Would anyone buy a taurus .357??

[bergmen]

Several Taurus handguns have been in this household over the years. All of them broke at least once and are gone except the model 94 my wife owns. It's been back twice and is still rough to shoot (strong DA pull) but she would kill me if I suggested she dump it. As soon as Ruger comes out with their 8 shot SP101, I'll get one of those and maybe the wife will want to get a companion to it. Then we will be a Taurus-free zone.

I'll never buy another Taurus again but that's just me. I have a 4" GP100 that is one of the finest handguns I own:

Dan

 

[Fishslayer]

An '82 vintage Taurus 669 w/6" barrel was my first wheelgun. I've been very happy with it. I was skeptical but the price was right and my brand new Ruger P90 needed to go back to Prescott... so I figured any issue would have already been taken care of.

It's smooth & crisp enough. Is it as nice as any of my Smiths? No. But none of my Smiths were $300 OTD.

 

[contender]

would i buy a taurus?...........no

top choices are smith and ruger for me.

and actually, i would rather take a chance into unknown terrority for me and try a new Charter Arms before i even considered a taurus.

 

[RalphS]

Taurus guns are medium quality at a medium price.

I had a 608 revolver. It was an ok gun. Eventually I sold it and later on bought a GP100. Very happy with the GP100.

 

[berkols]

I have a Taurus Tracker (ported 5 1/2" barrel). It's comfortable to hold and shoot full power liads. It's accurate and eats everything I feed it. I like the sites, some may feel its not the quality of a Colt or Ruger. Each to his own, so far 500 rounds--no problems.

 

[oldfool]

I did (buy a Taurus 357), a used one at that, a couple of decades older model 66
Nice gun, smooth trigger, very accurate, well pleased... (but I shoot strictly 38s thru it, I have others for 357)

But it's one of only three Taurus handguns I own, and although all three are good guns, all are older vintages. I think both vintage and specific model are especially important in Taurus selection, caveat emptor. Absent such very specific criteria, coupled with close personal inspection, my opinion is that S&W and Ruger are still much better quality on average.

Feels to me like Taurus was once-upon-a-time a cheap gun maker targeting the south american markets, sub-standard quality; but about the time some holding company took a share in them and they started using some Beretta & S&W tooling, they went after the north american market, and took a serious interest in better quality on average (whilst S&W quality arguably suffered at least a tad, about the same time). But these days, it seems Taurus' overall lineup is a pretty wild mix, ranging from very good to just plain crappy; going hard after sales volume, and any marketing gimmick will do.

Taurus still makes some real good models, but despite S&Ws continuing downhill slide, S&W is still well uphill of Taurus across the quality board. A lot of folks just hate the nefarious ILS so much, they just can't stand any new S&W. So be it.

Ruger has hit an occasional bump in the quality road too, but overall, they just might be making the best mass production 357s today.

 

[gamestalker]

I own a bunch of Taurus pistols and all have been 100% since I bought them. My brother in law bought a .357 mag. in the mid 1980's that the barrel was not on straight. It was fixed and never developed another problem following that. But if memory serves me well, and it might not, Taurus's had some issues back in those days and I think it was something to do with quality control in the Brazilian manufacturing plant? Between myself and my Son'e we probably own a baker's dozen of bith AL's and revolver's and all are superb firearms and I would recomend a Taurus to anyone wanting a reliable, strong, and accurate piece. And since I reload and shoot high performance ammunition, I can safely say they are certainly strong enough to handle the most stout of loads.

 

[isc]

I've been very pleased with mine.

 

[alex4922]

My friends and I have owned and shot lots of different firearms over the years. Mostly we had to sell a gun to have the money to buy something that interested us more. I'll say this: I cannot remember any Rugers that broke, some had poor trigger pulls but they never quit. Smiths revolvers were a bit more delicate, but then they showed more quality too. Smiths pistols were a disaster at first, but are real winners now. Colt pistols and revolvers have been pretty good with a lapse now and then. I can name at least four Taurus pistols that have flat quit in my circle of friends. Buy quality my friend

Alex

 

[RevDerb]

I've owned 5 Tauruses with one of them being a revolver (85 - 38sp.). I never had a single issue with any of them. If the right deal came along, I wouldn't hesitate to own another one. YMMV

 

[CajunBass]

I've owned three Taurus revolvers over the years. They all worked just fine as far as I could tell. Of course they were before I got the internet to tell me how unhappy I was with them. I did eventually trade/sell them all off though. Not because there was anything wrong with them, I just saw something I wanted more.

If I wanted/needed a .357 revolver I'd consider a Taurus.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I have a 617 .357 7-shot. It shoots very vell, though I use 38 +P for SD and .38 special for the range. I was told to expect problems..., still waiting for them to appear. Perhaps because I don't shoot it as much as my semi-autos, I am not subjecting it to nearly as much wear an tear as the folks who have experienced problems.

LD

 

[MMCSRET]

I have never owned a Taurus in 357, but I have Taurus in 44 Special, 327 Magnum, 38 Special and 32 magnum. Never had a problem with any of them and the oldest is approaching 20 years old and well over 12,000 rounds of hand loads. Yeah!!! I know that eventually I'll buy a Taurus 357 but never another S&W 357, finally got rid of the last POS S&W 357.

 

[chuck520]

No.

 

[napjerk]

The only Taurus I've owned is a stainless 605 snubby .357. It's been a perfect little handgun with no problems and I carry it often.

 

[wlewisiii]

I have in the past and got fine service from it; I'd be willing to again if it's what I want.

 

[Haywood]

I have the 617 DAO. I have been shooting and carrying it for years. It has a very smooth trigger and is quit accurate

 

[harmon rabb]

My one taurus experience has been good, so yeah, I'd buy a Taurus 357... er, but I wouldn't, because you can buy a higher quality Ruger at what is still a reasonable price.

Smith isn't worth the money if Ruger makes a comparable gun (Ruger's revolver offerings are limited. Smith offers all sorts of configurations that Ruger does not). Like, the 686 vs. the GP100. No contest. GP100 is equal in quality, at least as (if not more) durable, and is a lot cheaper.

 

[Mr.357Sig]

Taurus makes a really tough revolver, IMO. I'm not a fan of the company's bottom-feeders, but I have no problem with its line of wheelguns - especially the .357 models.

I love the Model 617. SEVEN rounds of .357 in a stainless steel 2-inch snubbie? Nice! It's on my short list of 357 snubs.

 

[cfrench]

Buying a taurus

Thanks for all the feedback guys!!

 

[KevininPa]

50/50

Bought a blued 605 snub for the wife. Works great! Loved it so much, got a stainless for myself. Two trips to customer service got it working correctly. Just sold that one. Not because of the problems I had, my buddy put 100 rds of .38s and 50 .357s through it. It works great now. Too heavy for the pocket. Stainless steel anchor in the pocket. Bought a Smith 637. Didn't want Taurus headaches again. I would suggest buying a used one that you can shoot first like my buddy. If you're lucky it was shot a lot. The trigger will be smoother. My stainless trigger was far easier and smoother than the 637. But that will change in time.

 

[tango2echo]

Owned three. First was great. No issues in thousands of rounds. Next two were garbage. The first would shoot under 2 1/2" at 50 yards with sights from a sandbag. The last would not hit a pie plate at 10 yards. Timing issues and severe lead shaving on the second. Both of those went back several times before being sold out of frustration. Doubt I would buy another Taurus wheelgun, but the PT111 Pro 9mm and TCP .380 I have are perfect and I would bet my life on them. Go figure.....

t2e

 

[sw282]

Buddy and l shoot together on occasion. He has a Taurus 66. Shoots nice. He has never had any trouble. l feed his Taurus and my Smith w/6gr Uniq-158swc cast bullets in 357 cases. l prefer my Smith to his Taurus. He also has a Ruger da 4'' ss 357. l DONT like it.
Heavy as a brick. Gp 100 l think it is

 

[BigN]

no!

 

[Nicodemus38]

just buy what you want. There is nothing wrong with Taurus revolvers. They may not have your favorite pony engraved on the side but they are functional as can be. They may not be the same target grade as artilery style lugers, but they are more then useful. Certain models of taurus 357 are more popular for target shooting in foreign countries sw.

some taurus guns may not make sense, the 28 ounce alloy revolver chambered in 44 mag or 500 sw, but other companies ahve been thinking about doing that.