Taurus Reputation?

[joecool911]

I get a lot of comment from people about Taurus guns in a negative fashion. Are these comments from direct experience or just snobish remarks? I am considering a 44 magnum ultralite. Weighs 28 oz. 4" barrel. But all I seem to be getting is bad karma.

[thenaaks]

i am the proud owner of a taurus model 44. it's a large frame, 4" ported bbl, blued, with solid rubber grips. it's big and heavy, but shoots like a dream. shot a bunch of jacketed before i started casting...probably close to 1000 rds of cast boolits. i think it's a pretty stout gun...i don't know about the ultralites...probably wouldn't want to shoot too many heavy loads.

i own 3 other taurus handguns and haven't had any issues (after 5 yrs)

[Guesser]

I own Taurus revolvers and several other brands also. My Tauri has been trouble free to a larger extent than my Rugers. I firmly believe that a very large proportion of the bashing is done by people that don't have anything else to do. Hero worship, class envy, or just plain bullying!!!!!!!

[tackstrp]

i have a ten year old Taurus 608 .357 with 8 3/8 barrel. the trigger and clyinder lockup is as good or better than my S&W model 29-2 44 mag which i had worked on by a tune up specialist.

I have picked up hundreds of Tarurus wheel guns, and only a very few were so bad that double action shooting would be impossible. However, some were great and exceeded most S&W revolvers from the so called performance S&W center.

Bottom line is simple, only buy if you can feel the trigger action and check timing and lock up. You will find one that will be great. Myself i would never buy a wheel gun that I cant fiddle with and pull the trigger.

[dk17hmr]

No real experience with the revolvers, I have shot a few and seemed shootable and would own one if I got a good deal.

I did have a Semi auto 9mm made by Taurus, really liked the feel and the looks, it shot pretty good, it never had a problem with jacketed loads and hot cast loads.....lite loads wouldnt run well. Only reason I dont have it still is because I hate the 9mm.

[Frosty Boolit]

I have a 669 with compensator that I paid $280 for 3 years ago. There ain't a thing wrong with it.

[dubber123]

I have a good bit of Taurus experience, owning/working on, and seeing them operated by other people at my pistol shoot. In my experience, I would pass. As you can see by the previous posts, many seem to have had good experiences with them. Mine runs in the high 90% range, and not on the favorable side, both from the guns themselves, and from dealing with their "warrenty" center. Good luck either way.

[mooman76]

They seem to be hit or mis on some. I was looking to get a carry piece. The dealer kind of scoffed at a Taurus when I wanted to buy. he said you get what you pay for but I bought it because I would have enough money left to purchase another gun I had my eye on. It was a SS stubby modle in 357. First it wouldn't lock into time, the cyl all the time which I fixed very easy by smoothing some rough edges and then the action started locking up. I ended up selling it to a frien that was an amature gunsmith. It took awhile but he fixed it. He had to get a new cyl release pin. The threads didn't hold up and it bent also. SS I here is a little harder to machine and cut good threads. I kind of shy away from them now especially the SS models. I heard they had a lot of trouble with this perticular model, all in SS. It didn't shoot quite as good as I had hoped either but I could have lived with that as you aren't likely to be shooting at any real distance.
I'm not trying to bash Taurus as I still own a 38 revolver that I don't have any problems with and it shoots good. Just saying be warry of what you get and check it out good.

[Johnch]

I have 2 of the 38 spec 85's and have never had 1 problem

BUT for a while there
The 22 LR revolvers ......stunk
Big timing problems

I bought a 5"
Sent it back after 1 trip to the range for spitting lead out of the cyclender gap and 12" or larger 50' groups
They "fixed it " and returned it to me

Yes it stoped spitting lead and the groups droped to 8"
But the 45 degree forcing cone they cut with a .........hand reamer ?
Was not centered and did not fix the out of time problem

But almost all the centerfire revolver problems I have seen as of late at the range
Were opperator errors

John

[parrott1969]

I have a rossi( taurus) in 357 mag and it is a great gun decent double action trigger and a very good single action.

[Daddyfixit]

I got a good deal on a new 357, the 8 shot model. It had bad timing problems. It had alot of misfires (hitting way off center) and even on the spent rounds you could see that the primer hits were off center on half the rounds. I returned it to the factory and came back the same way. I think making an 8 shot revolver has not one of their better ideas......

[exile]

A friend came to visit last summer and brought a Taurus snubnose .22 magnum he had purchased for his wife. The trigger simply would not pull through most of the time, like there was grit in the works. He has sent it back to Taurus but it still will not function well. I told him it might be bead blasting media in the action like a Taurus Gaucho written about in Handloader. Maybe just needed to be cleaned out good, but I don't think he has done that so far.

The first .44 magnum I ever fired was a Taurus full-size ported model with eight inch barrel. Like shooting a .38 with full power loads. I really loved it and would still like to buy one if I ever found a used one for a good price. Anyway, that is the only experience I have with Taurus guns. I hear the Taurus Berreta copies are well thought of in Florida.

exile

[Ed K]

I had a model 431 - a 44 spec snubby which I purchased because not anyone else was making anything in that format except maybe Charter Arms. The hammer must had been poorly fitted to the pin it pivots on because over time it chopped away at the slot it falls into and looked pretty terrible. Traded it off.

[scrapcan]

I have a like new model 94 blued 4 inch 22 LR that coul deasily go to a new home and the new owner can deal with the worthless TaurusUSA warranty.

I would not reccomend nor will I buy another taurus. Between this revolver and a compact Taurus Millenium 45acp that shot the front site off I have not had good luck. Both condidtions are fixable, but with a new gun you should not have to send them back more than once, nor should you wait 3 plus years for parts not to arrive. I was told on both the revolver and the auto that parts were back ordered. After the amount of time waiting they could have stripped a new boxed gun and sold all the parts as replacments.

If you want more story on the 22 revolver look up taurus 22 revolver and my user name. It is all here on the forum.

Also on the newer integral hammer lock, make sure you learn to turn it all the way and that you feel it snap up into the off position. I have seen numerous brand new taurus 38/357 revolver self lock on the firing line during basic pistol classes.

[451whitworth]

They seem to be hit or miss on some.

i agree. i have one Taurus revolver and my father has one. i have the Raging Bee in .218 Bee and my pop's is the Raging Hornet in .22 Hornet. Mine has been stellar from day one. he experience a few issues with his and it took a year to straighten out. it now functions fine. i know several people who own Taurus handguns and some have great luck with them and other seem to have problems.

[tepeecreeper]

My experance has always been positive. The trick is to completly strip down the piece and give a good scrubing and treat with Kroil the reassemble. Bought a 431 just have to keep it clean, I flush at the range with Balistol. 4 GAUCHO'S later still in love with them especally the fanning part.
Seriously, nice bang for buck, with a LIFETIME TRANSFERABLE WARRENTY.

[Longrange]

I have a 669 that is over 20 years old and have never had a problem with it other than a chipped wood grip (my fault). It handles a steady diet of magnum, shoots straight, no problem with the bluing other than the wear that a good gun should have.

[Rickk]

I have had a number of Taurus revolvers and at least one auto that I can remember. Currently carry a titanium 41 magnum Tracker that is a great gun. My wife has a titanium 45 Colt snubby.
The "ribber" grips are truly great.
Years ago I had a 22 snubby auto that I had to send in for warranty work which was done promptly as I recall.

Have shot Raging Bulls that seemed fine to me.

[MtGun44]

Not much impressed with a 1911 that a friend picked up cheap because the hammer followed
all the time. Went thru it and got it working, but it was very clear that it had been carefully
engineered in detail to lower the labor cost of fitting parts. I have said and will say again,
it was not a ***, but it was driven to the very edge (over?) by a need to keep it low priced.

The owner had me replace all the internals with known good parts, lots of fiddling but now
it is a pretty good pistol. Frame, slide and barrel are pretty much up to snuff. Wouldn't
give you much for all the internal small parts, hammer, sear, disconnector, safety (it broke),
trigger, mag release are all really marginal to crappy parts. Built to a price point - the bottom.

No experience with other Tauri, no opinion. One data point. I'd avoid them on that basis, but
maybe it was a bad example.

Bill

[jmsj]

I have two Taurus pstols one is a 3" model 85 type revover in stainless steel the other is a stainless steel 1911.
My wife bought the revolver for a carry gun while hiking and after shooting it a while she decided she liked my Smith & Wesson 686 better. The trigger pull in single and double action on the Taurus was horrible. I opened up the side plate to do a action job and was amazed at the amount of tooling marks left on the inside of the frame and sideplate. I stoned off the high points as I thought removing them would take away too much metal. Then I cleaned up the sear and moving parts and replaced the springs w/ a Brownells spring kit. Now the trigger is pretty nice. The pistol shoots pretty good, I have never really shot it for groups but it is good enough to hit pop cans at 15 or 20 yds. in single action and it keeps them in the black on a 25 yd. target in double action at 7 and 10 yards. That is about as good as I can shoot this type of pistol. This has become the pistol that I concealed carry the most.
I have yet to get the stainless 1911 to shoot very well yet. I've tried numerous different loads. Taurus claimed that these pistols are hand fitted to match grade standards. The slide to frame fit and the barrel to bushing fit were very loose. I tightened up the slide best I could and fitted a NM bushing. The 80's series trigger w/the added safety parts was horrible. To get a decent trigger pull I fitted an aftermarket hammer that I had and made a slot filler to do away w/ the 80's series trigger parts.
The Ambidextrous safety keeps coming apart when shooting. I have to keep an eye on it while shooting or it will come loose and the plunger spring will shoot out of the back of the gun.
I had a gunsmith friend of mine look at it and he says the chamber is not concentric w/ the barrel. So I am saving up for a new barrel. With all the time and money I've put into this pistol I could have bought a better one or built one from the ground up.
Well one has turned out to be a great pistol and one is still a work in progress.