Taurus' The Judge

[TonyF]

Another thought occurred to me this evening .......... there has to be a HUGE fireball of muzzle flash at night with such a short barrel. I was told that an SG needs about 14 inches of barrel for a complete powder burn. A 2.5 inch barrel would be very inefficient in that regard as well.

[ChamberedRound]

As far as firing 45 Colt from it, it's not that much different than any other snubby revolver out there. There are .38 Special/.357 Mag and .44 Special/.44 Mag snubbies out there with barrels at 3" or less. The Judge probably won't perform any worse.

IMHO, I don't think the designers were concerned about muzzle flash or a SG shell's powder burn when they designed this pistol. It's meant to spread the shot to the head or upper torso as quickly as possible at very short range, with less concentration on aim; not to say that aim isn't still necessary, but a little easier than with a single POI as with a bullet. Outside of those extremely short distances, I don't think the shot will be all that effective.

I still believe this could be an effective anti-carjacking weapon, especially given that one can't carry a loaded shotgun in the car. And, it could double as a decent carry weapon when loaded with .45 Colt. Would I want this as a primary carry revolver? I'm not sure; I think I'd stick to the .38/.357 snub-nose revolver or a compact semi-auto. However, I do like multi-function gadgets, and this is definitely more versatile than a standard revolver.

[TonyF]

Originally Posted by ChamberedRound

IMHO, I don't think the designers were concerned about muzzle flash or a SG shell's powder burn when they designed this pistol.

They may not have been concerned but as an end user I certainly am.

It's meant to spread the shot to the head or upper torso as quickly as possible at very short range, with less concentration on aim; not to say that aim isn't still necessary, but a little easier than with a single POI as with a bullet.

I look at it this way, in the context of a car-jacking which is what they claim this pistol was designed to defend against, we're talking two to maybe four feet. I just don't see how shot dispersion would even be a factor.

I dunno, I admit to having a negative bias about this pistol. In my mind it has "gadget" written all over it. The issues of muzzle flash and terminal performance are what concern me the most, especially the latter.

[MarcS]

You're absolutely right tony, it's a novelty. Neat and all but not practical as a defensive handgun. Maybe in a survival pack since it can be pressed into service for several uses (hunting, defense, hell, even a flare gun) even though it will excel at none of them

[Chevmeister]

I think the biggest question here is..... Whos gonna buy one and bring it to a group shoot so we can all shoot it??

[ChamberedRound]

Even though this is a separate question, I'll ask it here as it pertains to the potential versatility of this weapon:

Can a revolver chambered for .410 shot/.45LC also fire .45ACP with moon clips? If so, it could potentially make this a good weapon to have in a SHTF scenario, as that's one more cartridge it can fire if one needs to scavenge for ammo.

[billamj]

I would think that it probably could fire .45 ACP rounds but I would have to wonder about the safety of that. If it were strictly .45 LC I would not have the concerns since it isn't that much longer than the ACP but since they are talking about a 3" chambering I'm not sure that the forcing cone would be close enough to the bullet to fire it safely.

[TonyF]

Originally Posted by ChamberedRound

Even though this is a separate question, I'll ask it here as it pertains to the potential versatility of this weapon:

Can a revolver chambered for .410 shot/.45LC also fire .45ACP with moon clips? If so, it could potentially make this a good weapon to have in a SHTF scenario, as that's one more cartridge it can fire if one needs to scavenge for ammo.

No.

The rimmed counterpart to the .45 ACP is the 45 Auto Rim. The 45LC has a 0.5120" rim that is 0.060" thick. The 45 Auto Rim has a 0.5160" rim that is 0.089" thick.

[D-FENS]

Ok. sorry it took so long to followup. I did call Taurus just now but wasn't able to get too much information.

Here's what I got. The 3" chamber will be released in November. No MSRP on that yet.

They don't have much info on MV. They're "waiting to hear from Brazil" on stats for various shotshells. All I got was that a 255 grain .45LC is moving at 900fps and that a "regular shotshell" spreads to 2 feet at 8 yards. I asked which type of shotshell was being used and was told "a regular one". Admittedly, I don't know much about shotshells so I wasn't gonna call bullshit, but I think it is.

All in all, I got Customer Service quickly but it wasn't very friendly and information should be received from Brazil before it's put onto the American market.

Oddly enough, when I called, I was pretty set on getting one no matter what but wanted to follow through with the call cause I said I would. After getting off the phone, I don't think I'll be picking up The Judge. In November when the 3" comes around and the muzzle verlocity information comes back from Brazil, then maybe I'll consider it but I'm not gonna bother for now.

/Need a 1911

//Really need an AR

[Chevmeister]

Well my old man is one of those ill buy it cause it looks cool kinda people. He saw a homeland defender model today. Long story short im gonna try to take his to targetmaster tomorrow. Ill follow up on how it shoots.