Given the corolla post, and the gunsmith post, it sounds like there's not much you can do to a Taurus - you're stuck with what you bought. Is that really the case? It seems like if you buy a Ruger, you're going to run into known quality issues, mainly dealing with spring weights and the trigger needing extra polish, but if you buy a Taurus, it's really just a crap shoot and you can't do anything about it if you roll snake eyes.
Does anyone ever bother to pick up a revolver and check it out before purchase, work it through to check timing, check end play, etc? Or, do you just walk in, look at a gun, point to it and put your cash on the counter? If I check the gun out, it times well, is tight, I will consider the purchase. Most of the guns I buy anymore are used. My 4" M66 Taurus was one of my better purchases, perfect timing, tight, no play, looked as if it'd maybe fired a box of .38 or something. Was $197 at a gun show. I bought it and it's proved to be the most accurate DA 4" .357 K frame sized gun I've ever owned. I like K frames, but Smith and Wesson M19s start at about 400 bucks and besides, I had one and it wasn't as accurate or as nice a gun IMHO as my Taurus. The trigger was as good, but I like the Taurus in that the frame is a little bigger and the gun seems a little stronger. It's no Ruger, but it doesn't have that stinkin' flat spot on the bottom of the forcing cone. I had that crack once on a M10 and had to rebarrel it. Putting hot .357 though that design CAN'T be any easier on the forcing cone. It has been a problem with Smith K frames in the past. I had a Security Six once. Felt recoil with that thing was much worse than the Taurus and it just flat didn't like .38 fired in it, no better than 3-4" groups at 25 yards with Remington hollow base wadcutter loads, not real good. My Taurus will put those into an inch all day long and twice on Sunday.
Frankly, the out of the box trigger on that M66 is hand over fist better than any Ruger DA. Yeah, I did a home trigger job on my Security Six and it was sweet after that, but it was also necessary. The Taurus is good enough that it doesn't NEED a trigger job. It's every bit as smooth and light as my M10 that's an early sixties gun and has had plenty of cycles of the trigger. And, that M10 is as nice as my M19 was, so extrapolating, I'd say my M66 is as good as my M19 was. Now, I CHECKED that gun out before I bought it. I didn't just walk up and lay the money down. Had the guy refused to let me handle the gun, I'd have walked on to another table. There wasn't much at that show worth what they were askin', so I'd probably not have bought anything. K frame .357s down here start at about 400 if not worn out and work their way up. I can buy a NEW RUGER for not much more'n THAT! If I'm going to buy a more expensive revolver, it'll be a Ruger. However, Ruger doesn't have the variety in their line that Taurus does. If you want a Smith, you can find an equivalent Taurus for many dollars less and in some cases, I've found the out of the box quality better, such as the trigger in my M85UL. I have owned or felt no sweeter out of the box trigger except maybe an old room mate's Colt Python. That thing was pretty sweet, but it was 800 bucks in 1978 dollars! It SHOULD be sweet.
