Not exactly a lever Taurus Thunderbolt

[moodyholler]

I bought one today. Anyone had any experience with them? What are the loading capabilities? Ruger sixgun or Model P velocities? Thanks, moodyholler

[straightshooter1]

There are several threads about the T-Bolt on www.sassnet.com. Lots of complaints, but mostly these arise from trying to work them at Cowboy speed as opposed to just shooting normally. There are some complaints about Taurus' warranty service, too.

Several owners report no problems. I have had none with mine except accuracy at 100 yards w/200 grain LRNFPs is poor (move up to 250/255s and it is okay) and the rear sight is sooooooo darn big and open it is hard to hold the sight picture at longer distances.

Apparently there are different generations already (though it may turn out the different lettering merely refers to the year of manufacture) but generally, there seems fewer problems among the SASS crowd with the "Z-prefix serial numbered" series.

I have been looking at a stainless at my FFLs. With that long 26" barrel, it really looks neat. I like mine. I have not tried black powder since I am not yet sure how to take this thing down enought to clean the interior.

If they made this in 44-40/38-40 it would be a great BP gun and there would probably be less complaints about it not feeding at speed.

Bob

[moodyholler]

Bob, mine was broke right out of the box. Cartridge lifter does not work. I am not happy about it and the horror stories about the warranty have me taking mine back to the dealer for refund. Thanks fpr the reply. moodyholler

[straightshooter1]

I am sorry to hear that. Hope you get the refund. Not that it's any consolation, but the guys who bought the expensive AWAs have many of the same troubles. And one guy has a Berreta for sale on SASS' Classifieds that he says he has had 'smithed (twice) so it now works.

The general opinion seems to be that the original design was flawed, and that's why they were discontinued. I don't know if that is true, mine works, though I probably will not try racing with it.

Bob

[txbirdman]

I have a friend that bought one and he had to do some smithing on his to get it working right. Now he has no problem. I don't remember the details of his problem with it but I remember him saying that there's no way to get the bolt out of it. As to design flaws, that may be true but there's a link to a video on www.leverguns.com that shows a CASS shooter using an original Colt that spit out 10 rounds on target in just over 1.9 seconds. Guess he got the bugs out of his.