Rangerrich99
New member
I've pulled the trigger on all three revolvers mentioned in the OP. Currently I have in my possession a S&W revolver and two Ruger wheel guns. Here are my general thoughts:
S&W- best fit and finish of the three. Same goes for trigger in both DA and SA. Good CS. Best investment value of the three. A couple negative points for the internal lock.
Ruger- better fit and finish than the Taurus. Better trigger in both DA and SA than the Taurus. Maybe the best CS of the three. Much better investment value than the Taurus. Probably the strongest revolver of the three mentioned.
Taurus- Decent fit and finish. SA trigger is close to the Ruger's. Not sure about current CS; in the past they weren't known for it. Accuracy was never a problem.
A few more specific notes:
I really like S&W revolvers; always have, especially in .357 magnum. The lock thing is annoying, but I have yet to experience any kind of issue with them. The best thing about the S&W is the trigger; in double action it's significantly better than either of the revolvers. In SA it's only a little better than the Ruger, but it is noticeable.
The Ruger really shines when it comes to handling abuse. If you reload, you can handload some pretty high-powered rounds and the Ruger will take it. Repeatedly. The other thing I like about them is how easy it is to do your own 'trigger job.' Of course, I'm not talking about a professional quality job, but anyone with just a little mechanical know-how can switch out the main and trigger return spring in a GP-100 and instantly have an 8 lb. DA trigger pull for less than $20.
I've pulled the trigger on about a half dozen Taurus revolvers. These are my impressions: Not bad fit and finish. Not as good as the otherr two guns mentioned, but not bad. All of the Taurus wheel guns I tried out were reasonably accurate, in spite of the heavy, gritty, stacky DA trigger. The width of the backstrap is very narrow which doesn't help with felt recoil. Definitely the least comfortable of the three guns to shoot.
And finally, two of the Taurus guns that I shot experienced the same malfunction. I'm no armorer, so I don't know what the exact terminology would be, but in both revolvers the cylinder would somehow become stuck while I was pulling the trigger, thus experiencing a failure to fire. In one of them it happened twice in less than 50 rounds.
This was my buddy's gun, not a range rental that never gets cleaned. My buddy is a bit of a clean freak, and I know that weapon was clean and oiled when he handed it to me. My amateur inspection of the gun showed that the cylinder was actually moving slightly forward during the trigger stroke, sometimes coming into contact with the forcing cone. Sometimes there was enough friction when this happened to prevent the cylinder from rotating further, thereby causing the failure. I actually had to release the trigger and turn the cylinder by hand before pulling the trigger again.
The same exact failure occurred over a year later with another buddy's Taurus 627. Now, I know other friends that love their T revolvers and say they've never had an issue. For myself, I have never had that type of failure with any S&W or Ruger in 25 years, so if I were the OP I'd look at those two brands regardless of price point.
As for buying new vs. used: with Rugers right now it looks like new ones are about $100-$150 more than used, generally speaking.
Hope some of that helps.
S&W- best fit and finish of the three. Same goes for trigger in both DA and SA. Good CS. Best investment value of the three. A couple negative points for the internal lock.
Ruger- better fit and finish than the Taurus. Better trigger in both DA and SA than the Taurus. Maybe the best CS of the three. Much better investment value than the Taurus. Probably the strongest revolver of the three mentioned.
Taurus- Decent fit and finish. SA trigger is close to the Ruger's. Not sure about current CS; in the past they weren't known for it. Accuracy was never a problem.
A few more specific notes:
I really like S&W revolvers; always have, especially in .357 magnum. The lock thing is annoying, but I have yet to experience any kind of issue with them. The best thing about the S&W is the trigger; in double action it's significantly better than either of the revolvers. In SA it's only a little better than the Ruger, but it is noticeable.
The Ruger really shines when it comes to handling abuse. If you reload, you can handload some pretty high-powered rounds and the Ruger will take it. Repeatedly. The other thing I like about them is how easy it is to do your own 'trigger job.' Of course, I'm not talking about a professional quality job, but anyone with just a little mechanical know-how can switch out the main and trigger return spring in a GP-100 and instantly have an 8 lb. DA trigger pull for less than $20.
I've pulled the trigger on about a half dozen Taurus revolvers. These are my impressions: Not bad fit and finish. Not as good as the otherr two guns mentioned, but not bad. All of the Taurus wheel guns I tried out were reasonably accurate, in spite of the heavy, gritty, stacky DA trigger. The width of the backstrap is very narrow which doesn't help with felt recoil. Definitely the least comfortable of the three guns to shoot.
And finally, two of the Taurus guns that I shot experienced the same malfunction. I'm no armorer, so I don't know what the exact terminology would be, but in both revolvers the cylinder would somehow become stuck while I was pulling the trigger, thus experiencing a failure to fire. In one of them it happened twice in less than 50 rounds.
This was my buddy's gun, not a range rental that never gets cleaned. My buddy is a bit of a clean freak, and I know that weapon was clean and oiled when he handed it to me. My amateur inspection of the gun showed that the cylinder was actually moving slightly forward during the trigger stroke, sometimes coming into contact with the forcing cone. Sometimes there was enough friction when this happened to prevent the cylinder from rotating further, thereby causing the failure. I actually had to release the trigger and turn the cylinder by hand before pulling the trigger again.
The same exact failure occurred over a year later with another buddy's Taurus 627. Now, I know other friends that love their T revolvers and say they've never had an issue. For myself, I have never had that type of failure with any S&W or Ruger in 25 years, so if I were the OP I'd look at those two brands regardless of price point.
As for buying new vs. used: with Rugers right now it looks like new ones are about $100-$150 more than used, generally speaking.
Hope some of that helps.