Taurus Judge

[zxcvbob]

I just won one in a raffle.    I was hoping to win one of the shotguns or cash prizes.  I'm pleased to have won anything 

Not sure the exact model.  It's not a gun I'd ever buy, but assume it might be fun.  I'll have to load up some non-nuclear .45 Colt cartridges; the ones I have for my Ruger Blackhawk are probably not safe for it (IIRC, they're 16.5 grains of Blue Dot with a 255 grain cast bullet   )

[Andiron]

Put it on armslist and see if some fool will trade your something cool for it?

[never_retreat]

I just won one in a raffle.     I was hoping to win one of the shotguns or cash prizes.  I'm pleased to have won anything

Not sure the exact model.  It's not a gun I'd ever buy, but assume it might be fun.  I'll have to load up some non-nuclear .45 Colt cartridges; the ones I have for my Ruger Blackhawk are probably not safe for it (IIRC, they're 16.5 grains of Blue Dot with a 255 grain cast bullet  )

Isn't that ah heavy gun that you can put a full house 45 round in?

[Perd Hapley]

Isn't that ah heavy gun that you can put a full house 45 round in?

I don't know. A friend of mine had one, and I brought a small box of factory .45 Colt to shoot through it. He blames me for ruining the gun, since the loads I bought were (supposedly) more skookum than it could handle.

[Brad Johnson]

Night photography with .410 cartridges. It's its own flashbulb.

Brad

[zxcvbob]

Night photography with .410 cartridges. It's its own flashbulb.

Brad

.410 blackpowder blanks ought to be fun.  (brass .410 case or .303 cartridge full of FFFF powder with a wax plug) But not fun to clean a double-action revolver afterwards.

OTOH, I hate to abuse a $500 or $600 gun, even if it's a Taurus, that could be sold to pay for a nice shotgun or a used 1911.

[Grebnaws]

I would trade it off before it's fired. The Taurus judge is the #1 firearm offered in trade against anything I put up for sale. More than one has been offered to me in double action only, which only made them even less appealing for a huge revolver. It seemed a shorter one may have some use as an anti-carjacking gun but that's the best reason I could come up with.

[HeroHog]

When I had a Cobra single 410/.45LC "derringer" it kicked a heck of a lot worse with any 410 than any .45LC by a good bit IMHO in my experience. I was REAL glad to sell that to a pawn shop for more than more than I bought it for new as an FFL! 
 

[zxcvbob]

I would trade it off before it's fired. The Taurus judge is the #1 firearm offered in trade against anything I put up for sale. More than one has been offered to me in double action only, which only made them even less appealing for a huge revolver. It seemed a shorter one may have some use as an anti-carjacking gun but that's the best reason I could come up with.

I've got a little time to decide what I'm going to do; I let my carry permit expire so I gotta get a handgun permit from the sheriff before I can pick up the gun.

I should call the gun shop that has the Judge and see if I can apply its value towards purchasing something else instead.  (I have one Taurus already, and had no intentions of ever acquiring another one because Taurus sucks)

The guy that ran the auction is a new member of our church, and I don't really want to insult him by rejecting the Judge that I won.  He was telling me what a great gun it is tonight when I said I might sell it and buy something else.

BTW, I really like the idea of a double-action .45 Colt revolver.  I just don't think the Judge is the right implementation.

[K Frame]

"He was telling me what a great gun it is..."

 


X, you're a nice guy, but you're an idiot. But, thanks for the raffle prize, I'm sure I can get something useful for it by trading it to another idiot who thinks it's a great gun...

[De Selby]

Got some good reviews here:  http://www.armedpolitesociety.com/index.php?topic=28992.0

[Bob F.]

I'll have to say that some of the Taurus revos in our shop have better trigger pulls than some of the S&W snubbies. (SOME!) But I've never seen a good use for the Judge (or the Governor), too freakin' big! Pistol shot shells are still hard to come by but CCI now has a heavy shot shell, i.e. #4 shot vs #9 or #12. A .38 or .44Spl would do nicely for most common applications.

[zxcvbob]

I got my permit last week, went to pick up the gun today.  I got delayed; the clerk said almost everybody is getting delayed lately, come back Saturday.  It's a 60 mile round trip. 

It's a stainless model with a long barrel (6" or 6.5") and I couldn't tell by looking if it was 2.5 or 3" cylinder.  The shop owner said "it's the new 3" model!" like that's a good thing.  It does feel better in my hand than I expected, and I like the sights.

So, about $600 worth of ridiculousness.  Think I'm gonna keep it.   

[Tuco]

So, about $600 worth of ridiculousness.  Think I'm gonna keep it.   

Find a range that rents them, or try out someone else's.  Buy them a box of 3" .410 and/or .45 LC (300 or 325 GR) for the trouble.  Yours will be worth more unfired.

[lee n. field]

Got some good reviews here:  http://www.armedpolitesociety.com/index.php?topic=28992.0

I do remember that.   I wonder if PTK is still alive.  He had some significant health problems, if I remember right.

[BlueStarLizzard]

Find a range that rents them, or try out someone else's.  Buy them a box of 3" .410 and/or .45 LC (300 or 325 GR) for the trouble.  Yours will be worth more unfired.

This.

There isn't such a thing as a (legally acquired) bad free gun. However, that doesn't mean you have to keep the crap you win.

[MechAg94]

I'll have to say that some of the Taurus revos in our shop have better trigger pulls than some of the S&W snubbies. (SOME!) But I've never seen a good use for the Judge (or the Governor), too freakin' big! Pistol shot shells are still hard to come by but CCI now has a heavy shot shell, i.e. #4 shot vs #9 or #12. A .38 or .44Spl would do nicely for most common applications.

That is pretty much my opinion.  I have a single action revolver to shoot 22 mag shot shells and it works great as a snake gun. 

[Mannlicher]

winning something is always better than losing.  The Judge can be a fun toy.

[wmenorr67]

I've shot skeet with one. 

[HankB]

I just won one in a raffle.   I was hoping to win one of the shotguns or cash prizes.  

Five shots of .410 . . . I'd say that in a way, you DID win one of the shotguns. So kwitcherbitchin.  

I don't know. A friend of mine had one, and I brought a small box of factory .45 Colt to shoot through it. He blames me for ruining the gun, since the loads I bought were (supposedly) more skookum than it could handle.

Shooting factory ammo through Taurus handguns is not something I'd recommend ever since I saw a brand new 9mm Taurus PT-92 (very similar to the Beretta 92 except for the safety) break the locking block with 1 shot of Winchester white box 9mm ammo.  

In any case, I don't personally have any use for a .410 pistol - if I lived in snake country, I might feel differently. Note that before you've picked it up and fired it, the trading/selling value will probably be as high as it will ever be, and you shouldn't worry about hurting the feelings of the raffle organizer who picked it.  

[RevDisk]

I forgot about that PTK judge thread. Shame, I was curious how the test would work out.

The Judge is a fun toy. I'd be careful in which ammo you run, of course. I would treat it like a hundred year old Colt. Not every gun HAS to be the bleeding edge of lethality. This coming from a guy that owns an Uzi, and loves it even when he is very aware that a stock M4 is nearly same weight.

There's plenty of room for fun, silly and impractical firearms.

[mtnbkr]

I don't personally have any use for a .410 pistol - if I lived in snake country, I might feel differently.

Having shot a largish rattlesnake at close range (4' away) with a GP100 loaded with factory CCI snakeshot, I see no need for a dedicated "snake gun".  The snakeshot out of a 4" revolver did the trick as well as could be wanted at the longest distance I'd need snake shot for (any further and no shot would be necessary).  During "snake season", my field guns are configured with the first 1 or 2 shots as snake shot and the remaining 4 as heavy solids. 

As for PTK, didn't he turn out to be a scammer and was drummed out of here for defrauding other members?

Chris

[230RN]

HankB remarked,

Shooting factory ammo through Taurus handguns is not something I'd recommend ever since I saw a brand new 9mm Taurus PT-92 (very similar to the Beretta 92 except for the safety) break the locking block with 1 shot of Winchester white box 9mm ammo.

I recall there was a similar problem with the first batch of Berettas, too.  Except it was the slide cracking at the point of maximum tensile stress on the slide right by the locking block.  Here is an authoritative description of the problem:

http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/history/true_story_m9.htm

Scroll down to "The Problems Arise: The M9 pistol program ran into trouble..."  Much of the beginning of the article is more or less introductory.

What I'm wondering about is whether the same metallurgical problem pertains to the Taurus version of the Beretta design and whether the "locking block" actually broke in your example, or perhaps it was really the slide breaking at that point.  If I recall correctly, the locking block is only subject to compressive forces.

Any additional input from the APS hive mind?

Terry, 230RN

[HankB]

...
What I'm wondering about is whether the same metallurgical problem pertains to the Taurus version of the Beretta design and whether the "locking block" actually broke in your example, or perhaps it was really the slide breaking at that point.  If I recall correctly, the locking block is only subject to compressive forces.

A local dealer had a sale on Taurus PT-92s, and while working range duty at the local gun club, I saw four of them come through.

Two of them worked fine.

One was a jammamatic.

The fourth example fired ONE shot, and the slide only came back a little bit. With some difficulty, the owner field stripped the pistol, and the locking block was cracked in half. No other damage - slide or anything else - was evident. This was with factory Winchester USA ammo in the white box - I've personally fired many thousands of rounds of this stuff with exactly zero issues.

As for Beretta slides breaking - IIRC, that was after MANY rounds were fired. Still shouldn't have happened, but it wasn't a "first round failure."

[RevDisk]

As for PTK, didn't he turn out to be a scammer and was drummed out of here for defrauding other members?

Well, he did try to sell me over a VZ52 that wasn't actually a VZ52. And did scam one other person that I know of, but I don't think that's why he left. I also recall something about some people chipping in to help him, and then a while later he was talking about some big ticket items he purchased.  I think it was because some folks were questioning over some of the... inconsistant statements he made, and he left in a huff.

From what I understand, some of it was justified, some wasn't. I personally don't think PTK was actively malicious, just really bad at communicating. And probably some less than optimal judgment. I've been guilty of both myself, but I am always ready to admit when I screwed up. Plenty of us have done either or both. PTK got huffy instead.