Strykervet
member
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2010
- Messages
- 1,610
Are you kidding? Smith and Wesson copies everyone these days. They still have their revolver line, and I really hope they don't drop it to copy Taurus, which I wouldn't put past them these days.a "fad/ gimmick" that had made taurus a whole boat load of money. and if it was a fad smith wouldnt have copied it
i don't like taurus particularly but i do like my judge
it sits in my console as a truck gun when i'm in the barrio. shot pattern of 000 buck at driver side window doesnt matter at 2 feet. thats a big ole barrel to look down on the business end...
in the words of borat "i feel like dirty harold"
They dropped a whole line of great pistols, the 3rd gen. autos, in order to copy Glock. They got sued for the Sigma, which was a complete ripoff. Now they make AR's and 1911's. Sure, they are a fad company now. They will make whatever is selling the most at the moment, and right now, it is AR's and affordable 1911's. Now the Judge is selling well, and since Smith has a huge revolver manufacturing capability and a name to go with them, it only sounds reasonable that they'd jump on that wagon too.
I wish they'd bring the 3rd gens back, make a 4th gen mabye.
As for the Judge, I think it is gimmicky for one main reason: size. Their commercial (well, Smith and Wesson's commercial I think) has a lady get approached by two "bad guys" in a parking garage and she slips it out of her purse --it is half the size of her purse, try getting your wife to carry something like that-- and then, "BOOM, BOOM, BOOM" and they show some cantaloupes getting blown apart. Whatever.
So all effectiveness aside, and I do think .45LC and those new .410 shells they've designed for it are indeed effective (although the .45LC would be MORE effective out of a .45LC revolver) the size of the thing makes it a no-go. You can't conceal carry this thing! That is why the commercial has a woman pulling it from a purse!
For snakes and whatnot, I think most folks generally use something else already. Like a traditional shotgun or whatever they are carrying that they feel appropriate for the environment they are in. Now if you want a toy and a plinker and this is what you want, it most certainly would be an excellent snake pistol, no doubt about it.
Seriously, if you get one of these, it needs to be because you want a toy. There are much better defense tools for HD, like an M4 or a shotgun, and for carry, I'd carry just about anything else first, but I'd carry this before the Desert Eagle or the .500magnum. But I wouldn't carry any of those to begin with, they are not practical at all, and neither is this. Too big for carry, too "small" for HD. For banging away in the field? Just right.
So simply put, if this appeals to your defense criteria, get a snub .45LC for carry, a 12ga. pump for HD, and save the Judge for fun.
They've really put some marketing genius behind this thing. They are selling it as a true defensive tool. The ads, the names, the new shells. When it came out in the late 80's or 90's, it was called the "Thunder (Five or Six)" and it had no additional marketing hype and it only used commonly available .45LC and .410. So basically, without being TOLD how to view it, people viewed it as what it was: an impractical weapon or as a toy. It flopped.
What I would like to see, and it would be mostly a toy as well, is one of these things chambered in 20ga. with a long barrel and a stock. That would be a fun toy. Maybe with a .22mag revolver built in too. Seriously, I think it would be a cool toy.