Taurus snubbies
Never owned a Charco weapon, but from what I've read, they can be either very good, or junk -- depending entirely on when they were made during that company's volitile history
From my experience in owning several Taurus snubbies, the first generation of them (The S&W clones) were OK for the prices they charged at the time, but were not a top line product. Same with the Rossi models of about that time.
Since then, and I'm not sure when the change was made, the quality of Taurus has increased to where they are a good quality handgun
for the money.
Of course, every gun maker occaisionally has a bad one that got out the door.
I can only surmise, but from what I have heard form other sources, the poster that had the problem with ignition failures could almost certainly have fixed them with a new set of springs. However, having myself experienced unreliable handguns in the past, (Colt's 1911) I fully understand the desire not to place his trust in that particular gun.
I have owned several Taurus revolvers in the past, and never had a problem with any of them. Current examples include:
An M431 blue steel .44 (2nd generation). This is a great revolver, and is a comfort to me at times. My only real beef with it as a carry gun, is that it is a tad heavy for a small revolver, but it can be lived with. It's functioning is flawless, and it is as accurate as anyone could wish in a snubbie.
No, it is not as "nice" in fit and finish as a Smith & Wesson, or Colt of comparable type, and is not IMO as robust as a Ruger, nevertheless, the polish and bluing is very nice for a handgun in it's price range, the barrel cylinder gap is close, and the lockup is tight.
The only real differences in quality that I can tell visually from a smith is in the area around the extracor star, and some of the internal finish work is not as good, but since that is not often seen, and has no effect on the function, it is not an issue for me.
I also own a Tarus M415 Total Titanium of similar size (3Rd Gen and unfortunatly no longer in production) which is much lighter, and also a flawless performer. It is a fantastic piece, and at the time I bought it -- was sitting next to an identical model in .44 -- I only wish I could have bought one of each.
Every one has a different view of these things of course, but my experience is that Taurus (Snubbie revolvers at least) are a good buy if you can get one at a reasonable price, and if it is a good one. I wouldn't trade one of my S&W's for one, but I wouldn't keep my Smith if it didn't work right either.
(Sorry it was such a long post. What can I say, just another windbag....should have gone into politics, apparently we can't do much worse....)
