draw the line

S

speed

New member
where among the well known revolver manufacturers would you draw the line between what you would consider to be high quality,medium quality and poor quality firearms.
do you think that your choices apply to all of the manufactures products including semi auto handguns,rifles,shotguns?
 
Rossi = Low to Medium Quality
Taurus = Medium to High Quality
Ruger = High Quality
Smith and Wesson = High Quality

Those are probably going to be your four most common wheelgun manufacturers. The above are estimates based on what I have either experienced or heard. That doesn't mean that you won't find a Rossi with superb quality or a S&W with poor quality. Most other manufacturers you hear about will either fall under "Low Quality" or "High Quality". You will be able to tell the difference by the price tag. :)

Oh, and it seems that most manufacturers keep the same quality levels in both handguns and long guns, where applicable.
 
Charter 2000: jury is still out. The designs are basically very good, very proven, and the Bulldog .44Spl is a wonderful concept in "power-to-weight" while still being shootable. We just don't know how widespread the sometimes-spotted QC issues are, or whether they date to early production or this year's latest.

For the moment, I would not recommend buying one sight-unseen, and check your dealer's specimens carefully.

The line between Ruger and S&W is odd. Finish, and "exotic ideas" nods go to S&W. Toughness goes to Ruger, pretty much across the board. Functional single actions, Ruger just totally dominates. Ruger has a factory DA .454 sixgun, and the SBH is easily the toughest DA wheelgun ever made, bar none, end of discussion :).

But Ruger still has "qualms" about doing combat-optimized wheelguns. Where is the 8-shot .357 SBH with a 3" tube and smaller grip option from the GP100 (which bolts straight on already)? Could the SP101 be converted to .44Spl? Could the GP100 be set up with 7 rounds of .357? Or six .44Spls?

Where are the factory Tritium or fiber optic sights? For that matter, if Taurus can play with Titanium, why can't Ruger? It's tougher than Scandium/Aluminum alloys, weighs less than steel, yet has enough mass to keep recoil somewhere south of "insane", especially with Ruger's traditional beefy designs.

In the SAs, Gary Reeder is getting the weight of 4" barrel .45 Vaqueros down to 28oz, in steel, with no loss in strength. Recoil is wild with +Ps, but they're not recommended only because of recoil issues. With a TI cylinder and aluminum grip frame, Ruger could equal that or beat it.

This lack of "creativity" is Ruger's biggest Achilles heel.
 
Quite frankly, given what I've observed over the past 20 years, there are now no shoe-in contenders for low-quality revolvers.

Rossi and Taurus have made incredible strides in product quality over the past 2 decades.

Rossi still lags behind Taurus, but not by much.

I'd say Rossi is medium quality, and Taurus is medium to high quality. Another 10 years and Taurus may well surplant S&W quality wise.

Charter Arms is an unknown, but what I've seen so far leads me to believe that they are medium quality.

North American Arms is very high quality.

S&W and Ruger are high to very high quality, depending on the indivudual gun, unfortunatly. Lots of variation.

Dan Wesson -- I haven't seen one of the new batch yet, but I'm hoping for high quality.

Colt is high quality.

The Italian single-action imports are medium to high quality.
 
Freedom Arms=Exellent quality.
Ruger=high quality
S&W=high quality
Colt=medium to high quality
Taraus & Rossi=medium quality
(IMHO):)
 
And there's also the jewelry-grade Manhurin (sp?) and Korth revolvers from across the pond.

Never seen either, but they look good in print.

-Kframe

ps, Oh yeah, S&W, particularly the pre-1957 pieces = High Quality
 
Taurus has improved to the point where I'd gladly take a new Taurus over a new Smith any day of the week. Innovative product line, well-made guns, interesting designs, and very reasonable price stickers. The last two Tauri I've owned, as well as my roomie's new .32H&R Mag snubbie, all lock up tighter than a Swiss bank vault, and have triggers that can hold their own with some of my older *&* wheelguns. Combine that with a lifetime warranty, and you have to grant Taurus good to high quality status in every respect. They're most definitely not "crap" or low quality.
 
I have not had good expierence with Taurus auto's or revolvers. ITs a good thing they have a life warranty because you will need it a lot.
PAT
 
"Pre-1957 pieces = High Quality"

If you ask me, the Pre-WW II era Smiths are the highest quality moderate- to high-volumn quantity handguns ever manufactured in the United States.
 
I have very little experience with Taurus revolvers, but my experience with their semi-autos has been exceptional.

I've got a Taurus TP-22 that is just short of incredible.
 
355sigfan,

I have not had good expierence with Taurus auto's or revolvers.
Click to expand...

Please enumerate some of those experiences, as my observations have been exactly the opposite (with the exception of the subpar "Millennium" selfloaders).

The 731UL (alloy .32 H&R Mag snubby) that I just bought times impeccably, has a good DA pull for an out-of-the-box gun (and owning a 625, 629, 586 and a PC-13, all tuned, I know what a good DA pull feels like), and locks up bank-vault tight. The 85 MultiAlloy on the shelf at our shop has a far better trigger than the 342 AirLite Ti sitting next to it, and costs almost $150 less. I could go on, but I'd rather wait to hear some of the tales of woe you've had with recent Taurus products. Since most everyone else in this thread seems to find them average-to-high quality, is it possible that your luck has just been unusually bad?:confused:
 
Smith high quality?
Not based on the last ones I bought they aren't. I'd put Smith at the bottom of the heap in terms of quality.

Rough finish, rough bores, light hammer strikes, poor timing, gritty triggers, terrible ergonomics(<-admittedly a personal dislike of round frame, rubber grips w/finger groves but still, why should I have to shell out $50, to $100 more on top of the already over $400,00 price to get decent smooth wooden grips?).

Even without the agreement, I was a buyer of only used Smiths.

The only exceptions I would make are the J Frame kit guns and the Schofield as far as buying a new Smith revolver. Even those though, I'd go into it with my eyes open that they may be junk.
 
Well the first Taurus I owned was a 4 inch 44. It functioned ok but its trigger was heavy and it would only group 3 inches or so at 25 yards. At least it was reliable. My smith 629 with a 4 inch barrel that I later bought would do 1.5 inches at that range.

Next Taurus i bought was a 605 it was one of the first made it was a custom model with 3 ports running down the middle of the barrel. The guns da pull was nice the sa was undre a pound and was scary. The gun went out of time and started misfiring one out of ever 3 shots in DA mode after about 300 full power 125 grain mags had been shot through it.

I then tried a 82 as a gift for my mother as her 38 was stolen. This gun worked ok although with a typical rough trigger pull.

I had a friend that bought a Taurus PT100. The thing had a 20 pound trigger and would only feed about half the ammo it was given.

Another buddie had a Pt92 9mm he was proud of . I went to the range with him and it would malfunction every magazine. I tried to give him some different factory ammo to see if the ammo was the problem but no go it still did not work.

My cousin has a PT99 that works fine thats the only Taurus Auto that I have seen work well.

I have also fired a PT908 that would not work. A friend of mine had got it as an off duty weapon but sold it because even after 2 trips to the factory it did not want to feed even ball ammo.
PAT
 
PT92

My son-in-law bught a new one 2 years ago and told me he couldn't put 5 in a paper plate at 50 feet.
ONE problem was the rear site notch had not been cleanly cut---GOBBS of crud in it. I fired 3 mags of primo ammo thru it at 50 feet and only had a handfull of hits +++ OFF A BAG +++ onto a paperplate.....dewey
 
Noticed something interesting when firing girlfriend's Taurua 617 (with 38 wadcutters...she can have all the 357 ammo to herself) -- I did much better shooting it DA than SA :confused: Wonder if having a firmer grip helped. Fit and finish on her gun are top-notch. In case of S&W, lager revolvers seem allright (last bought one in 98) and older medium frames, too...newer J-frames pretty poor.
 
Well, I've got a new Taurus 85, stainless, with the new grease fitting on the hammer;). It's a very nice gun....have only put 150 rounds thru it so far, no problems....as long as I remember to use snap caps when dry firing.....my faith in Taurus has been restored......a little... :)

Mike M.
 
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