Taurus 12" 357 Magnum

K

Kenneth L. Walters

New member
The local gun store has a seven shot Taurus 357 Magnum with a rather thin 12 inch barrel. Anybody have experience with this gun? Kind of wondered what kind of accuracy it delivers.
 
357 Magnum with a rather thin 12 inch barrel.
Click to expand...
IIRC, it and its .22LR cousin were produced for the waning British market.

Taurus probably should be commended for remembering that last bastion of poor, disenfranchised shooters. OTOH, that revolver is fugly.:eek:
 
I seem to recall reading an article in one of the recent gun rags that Taurus brought this out recently to establish a presence in the long range silhouette shooting matches. Don't know much else about them.
 
Just got back from local gunshop

Just got back from a local shop and they have one of those 12" Taurus .357s. My goodness, that thing is loooooooooooong! (that's 12 'o's in case you were wondering. ;) ) And I thought my 8" Dan Wesson looked long. I didn't ask to handle the gun since I'm really not interested in something like that. It looks cumbersome though.
 
At the risk of getting hate mail, I've got and very much like a S&W PC 44 Magnum with a twelve inch barrel. Actually I've been extensively shooting three S&W 44 Magnum PC revolvers with varying barrel lengths this year. That 12 inch barrel is certainly accurate. Hence my interest in this gun. Looks funny but, well, it might very well be quite accurate.
 
The Taurus article was in the December issue of Guns and Ammo.
The writer liked the trigger. He shot a 5 shot group of 3.48" at 100 yards.
Looks like fun.
 
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Is there any real velocity and/or accuracy advantage in such a long barrel? I realize that the longer sight radius makes it easier to shoot accurately, but is there a real advantage? I have never seen a need for more than 8 inches barrel in a revolver. I once chronographed some 357 Magnum loads in a Ruger GP-100 six inch and a Dan Wesson eight inch. The eight inch barrel gave only about 30 fps advantage over the six.
 
I've been shooting three S&W 44 Magnums. Barrel lengths are 6, 7.5 and 12 inches. Accuracy clearly increases with increased barrel length. The 7.5 is just slightly more accurate then the 6. The 12 is CLEARLY more accurate than the 7.5. Sure it might be just do to sight radius but, well, except for one S&W M41 target pistol made years ago you can not get increased sight radius unless you have increased barrel length.

The longer the barrel, the better the accuracy.

One of these days I'm going to have to try my 18 inch Buntline. Now there is a long barrel.
 
I have a 12" Taurus Silhouette...but I haven't had the chance to take it out to the range yet. If it's not accurate I'll just sell it and use that money towards a new Dan Wesson .360. You cant beat a gun that takes four different kinds of ammo. .38 spl, .357 mag, .357 maxi, & .360 DW.

I don't know about the whole "longer the barrel, better the accuracy" theory. Weren't the Taurus 10" Raging Hornets duds? I think I read somewhere that they weren't very accurate. You'd think that the hornets would shoot like the raging bulls. Considering they both have the full lug barrels n' all... Maybe it's the .22 hornet cartridge.

I'll post the results here as soon as I get a chance to shoot it.
 
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Georgia Arms 158 grain GoldDot "Deer Stoppers"

Ruger SP101 3 1/16" 1246.4fps 545 ft/lbs
S&W 4" Revolver 1256.8 fps 554 ft/lbs
Marlin 1894CP 16 1/4" 1855.3 fps 1208 ft/lbs

.357 ammo gains a heck of a lot in 8"+ barrels.

I can send a 180 grain XTP at 1,548 fps from my lever gun, you can't do that from a 6" pistol. I can also send a 125 grain GoldDot at 2,200+ fps.

The Taurus gun looks fun to me.

Kilgor
 
"I can send a 180 grain XTP at 1,548 fps from my lever gun, you can't do that from a 6" pistol. I can also send a 125 grain GoldDot at 2,200+ fps."

A lever action rifle is a unvented barrel system, unlike a revolver which is a vented barrel system. In a rifle, none of the expanding gases will escape until the bullet exits the barrel. In a revolver, the gases will begin to escape through the barrel-cylinder gap, thus reducing the driving force behind the bullet.


"Ruger SP101 3 1/16" 1246.4fps 545 ft/lbs
S&W 4" Revolver 1256.8 fps 554 ft/lbs "

Very little difference between these two revolvers with different barrel lengths.
 
That is a very valid point to consider.

However, I still believe you will see a significant gain in velocity with the 12" barrel and hot loads. The hot .357 loads still have plenty of unburnt powder (with slow burning powders like 2400, H110, W296) in 6 inch and under barrels when the bullet exits the muzzle. Hence you see the muzzle flash and blast that the .357 is known for. Not enough leaks out of the cylinder gaps (in revolvers with tight cylinder gaps) to cause a problem.

There is an easy explanation for why the 4" barreled revolver was only 10 fps faster than the 3 1/16" revolvers. Diferent cylinder gaps. The older 4" S&W has a gap of 0.009" and the new Ruger has a gap of 0.003".

This is my hypothesis of what will be seen in the Taurus 12" revolver. To know for sure we need someone with one to check the gap on one and chrono some good stout loads from it.

Clipper,

You have some feeler gauges and a chrono?

Kilgor
 
No, but I might be able to use some. I don't think Taurus is known for making guns with the tightest of tolerances. I'm guessing the gap is probably some where between the old smith and the new ruger.
 
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