Taurus Thunderbolt....
- Thread starter Eghad
- Start date
Right now they are allocated to the gun stores. Which probably means that the top selling stores are getting them. He got four when they first came out, they didnt last long. I put my name in the hat for one, the price wasnt bad. He said he is selling them for $395.00. I am probably going to take some cash down monday and put a deposit down. There is another dealer in town who would have one but he is closed due to an illness now 
He had the Buffalo Hunter Classic in stock that I bought.
He had the Buffalo Hunter Classic in stock that I bought.Our local store got one in. It's a .45 Colt, blued. I didn't have the money for it, although the price was very reasonable at $360. I let it sit there for a week, and then I couldn't stand it. I put a deposit on it.
Until I get it paid off in a couple of weeks, I won't know how it shoots. But it impressed me, obviously, or I wouldn't have wanted it.
It's very light. It balances between the receiver and the fore-end. Fore-end is checkered, buttstock is not. The wood appears to be another example of those odd South American hardwoods that Taurus and Rossi tend to use; solid, attractive grain, but a lot of streaks of variable color. This one has one streak of near black running down the stock, and is otherwise walnut-colored. It doesn't look bad at all.
(Rossi, or whoever makes those Model 92 lever rifles now, tends to soak their stocks in stain so heavy it nearly colors them black. Which is a pity. On a couple of their lever actions I soaked off most of the stain using Hoppes No. 9-- yet another use for the stuff, wood refinishing! After that, I disguised whitish streaks by rubbing mahogany stain only into those areas, then put on a Tru-Oil finish over top. The result was very attractive wood that looked like a plain-grained but good quality aged walnut.
Fortunately, Taurus doesn't use the dunk-and-soak-to-black stain method on the Thunderbolt. The wood does have a dull finish, though. I might just rub Tru-Oil into it to jazz it up a little. Good stuff, Tru-Oil.)
The action is really, really slick. I love it. The trigger is excellent. Wood to metal fit is OK; there is a gap, visible but narrow, between the stock and the receiver on the right side, although the tangs that attach receiver to stock are fitted perfectly. Metal finish is a smooth, shiny blue-black.
The sights I could live without. You've got drift-adjustable front and rear sights, in dovetails. (I love the term "drift-adjustable." It means "Bash it with a big enough hammer and it will move." When you think about it, everything in the world is drift-adjustable.) The front is a bead on post, if I remember correctly; the rear is one of those God-awful buckhorn things, with a tiny notch in it that I couldn't see without my glasses. I suppose it's no big yank to file the rear notch to whatever you'd like. The rear sight is step adjustable for elevation, meaning you should be able to get it more or less on target.
However, the store also had a very nice Marble's tang sight, which has holes spaced exactly the same as the rifle's tang screws. So I presume that if I can just locate a couple of tang screws a bit longer than standard, I can install a receiver sight. If they don't make such for the Thundrebolt they will soon, count on it.
One really cool feature of the Thunderbolt is a button on top of the hammer. When you have pulled the hammer back so it's not resting on the sear, ready to fire, you can push this button and then lower the hammer without having to pull the trigger. That's a nice safety feature, and fairly elegant in operation, especially compared with the safety they've fitted on some of the South American lever actions. Which is in the form of a rotating plug drilled into the top of the breech block.
I don't know how it shoots, but I suspect it will work fine. Especially for cowboy action stuff. Can't help but think this would also be a heck of a house gun, with the proper ammunition.
Until I get it paid off in a couple of weeks, I won't know how it shoots. But it impressed me, obviously, or I wouldn't have wanted it.
It's very light. It balances between the receiver and the fore-end. Fore-end is checkered, buttstock is not. The wood appears to be another example of those odd South American hardwoods that Taurus and Rossi tend to use; solid, attractive grain, but a lot of streaks of variable color. This one has one streak of near black running down the stock, and is otherwise walnut-colored. It doesn't look bad at all.
(Rossi, or whoever makes those Model 92 lever rifles now, tends to soak their stocks in stain so heavy it nearly colors them black. Which is a pity. On a couple of their lever actions I soaked off most of the stain using Hoppes No. 9-- yet another use for the stuff, wood refinishing! After that, I disguised whitish streaks by rubbing mahogany stain only into those areas, then put on a Tru-Oil finish over top. The result was very attractive wood that looked like a plain-grained but good quality aged walnut.
Fortunately, Taurus doesn't use the dunk-and-soak-to-black stain method on the Thunderbolt. The wood does have a dull finish, though. I might just rub Tru-Oil into it to jazz it up a little. Good stuff, Tru-Oil.)
The action is really, really slick. I love it. The trigger is excellent. Wood to metal fit is OK; there is a gap, visible but narrow, between the stock and the receiver on the right side, although the tangs that attach receiver to stock are fitted perfectly. Metal finish is a smooth, shiny blue-black.
The sights I could live without. You've got drift-adjustable front and rear sights, in dovetails. (I love the term "drift-adjustable." It means "Bash it with a big enough hammer and it will move." When you think about it, everything in the world is drift-adjustable.) The front is a bead on post, if I remember correctly; the rear is one of those God-awful buckhorn things, with a tiny notch in it that I couldn't see without my glasses. I suppose it's no big yank to file the rear notch to whatever you'd like. The rear sight is step adjustable for elevation, meaning you should be able to get it more or less on target.
However, the store also had a very nice Marble's tang sight, which has holes spaced exactly the same as the rifle's tang screws. So I presume that if I can just locate a couple of tang screws a bit longer than standard, I can install a receiver sight. If they don't make such for the Thundrebolt they will soon, count on it.
One really cool feature of the Thunderbolt is a button on top of the hammer. When you have pulled the hammer back so it's not resting on the sear, ready to fire, you can push this button and then lower the hammer without having to pull the trigger. That's a nice safety feature, and fairly elegant in operation, especially compared with the safety they've fitted on some of the South American lever actions. Which is in the form of a rotating plug drilled into the top of the breech block.
I don't know how it shoots, but I suspect it will work fine. Especially for cowboy action stuff. Can't help but think this would also be a heck of a house gun, with the proper ammunition.
I'm very happy with mine. I've shot BP and smokless through it without a hitch. The finish is very nice and the long barrel and magazine look very nice. The hammer decock saftey is very usefull and I dont mind it a bit. The guns very accurate although reproducing the sight picture can be a bit of a chore with the stock sights. As far as gripes go- my trigger isnt the best and the steel buttplate could use some extra fitting. One good thing about it is its easy to catch your brass after every shot without using your left hand other than working the pump. I use mine for hunting and medium range plinking and it gives a unique boy in the woods feeling. My main concerns were finish and function of which it has performed wonderfully out of the box. It hold 16 45LC rounds so you can load up and go explore for awhile with an accurate powerfull rifle.
I just got back from the range from firing my Thunderbolt for the first time.
I'd have to summarize the experience as nice, but not overwhelmingly so. The gun needs work, or possibly just working-in. Or I need to know how to operate it.
The action is slick. No problems there. Trigger is good. I'm still impressed with how nice the thing looks; fit and finish are about as good as these things come, save that the checkering on the foreend isn't too sharp. Probably machine-impressed. But it serves its purpose of making the foreend easier to grip and operate.
I don't know how accurate the weapon is, because the sights are excerable. Even with glasses, my aging eyes can't pick up the notch on that buckhorn monstrosity of a sight. That's easily fixed-- I might either mount a leftover rear sight I have from a Winchester 94, if it will fit, or else use the Dremel to flatten the buckhorns and then file in a rear notch to my liking. Except that I was on the phone to Taurus a week or two ago, and they said they have a tang peep sight for this model. It's not in their catalog yet, but they're getting it. I am a big fan of tang peep sights, so likely in the end I'll take the rear sight off completely, replace it with a blank, and use a rear peep only. (How do you think I got that leftover rear sight from the Winchester?)
What concerns me more is that I managed to jam the rifle three times in about fifty shots. On two of those, the cartridge popped up above the lifter and jammed on trying to enter the chamber. I may have short-shucked the action. While slick, I'm sure it's not as slick as it will be after I shoot it more, and besides, I haven't figured out how hard to rack the action yet.
On the third jam, I think I tried to put 15 cartridges in the tubular magazine. Its capacity is supposed to be 14, but I think I lost count. I pushed the fifteenth cartridge in. It didn't go, and then when I pulled it out of the loading gate Cartridge No. 14 snapped backward under the cartridge lifter. The action wouldn't close, the loading gate wouldn't open. There you are, jammed up good.
Fortunately there is a slot in the lifter which seems to have been made for just this emergency. I was able to insert the screwdriver blade of my Swiss Army Knife into this slot and push the case forward, HARD.. eventually getting it far enough forward that I could close the action. Then Cartridge 14 was where it was supposed to be, and everything worked perfectly again.
I'm going to clean, oil, shoot, and repeat, of course. I may even try Bill's Patented Zero Cost Lever Rifle Action Job-- work the action a few thousand times without letting the hammer fall. Slicks things up wonderfully on a lever gun, without causing excess wear.
But that's not going to be easy on the Thunderbolt. Being a pump, it operates differently. If there's a way to rack the action without letting the hammer down-- something quite easy with a Model 92, for example-- I haven't found it yet. The pump rifle locks up until the hammer falls to prevent firing out of battery, which would be Bad.
The front sight on this puppy is also dovetailed to the barrel, which should make it possible to replace. I would like a gold or silver bead there to go with a tang peep sight, but I do believe CASS doesn't allow those. I'm a range plinker, though, so perhaps that isn't a problem for me.
No way I can see to mount a scope on this rifle. Nor would I want to; it would kind of defeat the whole lightweight, quick-handling theme this rifle has going.
I think this is going to be a good one, once I've shot it some more. Oh no, I have to go pump ammo through a rifle to get it to slick up! More shooting! What a terrible thing!
PS: If I were redesigning this rifle to my liking, I would give it different sights. I would also give it a magazine tube that twisted to unlock and pulled out forward, so you could load cartridges from the front if you wished. The loading port works, and is authentic, but at least with the .45 cartridges it is awkward, slow, and a bit painful. (Don't worry, the cut didn't bleed much. ) It is mostly so when you try to load it to its full 14-shot capacity; 10 shots for CAS shouldn't be so much of a problem.
I'd have to summarize the experience as nice, but not overwhelmingly so. The gun needs work, or possibly just working-in. Or I need to know how to operate it.
The action is slick. No problems there. Trigger is good. I'm still impressed with how nice the thing looks; fit and finish are about as good as these things come, save that the checkering on the foreend isn't too sharp. Probably machine-impressed. But it serves its purpose of making the foreend easier to grip and operate.
I don't know how accurate the weapon is, because the sights are excerable. Even with glasses, my aging eyes can't pick up the notch on that buckhorn monstrosity of a sight. That's easily fixed-- I might either mount a leftover rear sight I have from a Winchester 94, if it will fit, or else use the Dremel to flatten the buckhorns and then file in a rear notch to my liking. Except that I was on the phone to Taurus a week or two ago, and they said they have a tang peep sight for this model. It's not in their catalog yet, but they're getting it. I am a big fan of tang peep sights, so likely in the end I'll take the rear sight off completely, replace it with a blank, and use a rear peep only. (How do you think I got that leftover rear sight from the Winchester?)
What concerns me more is that I managed to jam the rifle three times in about fifty shots. On two of those, the cartridge popped up above the lifter and jammed on trying to enter the chamber. I may have short-shucked the action. While slick, I'm sure it's not as slick as it will be after I shoot it more, and besides, I haven't figured out how hard to rack the action yet.
On the third jam, I think I tried to put 15 cartridges in the tubular magazine. Its capacity is supposed to be 14, but I think I lost count. I pushed the fifteenth cartridge in. It didn't go, and then when I pulled it out of the loading gate Cartridge No. 14 snapped backward under the cartridge lifter. The action wouldn't close, the loading gate wouldn't open. There you are, jammed up good.
Fortunately there is a slot in the lifter which seems to have been made for just this emergency. I was able to insert the screwdriver blade of my Swiss Army Knife into this slot and push the case forward, HARD.. eventually getting it far enough forward that I could close the action. Then Cartridge 14 was where it was supposed to be, and everything worked perfectly again.
I'm going to clean, oil, shoot, and repeat, of course. I may even try Bill's Patented Zero Cost Lever Rifle Action Job-- work the action a few thousand times without letting the hammer fall. Slicks things up wonderfully on a lever gun, without causing excess wear.
But that's not going to be easy on the Thunderbolt. Being a pump, it operates differently. If there's a way to rack the action without letting the hammer down-- something quite easy with a Model 92, for example-- I haven't found it yet. The pump rifle locks up until the hammer falls to prevent firing out of battery, which would be Bad.
The front sight on this puppy is also dovetailed to the barrel, which should make it possible to replace. I would like a gold or silver bead there to go with a tang peep sight, but I do believe CASS doesn't allow those. I'm a range plinker, though, so perhaps that isn't a problem for me.
No way I can see to mount a scope on this rifle. Nor would I want to; it would kind of defeat the whole lightweight, quick-handling theme this rifle has going.
I think this is going to be a good one, once I've shot it some more. Oh no, I have to go pump ammo through a rifle to get it to slick up! More shooting! What a terrible thing!
PS: If I were redesigning this rifle to my liking, I would give it different sights. I would also give it a magazine tube that twisted to unlock and pulled out forward, so you could load cartridges from the front if you wished. The loading port works, and is authentic, but at least with the .45 cartridges it is awkward, slow, and a bit painful. (Don't worry, the cut didn't bleed much.
) It is mostly so when you try to load it to its full 14-shot capacity; 10 shots for CAS shouldn't be so much of a problem.Sorry to hear your off to a rough start. I wasnt impressed with the sights either at first, in fact I didnt know they had a rear notch untill my third outing. I've since then become fond of them however. I simply look at the front sight and use the buckhorn to find the right elevation and fire. I give no regard to windage and it works fine. Did you get the 26inch? Regarding the jams I've heard some say they can be meticulous about OACL but once they find it they run fine. Mine however is not in fact I have no idea how long my rounds are and I'm constantly changing my dies to Schofeilds and back. Speaking of Schofeilds the Thunderbolt works as a two shooter when so loaded. Mine will hold one in the chamber and one in the mag but the rim is too big to allow the second to be inserted for some reason. Amazingly they feed though.
Got Taurus Thunderbolts !!
Hey,
After waiting foor two plus years I finally managed to get my hands on a Thunderbolt in S.S. AND Blue in 45 Colt.
I have fired the S.S. and at 25 yards from a kneeling position was able to hit a 10 inch steal plate target three out of five rounds, I would call those head shots. My speciallity.
All in all I would have to say it was worth the wait. These are very nicely made guns, very good shooters, very accurate.
If you can find 'em, buy 'em !!
Hey,
After waiting foor two plus years I finally managed to get my hands on a Thunderbolt in S.S. AND Blue in 45 Colt.
I have fired the S.S. and at 25 yards from a kneeling position was able to hit a 10 inch steal plate target three out of five rounds, I would call those head shots. My speciallity.
All in all I would have to say it was worth the wait. These are very nicely made guns, very good shooters, very accurate.
If you can find 'em, buy 'em !!
Apparently, the Thunderbolt can be deliberately slam-fired at a high rate without harm by holding the trigger down and working the pump quickly, much as someone did in a Western...I forget which.
I think Taurus knew their audience.
That's a shame. I have an older Rossi 92 in 38/357, and the stock is some sort of gorgeous red Brazillian hardwood that has an almost hologram-like depth to it. Very, very nice wood, curving patterns of gold "beneath the surface" that follow the grain. I have no idea what kind of wood it is.
I think Taurus knew their audience.
That's a shame. I have an older Rossi 92 in 38/357, and the stock is some sort of gorgeous red Brazillian hardwood that has an almost hologram-like depth to it. Very, very nice wood, curving patterns of gold "beneath the surface" that follow the grain. I have no idea what kind of wood it is.
DWARREN123
New member
WWW.WHITTAKERGUNS.COM
They had a couple two weeks ago. Call and ask, good folk and good prices.
They had a couple two weeks ago. Call and ask, good folk and good prices.
Throckmorton
New member
I have tried one,and it let me down.
a friend bought one,and it was reallllllllllllllly stiff liike a lot of new guns are,so I said 'hey,le'ts both shoot it at the next cas match and break it in a bit.'
cost us many many seconds on the clock,and finally it just locked up and would not load the first round.
we did shoot it some before the match to loosen it up some,but theyare REALY REALLY tight from the factory.
I would not buy one,based on this experience.
...yes,I could have it 'slicked up',but I still would not buy one.
a friend bought one,and it was reallllllllllllllly stiff liike a lot of new guns are,so I said 'hey,le'ts both shoot it at the next cas match and break it in a bit.'
cost us many many seconds on the clock,and finally it just locked up and would not load the first round.
we did shoot it some before the match to loosen it up some,but theyare REALY REALLY tight from the factory.
I would not buy one,based on this experience.
...yes,I could have it 'slicked up',but I still would not buy one.
I was going to get a Thunderbolt, but got talked out of it by a couple of CAS State Champs.
They steered me to an 1866 Model Lever Action, and I couldn't be happier. The problem with the Thunderbolt is, it jams too frequently. If I recall, the original gun that the Thunderbolt is copied from also jammed a lot too.
I think it's a great "concept" but I'll stick with the tried and true Lever Actions.
Biker
They steered me to an 1866 Model Lever Action, and I couldn't be happier. The problem with the Thunderbolt is, it jams too frequently. If I recall, the original gun that the Thunderbolt is copied from also jammed a lot too.
I think it's a great "concept" but I'll stick with the tried and true Lever Actions.
Biker
johnwilliamson062
Moderator
Any new reports on the thunderbolt?
Jbar4Ranch
New member
I know of only a handful that work semi-reliably. They seem to work better with full loads rather than mid range or less - not "Ruger or T/C only" loads, but full standard loads.
The CAS crowd rates the Thunderbolt as the single biggest POS in the game, with the Henry Big Boy close behind. Taurus can't fix 'em, and no longer honors their "Lifetime Warranty" on them.
Even knowing full well the reputation of the Thunderbolt, I bought one anyway and it works most of the time if full loads are used and it is operated slow, deliberate, and forceful. It sure isn't reliable enough to be used as a main match gun for Cowboy Action Shooting though.
The CAS crowd rates the Thunderbolt as the single biggest POS in the game, with the Henry Big Boy close behind. Taurus can't fix 'em, and no longer honors their "Lifetime Warranty" on them.
Even knowing full well the reputation of the Thunderbolt, I bought one anyway and it works most of the time if full loads are used and it is operated slow, deliberate, and forceful. It sure isn't reliable enough to be used as a main match gun for Cowboy Action Shooting though.
johnwilliamson062
Moderator
I just want a stainless companion carbine for my GP100. Reliability is a top demand.
Fingers McGee
New member
I've got an AWA in 44-40 that finally works every time. Replacing a defective hammer spring did the job.
Fm
Fm
sharps1863
Inactive
Thunderbolt !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I picked up 1 last year, Shot it a couple of times and traded it off for a Rossi .357 lever. The sights where terrible and the action if you tried to baby it. It would double feed. "you have to slam that bolt back and forth" You would have one locked in the bolt going into the chamber then it would kick one out of the tube and lodge under the bolt. Pain in the ass then because it had to come apart to fix and thats another whole story. I thought Taurus discontinued them. I heard they had discontinued the Gaucho too. I love this gun No problems at all with it.
I picked up 1 last year, Shot it a couple of times and traded it off for a Rossi .357 lever. The sights where terrible and the action if you tried to baby it. It would double feed. "you have to slam that bolt back and forth" You would have one locked in the bolt going into the chamber then it would kick one out of the tube and lodge under the bolt. Pain in the ass then because it had to come apart to fix and thats another whole story. I thought Taurus discontinued them. I heard they had discontinued the Gaucho too. I love this gun No problems at all with it.