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.

:smile:

[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.

[deerslayer]

I have a taurus Millenium Pro in their warranty shop right now. Less than thirty days out of the box and it was rusting even the stainless. Hopefully it was some bad steel or something they can fix!

[cptinjeff]

I have a raging bull in .44 mag purchased new the first year that cal was offered in the platform. I love this gun.....One of the most accurate and least picky hand guns I own. I have nearly 13000 (yes 3 zeros) rounds thru it (light to heavy). No problems.

I have a friend from deer camp that bought a taurus light weight .38 snubbie. He had timing problems with it and had to send it back for repair. Not sure how it is now (this was years ago) or what his customer service impressions were.

So maybe hit and miss is the best way to describe.

[NickSS]

I have several Taurus autoloaders and three revolvers in my collection. So far I have not had any problems beyound doing a trigger job on a model 94 22 LR revolver. I have a PT99 that I bought in the mid 80s that never misses a beat no matter what I feed it. A 1911 that has similarly been faultless though to date I only have a few hundred rounds through it and I have a pair of milenium pro one in 9MM and one in 45ACP. These two have been trouble free except when I shot some SWC in the 45 ACP they would not always feed until I had used half the mag then the last 5 worked flawlessley. Everything else I tried worked fine in it. I also have a 2 inch 357 mag five shot revolver. It was a bit rough at first but after a few hundred rounds it has sliked up fine and is now about as usable as my old 36 S&W.

[Slogg76]

I've owned several Taurus revolvers and a few Taurus auto loaders over the years. Some of the revolvers were very accurate, and all functioned 100%. I currently own a new Taurus 38 snubbie. It has some some pretty rough machine marks and is not as well finished as the older Taurus revolvers I have had experiences with, but it functions 100% and it's accuracy is more than adequate for it's intended purpose. Myself and others put tens of thousands of rounds through my Taurus auto loaders and I can not remember one jamming. Some were/are very accurate, and others not so much. I still own a PT92 from the 80's that has the highest round count of any firearm I have ever owned and it never fails. The only experience I have with their customer service was when a 357 mag owned by a friend. The forcing cone began to split. I remember it took along time to get back, but it came back fixed and is still about the best shooting 357 I have had the pleasure of shooting. All in all I would say that Taurus is about on par with other makers as far as rejects. Personally I have actually had far worse luck with Ruger and S&W. But that is just me.

[mtnman31]

I've got a Tracker in .357 and it is one of my favorites. Shoots like a dream and I have never had a problem with it. I would recommend that model in a second. I also recently got a Taurus Raging .30 - their large frame revolver chambered in .30 Carbine. I haven't had the chance to put it through the ringer yet. I just loaded up some rounds for it and plan on taking out next week. It is a big gun, 10" barrel - I almost need a bipod to shoot it :) I do plan on getting a Raging Bull in .44 Mag before too long. Hopefully it is as nice and reliable as the Tracker has been.

It seems like Taurus is treated the same way Lee is. You get guys who bash them based off of no personal experience. You also have folks who bash them based off of one less than perfect experience. Taurus makes a quality product at a reasonable price. If it wasn't for companies like Lee and Taurus, a lot of people couldn't afford to shoot or reload. We can't all afford to drive BMW's and Audi's so some of us have to settle for a cheaper Ford or Honda. No company makes a flawless product everytime. Face it, nobody is perfect and their products are made by people who aren't perfect. I've had lemons from companies who make high end equipment the same way I've had lemons from more reasonably priced companies. At the end of the day it all boils down to what you as the consumer are happy with and how the company treats you when an issue does arise. For me personally, my Taurus experience has been great. If you are considering a Taurus (or any gun for that matter) go shoot one and then decide.

[dubber123]

mtnman31, you have several good points. You should also consider that quite a few of us have more than 1 poor example to base our opinions off. If someone has a Taurus that (honestly) has thousands of rounds through it with no problem, congrats, you done got a good one, son! I see as many owners that manage to fire 2 cylinder/mags without issue, and proclaim it a great gun.... At my pistol shoot, I have seen quite a few that can't even meet the 2 cylinder/mag requirement of these fellows. Pick your poison, and good luck.

[Moonie]

I have a friend that has a 9mm Taurus, it was stolen however the thief was caught. The gun sat in evidence for over a year. When he got it back the gun was so abused and rusted that it wouldn't function. Prior to this I had never owned a Taurus but had recommended them because of their warranty so I told him to call them and see. He purchased the gun second hand so it wasn't new to him, they told him to send it to them and they would see what they could do. After a couple of months he received the pistol back, they had replaced everything except the frame, NO CHARGE! The gun has shot perfectly ever since. The next gun I purchased was the Taurus 1911, I've owned Kimbers and Springfield Armory 1911's, this Taurus has the same fit and function as those. Granted the internal parts may not hold up as well but I was impressed by the company enough to get one.

[Crash_Corrigan]

I bought an almost new Taurus Model 85 Ultralite revolter in .38 Special in '97. I have fired almost 3,000 rounds through it. It has an excellent trigger in single action and a pretty good double action trigger.

I had the hammer spur ground off for more concealability and it is a trusted and reliable companion. I have had no issues with the gun at all in 13 years.

In '06 I bought a new PT 1911 .45 ACP in blue steel. On the first trip to the range and shooting factory fodder it developed some nasty habits.

It would double, triple and quadruple fire with one pull of the trigger. Then it would fire a round and then not fire. When you look down you find the trigger at half cock and an unfired round in the chamber. This happened 3 times and the multiples took place at least 5 times during the firing of one box of Federal Eagle ammo.

I know that is cheesy ammo but the gun scared me. I brought it back to my gun shop and he examined it and immediately did two things:

1-He gave me a brand new gun from his safe with all the trimmings;

2-He sent back the problem gun to the maker for repairs.

About a month later he had received the gun back from Taurus with a new trigger assembly and sear and some other internal parts.

I have fired over 6,000 rounds of ammo thru this gun and almost all of it was cast boolits that I had made. The trigger without any work done to it is now down to about 3.25# and breaks like a glass rod.

The only thing I have done is I replaced the black grips with a pair of decent Cocobola grips and I had the gun reblued. It did not need to be reblued but I have a local guy that does an outstanding blue job reminiscent of the Colt Royal Bluing on those old revolvers from the early 50's.

These are both reliable and accurate guns. The 1911 from a sand bag will shoot 1.26" groups and the little .38 will hit a 6 inch gong at 40 yds from a rest.

I have seen some horrible things written about Taurus in the past but my experience with two guns is outstanding and they are a great value in my mind and a decent gun at any price.

[oso]

Wife had good luck with her Model 85 5 shot 38 Spl snubbie, so I tried a couple of new 856 6 shot snubbies. Neither would even dry fire out of the box (the second was a warranty replacement.) You really have to consider the cost of shipping a handgun again and again - for multiple problems they seem to deal with one problem at a time; so far the life time warranty service has had my gun more than I have, but we're only talking a year here. No bargain after multiple returns for a still unreliable (FTF, unpredictable trigger) gun. Hey mtnman31, I'm speaking form personal experience and I'm not bashing Taurus (wife still likes hers and I admit it is a great little gun), some folks are lucky with them and some aren't, but IMHO luck is no way to run a manufacturing business.

[Ed K]

Bought a 431 just have to keep it clean

I don't think dirt was the source of my 431 troubles. I'd call it "slop".

[dubber123]

Oso, a mod 85 snubbie was my first Taurus, and although it shot loose pretty quickly, it still functioned fine, and was quite accurate for the price, it was a very good gun. I wish subsequent examples from them had treated me the same. Who knows, maybe management will change and quality will improve. They do have some interesting ideas.

[yarro]

I have had 3 good Taurus revolvers (2 65? one stainless, one blue and a 85? snubbie .38 in blue) and one bad one that eventually got fixed to my satisfaction. The 3 good were all S&W knock offs with fixed fixing pin on hammer. The problem child was an 8 shot ported stainless that they had screwed up the barrel when porting it. It went back to Tauras twice before they just replaced the barrel like I wanted. After that it shot fine. One of the Good Tauras's was a .357 mag that I shot until it rattled. Sent it back to Taurus and the rebuilt it no charge. I only one that I bought new was the 8 shot. The others all came from friends who really wanted an S&W but originally couldn't afford one so I knew they shot well. I don't have any now as I am into S&Ws from the days of pinned barrels now. The stainless guns were not nearly as smooth as the blued ones. I would buy another 65 if I fell into a good deal on one to use as a truck gun as long as it timed well and was tight.

-yarro

[Gee_Wizz01]

I have an older Taurus 66 6shot with over 3000 rds through it. I have never had any problems with it and it is extremely accurate. It also has a great single action pull and a decent DA pull. For a time I had an 85 snubby which was very accurate. The only Taurus I have had a problem with was a Thunderbolt. The firing pin retainer pin fell out of the Tbolt. It was sent back to Taurus and it was returned properly repaired 5 weeks later.

G

[cajun shooter]

I think that a lot of the talk about Taurus is twofold. Some people will jump in on a rumor and before it is over with you would swear they are the person it happened to. The other is that Taurus has made some guns that were like the Ford Edsel. The Taurus Thunderbolt was one and I was the owner of one. Never worked from the first day I took it out of the box. After one year and 4 trips back to the factory I received my money back. They tried to take a complicated gun and produce it for a cheap price and found out that it can't be done. I still own 3 Taurus handguns and they all work well. One of them needed some stoning but so has a lot of S&W and Colts I have owned.

[2ndAmendmentNut]

This is from personal experience.

Their centerfire revolvers seem to be a good value for the money, and I really like the 410/45colt Judge.

Their automatics are to heavy for paper weights, and to light for boat anchors.

From online reviews and experience of friends I would avoid anything they make in a rimfire caliber.

[S.R.Custom]

This is from personal experience.

Their centerfire revolvers seem to be a good value for the money, and I really like the 410/45colt Judge.

Their automatics are to heavy for paper weights, and to light for boat anchors.

From online reviews and experience of friends I would avoid anything they make in a rimfire caliber.

That's pretty much the sum of my experience as well, with the exception being their (licensed?) version of the Beretta 92 is a good gun.

The percentage of good to bad Taurus guns seems to be 50/50. And that's not opinion, but rather, experience based on the dozen or so I've owned over the years, and the many more I've worked on and/or had to send back on the behalf of customers.

That said, the only Taurus I would buy for myself or sell to a customer is a new one that came through Davidson's distribution. Any gun bought through them carries a lifetime replacement through them (not Taurus), thus enabling the buyer to get an immediate replacement from Davidson's instead of going through the dismal Taurus customer service department.

[missionary5155]

Greetings
I have owned 4 Taurus revolvers over the years. All were well built and performed as expected.
I still have the two 41 Trackers. A 2" Titanium and a 2" SS. Try and get them from me.