My Taurus .357

[Franchi20/28]

I was looking for a medium frame .357 with a 4" barrel for home/vehicle defense.

3 times I went to Shyda's and told them what I was looking for and 3 times they told me "No you want a compact/snubbie for that."

After the 3rd time I was a bit PO'd with them and decided they will not be getting my $$$ on this purchase.

Anyway, I was looking at the S&W 686Plus in SS and was very impressed. Nice piece of weaponry, but I'm just not into the grips so that would be another 50 clams to swap em out to something I like. Checked out the GP100 and it was nice too, but only comes in a 6 shot and has essentially the same grip as the 686. Found a Taurus 66 to check out and really liked the grips and the price was right so I ordered a 4" SS model.

I am partial to Taurus products, I have a Raging Bull 8" that I absolutely love. I had a PT101 for 15 years + that served me well and finally sold to a friend that fell in love with it since I now have an XDm.40. I also have a PT111 9mm that has so far been flawless.

The 66 however is a horse of a different color. It flat out did not work out of the box. The cylinder would bind up as you tried to cycle the action. I didn't even get through a box of 50 shells. The shop was great, they said bring it back and we'll take care of it. They called Taurus and they actually sent FEDEX to pick it up on their dime. Of course it had not even been 7 days since the distributor shipped it.

6 weeks later it was finally back. The repair order said they adjusted the cylinder, the barrel?, the feed pawl, the cylinder (again?), the trigger and something else I forget what it was. Shop called me on Wed and said my gun was back. I picked it up on Thursday. I took it to the range on Friday. Fired 21 rds of 158 jsp .357's avg 1125fps. 21 .357 158 lead at 950fps and 21 .38 158 lead at 800fps. Nice smooth trigger pull. I was impressed. Took some more of the .38's and shot some plates. I was ringing the plates with that double action revolver almost as fast as I do with my XDm. Then I missed one and another, then I started noticing it was hanging up once in a while. Finally i had it hang up a couple times to where I could not pull it through the cycle with the trigger no matter how hard I pulled.

Took it straight back to the shop on Friday. I am very disappointed. Told the shop to let them know I now have no confidence in this particular piece and either want a new one or my money back so I can get 686+ like I should have gotten in the first place.

I suppose there's no real point to this post except to vent my frustration.

[bripro]

Unfortunately, it seems problem guns sometimes just cant be corrected. You will never get it to work to the point you will have 100% confidence in it. Clean it up and sell it/trade it in for the Smith. The sooner the better. And good job not letting the gun shop telling you what to buy as far as the snubbie.

[Steve_NEPhila]

When it comes to revolvers, Smith and Wesson is King. I have shot all of the others, and for the price/value comparison they do not come close. Some people complain that the Smith is 200 bucks more then the Taurus, and indeed you get what you pay for.

You can find a badass 686 on gunbroker for about 450.... or just stop by your local shop that has used guns (two weeks ago Surplus City had a Smith 620 7 shot for 400 USD!!!). Have your local gunsmith work over the action, chamfer the charge holes and put a tritium night sight and shazaam... the ultimate revolver.

[Franchi20/28]

I suppose I should plug the shop I did buy the gun from as they have been great. Wolf's in Manheim. Carl gave me a better price than Shyda's and has been fully apologetic for a problem that is not there's and been fully involved in trying to correct it.

[keystoneman 85]

Carl (Wolfie) is a great dude. Stand up guy.

[chupa]

I think I'm going to get this for my wife to carry. I'm sure it will have to be loaded with .38. She'll complain about the recoil of .357, lol.

http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/p...ducts_id/31313

[Edg]

When it comes to revolvers, Smith and Wesson is King. I have shot all of the others, and for the price/value comparison they do not come close. Some people complain that the Smith is 200 bucks more then the Taurus, and indeed you get what you pay for.

You can find a badass 686 on gunbroker for about 450.... or just stop by your local shop that has used guns (two weeks ago Surplus City had a Smith 620 7 shot for 400 USD!!!). Have your local gunsmith work over the action, chamfer the charge holes and put a tritium night sight and shazaam... the ultimate revolver.

not to jack the thread but do you think S&W is king if Colt were still making revolvers?......and WTF dont they, thye make semi autos, and ar15....why not revolvers?

[Franchi20/28]

I think I'm going to get this for my wife to carry. I'm sure it will have to be loaded with .38. She'll complain about the recoil of .357, lol.

http://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog/p...ducts_id/31313

That's a nice piece, just remember the smaller and lighter it is and the shorter the barrel the higher the perceived recoil from the same ammo.

not to jack the thread but do you think S&W is king if Colt were still making revolvers?......and WTF dont they, thye make semi autos, and ar15....why not revolvers?

Darned if I know!

[shiloh]

not to jack the thread but do you think S&W is king if Colt were still making revolvers?......and WTF dont they, thye make semi autos, and ar15....why not revolvers?

It's my understanding that with the possible exception of Python sales, Colt had been losing ground to S&W in the DA revolver market for many years before Colt made the business decision to get out of DA revolvers altogether. The police market for revolvers had all but disappeared, and Colt believed civilian sales would not be sufficient for profitability, especially given Colt's higher labor costs. S&W ran into financial problems of its own, but already had a higher share of the revolver market than Colt.

You can't always believe everythign you read on wikipedia, but their Colt's entry does a decent job of explaining what happened to the company in the 80s and 90s to get it out of the DA revolver market. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt's_Manufacturing_Company.

Personally, I wish Colt still did make DA revolvers -- they made some really fine guns, and the competition would keep S&W and Ruger on their toes.

[Roland of Gilead]

I'm pretty much a Ruger guy when it comes to revolvers. Still have the Speed Six .357 I bought 25 years ago, and just picked up a second GP100 (although i had to have the older grips w/ the rosewood inserts).

Got the first GP100 last summer at Tanner's on a whim; it just called to me and in stainless it's really a thing of beauty. Traded it for a Taurus 1911 when I had the 1911 bug really bad, but couldn't get the GP100 out of my head, hence the new one.

Swap out the springs for Wolff replacements to lighten up the trigger, and good to go.

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