective they would be. Guess the only way to find out, is actually shoot something living with it.
Now the 45Colt and 45acp are a different story, and both shoot well in mine, and the 45acp seems to shoot the best, which kind of surprised me. The other advantage to the acp is, they use the same moon clips as my 625, and are quickly reloaded.
You can also use the HKS speed loaders with the 45Colt.
I keep mine in an El Paso Tanker and in it, its very handy. The pouches hold a mix of bunch of 45acp on clips and 410 shot loads.
Its been awhile now, but Im pretty sure these were all shot at 10 yards. The first was a couple of Federal #4 shot 410....
This was two or three cylinders of 45Colt....
And this was two or three of 45acp....
This was a couple of rounds of Federal 000 Buck (4 pieces of buck). The first round was shot at "the nose" and impacted a little right. The second round was shot in the light area to the right of the head, just to see if the vertical stringing was what was the norm, which it was. Those were also shot at around 10 yards.
I also shot one round up close at around 5 yards, and that is just under the "collar". As you can see, its a bit tighter too.
They seem to shoot consistently and accurately, and it would likely still spoil someones day at close range. I think like with a shotgun, many seem to think they are going to get doorway filling spreads at across the room distances, and thats just not going to be the case, with either. Just like anything else, you need to pick the target and shoot it.
Both the pistol calibers were shot pretty quickly DAO. I wanted to see how the gun actually shot, and wasnt trying to shoot for groups.
While it is kind of a novelty gun, I think its a very viable "field" gun, that would work pretty much anywhere, and quite well in that role.
FAS1
Member
I never considered owning one myself, but this is a 3" Taurus Raging Judge in a FAS1-Magnum XL quick access handgun safe. This safe is usually used with 6" full size revolvers. The holster needed for this gun to fit is our Tactical Light holster and you can see it won't even fit it properly because if the gun's height! The gun still barely fits to give you an idea of it's size. The safe is 15-3/4" long.
This customer chooses to keep it loaded with .410 shot shells for home defense use. He said he didn't want to kill anyone. He seemed to understand with the shot shells that it probably wasn't a lethal round and that's what he wanted. He also lives in an apartment and that was part of his thinking as well. Personally, I would have it loaded with the .45 Long Colt rounds.
This customer chooses to keep it loaded with .410 shot shells for home defense use. He said he didn't want to kill anyone. He seemed to understand with the shot shells that it probably wasn't a lethal round and that's what he wanted. He also lives in an apartment and that was part of his thinking as well. Personally, I would have it loaded with the .45 Long Colt rounds.
scaatylobo
Member
My FIRM opinion is ,they should have made it to fire .45 Colt only.
That would have shortened the cylinder enough to make it a true snub,just as should have been done with the Taurus.
Then I would be very interested in it.
Having fired ".410 buckshot" from a handgun,I found no pellets hitting the target at past 25 FEET.
And only a few at even 5 FEET.
You like it,buy it.
But to me it's a anchor for a small boat.
Vern Humphrey
Member
Amen. I would buy one with a shorter cylinder in .45 Colt. They can even keep the .45 ACP capability -- just shorten the cylinder and throat it properly.
Well Taurus already took, "Public Defender" and "Raging Judge". Maybe "Prosecutor" or "Bailiff"
Vern Humphrey
Member
Attorney General?
unclenunzie
Contributing Member
Seeing as how they are an international company, how about the Taurus "Magistrate", or "Solicitor".
Vern Humphrey
Member
I have it -- the Taurus Shyster!
mcb
Member
AK103K
member
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2002
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- 7,610
What gun were you shooting you couldnt make decent hits at 25'?
Doesnt/didnt S&W already make some of those?
Considering the "jump" for the 45acp, I was amazed at how well my Governor shoots with them. Even the 45 Colt shoots OK, but so far, Ive only tried one load with it, and I can probably find or come up with something it likes better.
Vern Humphrey
Member
Occasionally -- but try and find one. The cylinders on the Model 25 are really too short for the .45 Colt. It'll work but you have to watch Overall Length, especially with heavier bullets.
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