Taurus revolvers

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CallMeIshmael

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I have read some people who generally disparage Taurus revolvers. I have even read that some smiths refuse to work on them. Recently, I have become enamored of a Taurus Model 425SH4C. This is a compact framed .41 mag. 5 shot revolver with a 4" barrel, weighs only 24 ounces. Sounds like a nearly perfect self defense piece to me. The only modifications other than a trigger job, I would make to it would be to bob the hammer spur, magnaport it and remove the adjustable sights in favor of fixed sights. Hopefully, someday crimson trace will make a full size lasergrip for it. Any thoughts on this gun? And what loading would you recommend for it?
 
I do not have any direct experience with the model you mention. In general, FWIW, I think opinions on Taurus revolvers are a bit overheated. They are not as nicely finished as Smiths, and they are not as tough as Rugers, but my experience has been that they do what they are supposed to do and they do it every time.

So if the piece has what you want for the purpose, then I see no reason why you shouldn't buy it. Of course, that gun is going to kick, no matter how many additional holes you make in the barrel. If you don't have experience with lightweight big bores, you may want to acquire some before spending the money.
 
I've never shot a Taurus, but I have looked at quite a few used ones. One thing I always notice, compared to any other brand of revolver, they just seem like crap. The lockup is always loose and they just seem worn out even if they're a newer model. It's hard to describe...it's just kind of feels more like a toy than a tool.

That said, I still might buy one if the price is right and the condition is good...haven't seen one like that yet.
 
The lockup is always loose and they just seem worn out even if they're a newer model. It's hard to describe...it's just kind of feels more like a toy than a tool.
Click to expand...

I see a lot of Smiths like that, too, just worn out. Had one, couldn't fire it until I had a smith work it over. I ordered it back when I had an FFL. Was an old M1917, way cool revolver, sold as NRA very good. :rolleyes: Look before you leap, I don't care WHAT the brand is.

I have a pair of M66 that were bought used, tight as a drum, very accurate. I like 'em better than the M19 and the Ruger Security Six I had, frankly, mostly because of superior accuracy.
 
Taurus' quality control record has been VERY spotty over the years.

Judging by the comments received by actual Taurus owners at both my local range and online, there's pretty much an "even split". Roughly half will swear BY them, and the other half will swear AT them.

I've just heard too many complaints about them over a span of many years, so I would never purchase one. I've never owned one, but have shot a number of them over the years.

The "fit and finish" and quality control just isn't good enough to put them up there with top echelon revolver manufacturers like S&W and Ruger. Taurus revolvers have been around for many years, yet remain a middle echelon product.

Spending a little more and buying a Smith or Ruger is your best bet.
 
I have had bad luck with two of them (one mine, and one my father's). In both cases on double action shots the hammer and cylinder would start to move and then freeze. Only after opening and re-closing the cylinder would it start to work again. Mine was a .22 with lock on hammer. His is a .357, not sure if it had the lock.

Some people love them, but I will not buy one again.
 
It'll be a cold day in hell before I ever buy a NEW Smith and Wesson. They have to change things, either bring back some semblance of craftsmanship or bring the price down. If there's a hole in the frame, I don't want it, as it stands now. I'll buy pre-lock if I can find a decent deal, but I ain't givin' 400 bucks for a wore out M19. :rolleyes:

Used Taurus revolvers are bargains. You need to know what to look for, what to check out, when you buy used, but unfortunately you need to know that with new Smiths anymore, too! The modern Smith and Wesson just plain sux, one product where the old saying, "They don't make 'em like they used to,", really is true. Took me a while to come to this conclusion. I tried to give 'em benefit of the doubt. The escalating prices on 'em is the final straw, I guess.

I found a used 2.5" M66 a while back, Smith M66, not Taurus. It was $325 and I didn't have the cash at the time. It was tight and perfect and was pre-lock. I should have used the Visa card, but I have a thing about that, probably why I'm the only American alive with no credit card debt. ROFL!
 
Seeing as how the U.S. has printed stamps with the center inverted, I can't get too upset about a misprint.
There are some disgruntled Taurus owners, for sure, but there don't seem to be near as many Taurus owners who are Taurus haters, as there are S&W owners who are Taurus haters. I am not quite sure why this is, but I am almost sure that it is.
I used to be a dealer, and I frankly had more personal experience with problems involving S&Ws than I did Tauruses. I will say S&W and Taurus (and Ruger, and Colt, and Browning, and Remington) all took care of any problems with their firearms thoroughly and completely as far as I am aware. The reason I compare S&W and Taurus is because I believe they are more closely similar, and because they are both quite different from Rugers. And Colt is of course, gone.
I have a Taurus 431 hich has been my carry gun, and a new Taurus 605 which is my carry gun, and I like them both very much. The only double action revolver I ever liked better was an S&W 65, that I sold in a moment of sheer stupidity many years ago.
 
The only modifications other than a trigger job, I would make to it would be to bob the hammer spur, magnaport it...
Click to expand...

Interesting. One man's meat is another man's poison. I don't own a Taurus revolver as the dealers I frequent tend to stock the ones with porting and I despise porting. I will cheerfully pay extra to not have porting.

425SH4C, enh? Guess I'll have to check that one out. Didn't even know they offered "no porting" any more.
 
Seeing as how the U.S. has printed stamps with the center inverted, I can't get too upset about a misprint.
Click to expand...

You should. It's an indicator of their quality control. If a misprint in caliber is missed what else on the pistol has been missed?
 
Since I'm considering a Taurus 24/7 pro, I went ahead and joined taurusarmed.net. One of the threads in the 24/7 section regarded, would you buy another one? 53 responses, 52 positive and one negative that appeared to be that of a troll.including his sig of "friends don't let friends shoot 24/7s" The biggest complaint was getting used to the heinie sights.
 
There are some disgruntled Taurus owners, for sure, but there don't seem to be near as many Taurus owners who are Taurus haters, as there are S&W owners who are Taurus haters. I am not quite sure why this is, but I am almost sure that it is.
Click to expand...
You are not the only one who has noticed this. Along the same lines, I notice a lot of folks -- some right here on this thread -- who passionately hate Taurus despite admittedly never having owned one.

Speaking as someone who has owned a bunch, I freely admit that they are not as finely finished as S&W and not as tough as Ruger. But again, every single Taurus revolver I have owned has done what it was supposed to and did it every time -- even the ones I abused.

You cannot call me a Taurus enthusiast, but I think that most of the second hand criticism is unfair.
 
I've had both, the SP101 and the M85UL I still have. I sold the SP101 back to my son-in-law when he got back from Iraq. It was collateral on a loan I gave him. I sorta was wanting him to default. LOL. Great shootin' little gun, but I hardly ever carried it. It's almost as heavy and cumbersome as my 3" Taurus M66 other than the Hogue grip on the SP101 was a nice compact round butt profile I rather liked. I carry the M85UL all the time, light in a pocket or as back up in an ankle holster. I won't sell it, don't have a suitable replacement for it, and it's a great shooting little gun. The Ruger is a rugged little fart, great shooter, just porky to carry. A medium frame gun like the 3" 66 or a Smith 2.5" K frame, especially if with a round butt, is about as easy to tote and adds a round in the cylinder, if that matters. If I get another SP101, it'll have a 3" barrel. It's no pocket revolver, really no sense in getting the 2.3" version.
 
Taurus

Taurus is kinda baffling to me. The good Taurus handguns are very good. But the bad Tauri are bad, and for some reason, Taurus has decided they won't do a good job of fixing them. So, it's buyer beware.

My mom has a Model 85 revolver she's had for years and it works very well. A buddy has a 9mm auto that's been nothing but trouble since day one. He sent it in paying the shipping, waited months and months to get it back, and guess what? It came still doing exactly what it did before he sent it in and spent all that money on shipping. There are way too many stories just like this for his to be an exception. But this same guy has a Taurus 1911 that works perfectly.

Go figure.
 
Recently, I have become enamored of a Taurus Model 425SH4C. This is a compact framed .41 mag. 5 shot revolver with a 4" barrel, weighs only 24 ounces. Sounds like a nearly perfect self defense piece to me. The only modifications other than a trigger job, I would make to it would be to bob the hammer spur, magnaport it and remove the adjustable sights in favor of fixed sights.
Click to expand...

That model already has porting:

http://www.taurususa.com/products/product-details.cfm?id=195&category=Revolver

But it's interesting you say that, because I would have already gotten one of these Trackers in .41 or .44 mag if they did NOT have this porting. These are going to be extremely loud as it is, without the porting, due to cylinder gap blast. But with it, you're just flat gonna be deaf if you ever actually have to shoot your gun in self-defense. A bit more muzzle flip is a welcome tradeoff to keep from going deaf. Silly gimmicks... :banghead:

But if you're gonna go get one, that does lead us to the question, why not go all the way and just get the .44 mag one, and have much more available and cheaper ammo for it, not to mention a bit more oomph?

http://www.taurususa.com/products/product-details.cfm?id=227&category=Revolver

Oh wait, I see, the .41 is titanium framed and more than 10 oz lighter than the all-steel .44 mag. But ouch, that would be some recoil with that light weight. I'd definitely want the heavier steel one, in which case .44 mag is the way to go. Actually, I would mention that the .41 mag titanium model in question says "discontinued" status, so if you're that enamoured with it, you might outta snap one up while you can still find them.

As some have said, Tauri can be very good or bad, and if they're bad, it's like pulling teeth to get them fixed, so you're taking a real crap shoot. So far, I've been quite lucky.

I've never shot a Taurus, but I have looked at quite a few used ones. One thing I always notice, compared to any other brand of revolver, they just seem like crap. The lockup is always loose and they just seem worn out even if they're a newer model. It's hard to describe...it's just kind of feels more like a toy than a tool.
Click to expand...

I don't find that at all. I find the lockups to often be very very tight - tighter than a lot of Smiths or Colts. But they come in all flavors used - just like Smiths, Colts, and the rest. I don't find them toy-like at all. They are rough, rugged, yet precise solid chunks of hardened steel. The Heritage Rough Riders - now THOSE feel like toys, so I know what you mean. But the Tauri feel every bit as much of a tool as the other top brands. It's just that their QC is so spotty, that that crank out an intolerably high percentage of lemons (evidently), and then add insult to injury by dragging their feet fixing them. I won't buy another one as a result. But I'm pleased with the ones I have - no problems.
 
I've owned three Taurus revolvers over the years. They all three worked quite well, although I will admit two of them I didn't fire a lot. I just traded them off later when I found something I wanted more.

The one I shot a fair amount was a basic knock off of a Smith&Wesson Model 10. "K" frame sized revolver with a heavy 4" barrel, fixed sights and a pair of grips that looked like they'd been carved from a 2X4.

But man that gun would shoot. At least with wadcutters. I never shot anything else in it. Even that one I can't say a I shot a lot, but did put a few hundred or so rounds through it. Worked just fine and shot great, and other than the ugly grips looked good.

I'd buy another one if I just wanted a revolver, but now I'm at the point in life where I want something specific.

Now IF I still had that 7 shot, 4", Taurus 357 I had, I might not be looking for a Model 19 Smith and Wesson right now. I didn't shoot it a lot, but what I did, it shot great.
 
I've fired quite a few Taurus revolvers in various calibers belonging to folks at my club. All of them worked, albeit not as slickly as some comparable models costing much more, and were at least as accurate as my aging eyes and rusty technique could expect.

The only one I own at the moment is an old ss 4" M-94 .22 RF that I've had for many years. It's my tackle box/woods-bumming/plinking DA rf and it's given me nothing but reliable yeoman service over thousands of rounds. Nothing's broken, worn out or failed in service, it's still well-timed and reasonably tight for the miles on it and it still hits where I point it if I do my part correctly.

I bought it NIB for roughly half of what the comparable S&W Kit Gun sold for at the time. It's given me much more than I ever anticipated when I bought it in terms of service and sheer pleasure. I doubt seriously that 2X the money would've gotten me twice as much of either.
 
Taurus is kinda baffling to me. The good Taurus handguns are very good. But the bad Tauri are bad, and for some reason, Taurus has decided they won't do a good job of fixing them. So, it's buyer beware.

My mom has a Model 85 revolver she's had for years and it works very well. A buddy has a 9mm auto that's been nothing but trouble since day one. He sent it in paying the shipping, waited months and months to get it back, and guess what? It came still doing exactly what it did before he sent it in and spent all that money on shipping. There are way too many stories just like this for his to be an exception. But this same guy has a Taurus 1911 that works perfectly.
Click to expand...
It seems to me that the overwhelming majority of actual -- as opposed to second, third, fourth hand -- complaints with Taurus are centered around their semi-autos, with which I have no experience. A lot of folks apparently read the complaints of unreliable autos and decide that all Taurus guns must then be junk. This goes against my fairly broad experience with their revolvers which, as you can see by this thread, tend to be functional if workman-like.
 
Argument for Taurus:
MCgunner
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A gunsmith of my acquaintance recommends against anything by Taurus, and he will no longer work on them, though he did at one time. The issue was light strikes, which do not ignite primers reliably. When I carry my Ruger snubbies, I do not feel naked and unarmed because there are only five shots in the cylinder. So, I, for one, don't care why others choose not to emulate Taurus. Taurus is simply irrelevant, to me. If I want a six-shot .357, I have my Speed Six, which for all practical purposes, rides just as comfortably, and conceals just as well, as an SP101 snubby, for any role except pocket carry.

Well, I have a SP101 and find my self carrying my 3" M66 Taurus more often. It's more accurate, quicker to acquire sights, 6 shots, and about as easy to carry cause it's not, but a few ounces heavier.

I sold my Security Six, a 4" Taurus M66 took its place. FAR more accurate, handles recoil of heavy loads better (that Security Six had too much muzzle flip), and is tighter. The M66 is sweet, very accurate and easy to shoot.

To each his own, but I'm one old revolver shooter that don't drink the Smith and Wesson/Ruger Koolaid, though I have one Smith and EIGHT Rugers now. I do own more Rugers than any other brand, but my three Taurus revolvers, a M85SSUL, a 3" M66, and a 4" M66, get more carry. They just plain work for me and have been for a while now. The only TRUE POS revolver I ever owned was an RG .22. Didn't care for a Charter undercover too much, either. I own a couple of Rossis, though, and have owned 5 others and they're pretty decent guns that ain't Ruger or Smith.

Anyone on this board is welcome to make a comparison range trip with me and we'll do some competitive shooting if ya want. Of course, that ain't the gun, but I think you'd be impressed with my 4" M66 as medium frame .357s go. I love the thing. When I found that thing, my medium frame .357 search was over. Sold the 19 K frame, traded the Security Six for a Blackhawk. The M19 was a good gun, but the Taurus is just as good and a smidge more accurate. The Security Six? Well, it was a well designed and built gun, had its good points, but accuracy with .38s was less than great and what with the recoil with heavy loads, I really don't miss it.




May 24th, 2008, 12:49 AM #41
weregunner
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So what's the argument?

If anyone's been keeping track of things theywould notice that professionals,even the .45ACP pistol advocates, a lot of them,carry a snub gun of some kind either as a back up or when weather dictates full size guns are going to be a problem.

I have many of the old police and tactical journals, as well as old gun magazines from over the last few decades.
This includes past and present versions of the Gun Digest Book of Combat Handgunnery. SwAT magazine, and Special Weapons and Tactics magazine.

Many of the writers are now retired or have passed on.

One of the eye openers is that when large conferences and gun training were attended by these people everyone compared notes including what they were carrying on themselves as armament.

It was not unusual for the majority of these folks to be carrying a snub. 5 or 6 shot. Some attendees had two such revolvers on their person.

For those who like the 5 shot snubbies, no problem. Bully for you who have those. Doesn't mean you are underarmed. Do have a 5 shot Taurus 85CH. Never feel undergunned. Not in this area anyway.

Those who own a 6 shot ( have a recently aquired Rossi 462) are as well protected. They just have a 1 extra round. There are a few documented fights where 1 extra round would be needed, but carrying extra ammo is or should be the norm. So for the most part that's a moot point.

By the way, the 462 is still measureably smaller than my model Taurus 65 that's 3" barreled revolver. Not by much,but enough to be easier to hide.

6 shot snubbies are more for belt carry than for pocket carry. Either 5 or 6 shot snubs can be carried IWB or in any number of other ways.

Since the difference is more of what one needs and the differences are minimal at best why argue 5 versus 6 shots?

Individual owners are going to make up their individual minds as to what works best for them. That's above and beyond any claimed superiority by either side.

So use what works best for you. 5 or 6 shot, it doesn't matter a whole lot.

There are plenty of 7 shot revolvers that others carry, but they are not saying that the 7 shots are superior to the supposed lowly 5 and 6 shooters. Just that they chose to bear the burden of carrying discreetly the extra bulk and weight. Gives them peace of mind and they have the equivalent of what many single stack pistols carry round wise.

No harm,no foul.

All Taurus is doing is updating and filling a niche that the other gun companies have decided to leave open.

In many of the gun mags,tactical, and police journals down through the decades there have been plenty of articles on decrying the fact that no 6 shooter snubbies existed, or very few did. In the articles it was apparent there was a market for these. Even Ed Lovette's book on the snubby says that. Paladin Press in case anyone's interested.

I actually have 3 older Taurus revolvers either in .357 magnum or .38 Special that are older than 20 years old and still going strong.

If need be I can bring MANY links from other sources just on that very subject of longevity and endurance of 10 year or older Taurus revolvers.
There are members here who claim the same and are satisfied customers.

People vote with their wallets. If the company makes garbage they will soon be out of business. Got links galore on that too if need be.

Just purchased a Taurus 82,66,and the Rossi 462 in the last few days.

All are in good order and work fine.
So if a manufacturer wants to fill a needed niche and the people vote with their pocket books where's the problem?

Don't see one.

Most snubbie .357 magnum revolvers have problems with a steady diet full house hot 125gr. loads. There are many standard .357 maggie revolvers that have that same trouble.

Ruger SP101 and the S&W L frames are the exception to that. If you can find a shorty S&W in that guise good for you.

For a lot of us light magnum or .38 Specials are going to be the carry load of choice. No problem there. Light magnum, the +P, or +P+ .38 Special loads have gotten the job done for decades and even now.

So have confidence in what you choose to carry. There's good reason to feel that way.
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A .38 Special revolver that won't break the bank. Here goes:

http://www.taurusarmed.net/forums/in...p?topic=4786.0
http://www.taurusarmed.net/forums/in...p?topic=7052.0
http://www.taurusarmed.net/forums/in...p?topic=1423.0
http://www.taurusarmed.net/forums/in...p?topic=2805.0
http://www.taurusarmed.net/forums/in...p?topic=3751.0
http://www.taurusarmed.net/forums/in...p?topic=6754.0
http://www.taurusarmed.net/forums/in...p?topic=1204.0
http://www.taurusarmed.net/forums/in...p?topic=1814.0
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SIG P6 2 Makarovs Taurus PT111 MIl/Pro Taurus PT22
Taurus 65,66(2),82,85CH,94 Rossi 462 H&R649

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=367395
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=349277
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=375114
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=376436

I've had 3 Taurus revolvers for over 20 years, and have two new ones in the last couple of months.

On the older Tauri revolvers, the lockup is tight,no endplay,good timing still,no cylinder play,accuracy is excellent, and they are still going strong.Dureability and longevity have been the bywords.

The two newer ones are just as good,if not better than their predecessors.
Even the Rossi 462 (Taurus owns them) snubbie is working out well.
 
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