Problem with Taurus Judge

JLawsonTXRH

About 2 years ago I purchased a NIB Taurus Judge from a seller here on GB. Thought it was a pretty cool gun and something I didn't have. When I finally got it to the range, I attempted to run some 410 ammo through it, only to have the gun not eject the rounds when I opened the cylinder. I literally had to pry some of the rounds from the cylinder and I used 2 different brands. I also had a problem with the cylinder not advancing everytime. Obviously there is a problem with the gun, and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced a similar problem. I own a few Taurus hand guns and have only had 1 sent back for warranty work in about 10+ years. I'm guessing this will be my second one.

rufe-snow

Owned one myself a number of years ago, had the same problem. Taurus machines a internal flange/shoulder in the cylinder, to prevent fools from trying to shoot .454 Casull or .460 S & W in it. When you shoot .410 shotgun shells they expand around this flange/shoulder, preventing extraction. The best fix I could come up with is to strictly use Winchester AA shells. They are made of much tougher plastic and don't expand as much to prevent extraction, as other brands do.


EDIT #1, My personal experience with Buckshot loads, in my Judge, both store bought and my handloads wasn't positive.

They just didn't spread out enough at personal protection range, i.e. 15 feet or less. Because of this, IMHO, you would be better served in using the 45 Long Colt cartridge. Much more personal protection potential with a .454 diameter, 255 grain, flat nosed lead bullet then 3 or 4 Buckshot.

beantownshootah

No, you're not the only one with this issue.

The gun has several significant design flaws, of which the extraction issue you mention is only one.

Other significant design issues include wrong-way thread on ejector rod, improperly secured set screw on ejector rod, long free-bore leading to poor accuracy with .45LC rounds, tendency of shotshell primers to back out of shells in normal use potentially locking up the guns cylinder (!!!!), and lousy patterning with shot.

See here:
http://forums.gunbroker.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=443252
http://forums.gunbroker.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=453054
http://forums.gunbroker.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=468165
http://forums.gunbroker.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=481949
http://forums.gunbroker.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=501325

fordsix

no problem with the public defenders i have sold ,,ammo no problem with win buck,or rem home defence buck,win PDX,or fed buck...problems with any imported ammo like noble sport.centuian the 410 shell must be no more that 2 1/4 inch at unfired anything else seems to be problem..haven't shot any 45 ..don;t care to,,i want to put 3 to 4 bucks in your hide[^] any bird shot is worhtless unless in your face or 2ft

tsr1965

The main problem, is that it says Taurus. Yes, I admit that I still own one of their Model 62 stainless carbines in 22LR. Most likely the only reliable, but still needed fixin at first, gun they made.

That said, their quality, while said to be improving, is still hit and miss. You can expect about anything from them, on any given day, with anything. Even though Taurus-USA is a USA based company, the manufacturing, and engineering come from South America...they could care less about their USA market they sell to.

That type of firearm is a mere conversation piece, and cannot be seriously considered for any real defensive purposes, with as many issues as it does have.

Best

MFI

They have a lifetime guarantee so send it back and have them make it right.

fordsix

or just get a 410 finish reamer and fix it good[;)]

beantownshootah

quote:Originally posted by MFI
They have a lifetime guarantee so send it back and have them make it right.

You could try that, but this is what I envision happening:

-You send them the gun, unfortunately this will probably be at YOUR expense.
-Now you WAIT.
-Two to three months later. . .(you hope). . .the gun arrives back with a note from Taurus saying its in spec and they couldn't find anything wrong with it.

So now you're right back where you were, only minus a gun for a few months, and possibly minus shipping costs.

Now, its one thing if a Taurus gun breaks. . .ie it has a PARTS failure. Taurus can always replace the broken part and fix the problem. If the gun was assembled badly, then Taurus **MIGHT** be able to fix the problem.

But no amount of tweaking by Taurus is going to fix the fundamental DESIGN problems associated with the "Judge".

In particular, there is nothing Taurus can do to prevent softer-cased shells from sticking in their guns. If they removed the small flanges from inside the chamber, some idiot could drop a .460SW in there and "grenade" the gun, and Taurus isn't going to let that happen.

Smith and Wesson fixed the cross-threading problem with its revolver ejector rods 40+ years ago, yet reportedly Taurus is STILL putting out guns where the normal rotation of the cylinder tends to unscrew the ejector rod.

Nothing Taurus can do will change the fact that a .410 shell won't pattern worth a darn from an overbored short .45 caliber rifled barrel.

No amount of futzing by Taurus can turn a low-powered shell used mainly for introducing small children to shotgunning into something optimal for personal defense.