Can Anyone Identify the Revolver in These Pictures?

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Farmalljon

New member
Can anyone help me ID the revolver in these pictures? They are low quality cell phone pictures. The owner tells me it is a Taurus .357. That's all I know. I'd like to know the model, and anything else anybody might know. Are these guns any good? Thanks.
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If it's a Taurus, look at the frame inside the cylinder crane. The model number will be stamped there.

6 shot .357 w/ adj. sights, maybe an older Model 66. The grip doesn't look familiar to me.

Looking at the last pic, note the hole in the frame a quarter inch or so below the rear sight. Firing pin retaining pin. Likewise, first pic, the screw at the top of the side plate. Definitely older, my late 80s vintage 66 had these, current Tauri don't.

---edit to add----

At a guess, if you examine the ejector star area, you'll see rough machining. That's typical of Taurus wheelguns. They still work.

Is it a good gun? Probably an OK gun. It is not the equal of the equivalent S&W. Two reasons I don't still have mine: It started mashing firing pin springs into uselessness, and I acquired the gun this is a copy of, a S&W Model 19. No comparison, the Smith is better, so the Taurus got traded off.

I wouldn't mind having another, if it checked out and the price was right. I assume you're evaluating this for purchase. What's he asking for it?
 
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It strikes me that those stocks don't look like they fit right. Look at the last pic. Budget for a set of Hogues, or look for a factory stock set on ebay or gunbroker.

The real thing would look like this.
 
The left grip panel has been modified, probably for speedloaders.
I'll keep my opinion of Taurus guns to myself.
 
It's a Taurus Model 66, copy of the Smith & Wesson Model 66. If I were you, I would just buy the S&W original.
 
No, it's not a Smith & Wesson. It's a Taurus. In the top picture you can see the Taurus emblem on the side plate on the right side. S&W put its emblem on the left side of the Model 66. It's a Taurus alright. Also notice that the third picture shows a hammer without the firing pin mounted in the hammer. During this time S&W mounted its firing pin in the hammer while Taurus switched to the transfer bar system years earlier as shown.

This was one of the older guns, probably from the late 1970s during a time when Taurus and Smith & Wesson were owned by the same parent company. Taurus copied most of the S&W designs, used the same production equipment and actually made design updates and improvements that S&W struggled to achieve. For example, Taurus made the model 66 in six and seven round versions long before S&W made a seven round K frame.

During this time many people considered Taurus to be more innovative than Smith & Wesson as far as introducing new features but S&W was considered to use better quality steel, forging processes, heat treating processes and better gunsmithing in general.

These were generally good guns and sold for roughly half the price of the Smith & Wesson during the 1970s to 1980s. I would place a top value of $275on this gun if it has no mechanical problems.

Disclosure:
I own a Taurus 66 that I bought in the 1980s. It is one of the most accurate guns that I have ever shot. I only had one problem in all these years. That occurred when the gun shot loose and the ejector rod unscrewed and locked up. I had it repaired and it has been fine ever since. This is the gun I carry when I don't want to risk a more valuable gun to bad weather open carry or to boating or fishing mishaps. It also carry it when wading in salmon streams or scouting deer in bad weather. It's a good gun but I often wish that I had bought the Smith. I was just starting out working full time back then and I got the gun for about $229 brand new while the Smith was about $429 and the Colt King Cobra and Python were a few hundred more and the Ruger was priced between the Taurus and the Smith.

The gun shop owner laid out all the 6" barreled .357 magnum revolvers and I bought the Taurus because I didn't have much money and because it felt right when I picked it up. Only the Rossi was lower priced than the Taurus. That was a long time ago when I was much younger and much poorer and I just wanted a legal deer hunting sidearm. Sometimes I get the urge to sell the Taurus but then I come to my senses and realize that it doesn't make sense to sell something that shoots so accurately and costs so little.
 
But how do you know its not a S&W?

I'll be darned if that isn't a dead ringer for a Smith.
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In addition to what ten ring said about why its not a S&W, the hammer profile is wrong for a S&W, the trigger is different than a S&W offering, the lug is not like a S&W (this one is longer), the front sight is different and finally, with an upper side plate screw on the right, it would make the gun a 5 screw S&W HOWEVER, S&W never made a K frame 357 5 screw, nor did they ever make a SS 5 screw. S&Ws were all 3 screw when SS guns came out. The first pre model 19s aka combat magnums were 4 screw guns. Of course, the grips are not S&W like but grips can be changed.

There are many imitators but there can only be one S&W ;)

I think that's a S&W with Taurus grips.
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Wow man, no need to insult S&W like that, geez :rolleyes:

Here is my 66 no dash, SS rear sight from 1974, so everyone can see the differences.

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Wow man, no need to insult S&W like that, geez

Here is my 66 no dash, SS rear sight from 1974, so everyone can see the differences.
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I see the difference now. The S&W has a box. ;)

(With the crappy cellphone pictures in the first post, there isn't much to see.)
 
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