I have a Taurus "The Judge" with a 3-inch barrel that I bought in 2011. For a time, I kept it as a home defense weapon with the first 2 shots being Winchester's PDX1 .410 Defender followed by 3- 250gr Hornady XTP cartridges.
When I shot it from 10 yards at an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper I found none of the 4 discs and only 2 of the 16 BBs in the paper. The XTPs hit the paper but a 3-shot group measured over 5 inches. I'm not as confident as I want to be for my intended use, so it stays in the safe.
However, when I first bought it I sensed there was more cylinder movement in the uncocked position than I expected, but it became almost imperceptible once cocked. I wrote to Taurus about it but never received a reply.
Today I decided to measure it. With an empty cylinder, I closed it and turned it until it locked. I marked a spot on the cylinder, then turned it as much as it would move and marked the spot. The space was about 0.052 - 0.063 inches as best I could determine. When I cocked it, that space movement was 0.04."
I inserted a 0.375" shotgun cleaning rod into the muzzle and it passed into the uncocked cylinder. But if I turned the cylinder to its maximum movement, I could feel the rod slightly bumping into the face of the cylinder if I held the rod against the inside of the barrel. After I cocked it, there was no similar obstruction, no matter how I turned it.
So the question becomes, how much movement is acceptable in this .45 caliber piece, and does that movement tend to affect accuracy?
When I shot it from 10 yards at an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper I found none of the 4 discs and only 2 of the 16 BBs in the paper. The XTPs hit the paper but a 3-shot group measured over 5 inches. I'm not as confident as I want to be for my intended use, so it stays in the safe.
However, when I first bought it I sensed there was more cylinder movement in the uncocked position than I expected, but it became almost imperceptible once cocked. I wrote to Taurus about it but never received a reply.
Today I decided to measure it. With an empty cylinder, I closed it and turned it until it locked. I marked a spot on the cylinder, then turned it as much as it would move and marked the spot. The space was about 0.052 - 0.063 inches as best I could determine. When I cocked it, that space movement was 0.04."
I inserted a 0.375" shotgun cleaning rod into the muzzle and it passed into the uncocked cylinder. But if I turned the cylinder to its maximum movement, I could feel the rod slightly bumping into the face of the cylinder if I held the rod against the inside of the barrel. After I cocked it, there was no similar obstruction, no matter how I turned it.
So the question becomes, how much movement is acceptable in this .45 caliber piece, and does that movement tend to affect accuracy?