Are Taurus revolvers *that* bad?

I have eleven Taurus® revolvers.............
• Mdl 85B2CH 38 Special - 1994
• Mdl 669SS4CP 357 Magnum - 1996
• Mdl 85B2 38 Special - 1997
• Mdl 617SS2 357 Magnum - 2003
• Mdl 605SS3 357 Magnum - 2006
• Mdl 85SS2UL 38 Special - 2007
• Mdl 605SS2 357 Magnum - 2010
• Mdl 605SS2 357 Magnum - 2012
• Mdl 425SS2 41 Magnum - 2012
• Mdl 85SS2UL 38 Special - 2012
• Mdl 992B4 22LR/22Magnum - 2013

All have performed superbly and I continue to shoot them all almost every week.

I have only encountered these problems.........
• Mdl 85B2CH broke a firing pin (part# 19) after 11,000+ rounds. I replaced the firing pin & it's still going strong.
• Mdl 85SS2UL had the cylinder stop (part# 44) wear down after 10,000 rounds. Called Taurus® and they shipped the part right away. Installed new cylinder stop and now the gun works fine.

Anytime I had to send a gun in they fixed and returned it when they said they would. Specifically.....................
• Mdl 617 developed excessive cylinder to forcing cone gap (.011") after almost 6,000 rounds. I sent it to Taurus® and they replaced the cylinder (part# 8) and adjusted the yoke (part# 9) *I've since put 3,000+ rounds through it and it's still going strong.
• Mdl 605SS2 Locked up after 5,500+ rounds. Sent the gun in and Taurus said the problem was not repairable. Taurus® in turn, sent me a new gun.

I will not hesitate to buy additional Taurus® revolvers. They are an outstanding value.
• Taurus Gun Forum - TaurusArmed.net / Taurus Firearms
 
At the end of the day Taurus revolvers work. If you don't have the budget for a SW or ruger, or maybe you just really like one of Taurus' models, then buy it!

I would recommend taking a look at Kentucky Gun co's Blemished guns. I got my Rossi Circuit Judge(by Taurus) through them, got a great discount and have had no problems through about 500 rounds so far.

Good luck!
 
I've had a Taurus 94 snubby (.22lr) for years with never a problem.

I also have a Taurus Tracker 627 6.5" .357. Very nice gun great for plinking and I may take it Deer hunting this fall.

v-fib
 
I never liked Taurus until I owned a 445 in .44 sol. It was a nice revolver with no problems ever. Kept it for 8 years and sold it to a friend.

Would I buy another one? Yes.
 
"Ford vs Chevy" and Hitler references can come and go as they please.

But at the end of the day, there's one thing that matters to me:

There have been five 'standard' Taurus revolvers in my family. (Roughly 1998-2012. All .38/.357.)
-One of them was purchased, taken to the indoor range at that gun store, fired, and instantly returned because, after being fired, the out-of-square cylinder was dragging on the forcing cone and locking up the cylinder. (Great return policy - poor business practices. They went belly-up a few months later.)
-Two more Taurii revolvers blew the barrel off. One with the first shot. The other on the 2nd or 3rd shot. (About 5 years apart.)
-Another had a cock-eyed barrel and locked up before ever being fired. It went back for repair and Taurus told the buyer that they would not, under any circumstance, return it to him. As a replacement, they sent a completely different model, of lesser value, that he DID NOT want, that he had no use for, and with a gaudy polished nickel finish.
-That replacement worked okay (though, again, hideous and useless for the intended purpose), until it started firing out of time. With fewer than 100 rounds through it, the revolver was dropping the hammer without the cylinder in position, and managing to initiate some primers struck just at the very edge of the cup. That, of course, was not good for the forcing cone, nor the shooter or bystanders.


So, my family's experience is 0 for 5.

It could just be bad luck.
Or, it could be that Taurus just can't make a half-decent product. (Which is where our Taurus experience also aligns for semi-autos and rifles.)

---

The "Raging" series, however, seems to be held to higher quality standards. I've read of very few problems with them, and the few friends that I have that own one of the various 'Raging' offerings are all satisfied buyers.
 
Years ago, the first handgun I bought was a Taurus Model 85, and it ran like a champ for me. I don't own it anymore, but I do have a S&W Model 642...I like it a lot as well, and it is a great shooter. :)
 
Depends on what you call bad. maybe even where you're from. What Walt Kowalski said in the film, Gran Torino, is a virtual echo of what my Dad told me when I was a young boy: "(Would it) Kill you to buy American?"
Of course, I never flew Superfortresses through a flak barrage, like my Dad did, and that was a different time; so why should I care?
 
I'll begin by saying I've never owned a Taurus anything, even when I was young and money was pretty tight I never chose to buy a Taurus handgun. I have had some trigger time over they last twenty years with several examples, including a handful of .357/.44 mag revolvers. So, you can take this post with any number of grains of salt.

First the pros: All of them were acceptably accurate when they went bang. Three or four of them had fairly smooth-working triggers, and a couple of those were as good as any trigger on a revolver I've ever handled.

Now for the cons: out of the six or seven T- revolvers I spent time with on a range, two of them locked up while firing. In both cases the gun locked up tightly enough that I had to use my support hand to rock the cylinder back and forth a few times to get it to release. And in both guns this phenomenon occurred within the first 12 rounds. fired.

Most of those triggers were gritty, several were also stacky, some were both.

For most of them, I found that the width of the grip where the webbing between my thumb and trigger finger rested wasn't wide enough, seeming to concentrate most of the recoil energy there. This made firing full power loads uncomfortable after just a few rounds (YMMV). Fit and finish was not as good as a Ruger and quite a bit less impressive than any S&W I've ever handled.

And finally, after years of checking resale prices, Taurus revolvers seem to have the worst resale value of any current production revolvers on the market.

If I had to give my advice, I would not advise any of my friends to buy a Taurus revolver for DEFENSIVE purposes. As an inexpensive range gun, okay, but I just wouldn't be able to trust the reliability of a Taurus as I trust either a Ruger or a Smith.

However, I wouldn't tell anyone that Taurus revolvers are "bad." If all they made was junk, they couldn't still be in business. In fact, I'd bet that the majority of their products function just fine.

But I'd also wager several C-notes that if you could poll all the gunsmiths for the last forty years, as well as check the records of S&W, Ruger, and Taurus for warranty-type work, you'd find that Taurus guns have had more issues than either of its competitors.

So from my perspective, though I wouldn't go so far as to say Taurus revolvers are bad, I would say that they are overall a lower level of quality than either S&W or Ruger.
 
I've owned eight or so Taurus revolvers. One had a problem and they fixed it. The rest were fine.

And my experience was similar to the other poster's: a few of them had nice triggers, but the triggers on most of them are so-so at best. The worst is some variation of the model 94 in 22lr that has the worst trigger I have ever felt on a modern revolver (my Nagant was even worse).
 
My experience has been limited to a Rossi Plinker, a 92' Rossi, a 605 Taurus and a Judge. No complaints, the Plinker is just a nice DA/SA .22 and same with the 605.
 
I do have a Taurus .38spl revolver. One of the old good models.
But it is not as good as my old colt police. Not as good as my Dan Wesson not as good as my Ruger.
I do not believe Taurus is not its price worth. Consider a revolver as an investment. Taurus is not a good investment. And quality..... is not the best.
 
Revolvers are ok. Finish sometimes thin and tool marks are sometimes rough. I have a 85, 82, 66, 617, 608, 327, & 44. Some more than one, too. Never had a problem with any of them <knock on wood> and I trust 'em with my life. The only semi in the Taurus line I would trust with my life would be the PT92.

Your friend probably doesn't have a heck of a lot of experience with Taurus revolvers.
 
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I think I'll probably end up going with either a Ruger or a Smith. Just seems like a luck-of-the-draw type thing, and I'll save up a bit longer and buy something that's more likely to save me a few headaches.
 
Also keep in mind that the resale value of Taurus products is almost nil.
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This hasn't been my experience. I've never had any trouble selling a Taurus revolver, and I pretty much am able to get my money back.

Now I admit, that may be because I always buy used, so someone else has already taken the depreciation hit.
 
I have only had one taurus revolver. A moldel 94 snub nosed 22lr. 9 shoot. I bought it for yard carry when mowing or walking through the woods. Did not want to spend the $$ for a S&W (prefered rev brand). The action was pretty rough from the box with a terrible DA. It did smooth up a bit. I noticed after a rew 100 rounds the bullets was hitting the target sideways. A look at the barrel showed no rifling?? A few passes with a bruss got me out a good amount of lead. After several days of brushing the rifling came back to normal. I then noticed bad machine marks on the barrel, forcing cone(which was out of round and oversized and too deep) and the clyninders. Just very bad machining. I then sold the gun to a friend(who new all about the leading problems but really wanted it anyways). I then locked up tight on him when shooting it. He then sent it to taurus for repair. (Dont know if they did anything for the bad machining though.

All makes have some lemons but this revolver was just poorly made and not just one part of it. One of the chambers was probably off too because it would spit lead once every time it was shot all 9 times.

I will never own another Taurus there was just too many problems with that one revolver.
 
I have owned 3. A model 85, which worked perfectly, a model 65 .357 which had a few minor issues easily corrected, and a model 85 ultralight with the crimson trace grip package, which has worked perfectly since I bought it new in 2006. The older model 85 and 65's sold with no problem, I got back about what I paid for em.
 
My only Taurus revolver is a 2001 vintage Tracker, 7 shot, in 22 lr. stainless steel with a 6" tube. This thing has had thousands of rounds put through it with never a fault. Very accurate shooter, too.

Some say the older Taurus' were better quality than the newer ones. I can't speak to that as I don't have any newer ones, but this one performs flawlessly and always has.

Bayou
 
I have a Taurus 66, 4" that used to freeze up on me after about 50 rounds. I took off the sideplate and found some very small metal spurs on the window (rubbing on the hand). Removed the spurs, polished the hand, and replaced the springs with some Wolff springs.

Really, really wanted to dislike the gun and get rid of it when the problems started, but it's become one of my favorite and most accurate shooters (better than my S&W) with zero problems since then.
 
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