A Storied Revolver

[JenniferG]

As someone posted about favorite revolvers in another thread I decided I should tell the story of my revolver. It's been registered to me in Pennsylvania at least a few times over the years. I first owned this 1989 built Model 65 Taurus revolver in 1991. It was part of a lot buy from a co-worker. My co-worker had just been through an ugly divorce with every single issue that can be had in a bad marriage including but not limited to cheating lying, stealing, child abuse and more. The wife was mostly the culprit including the beatings on a 8-9 year old daughter. My co-worker began missing work and had difficulties getting along with his fellow workers and supervisors. That's when I stepped in and made him a cash offer on all of his firearms. I knew he owned a few because we talked about them pretty often. He took my offer knowing why I was buying them. I was concerned for his daughter's sake. If he did himself in which seemed highly possible the daughter would surely end up with the abusive Mother. This is my version of Red Flag and my co-workers were all appreciative of it too because our co-worker was beginning to be unstable.

Anyway, after the dust settled months later and my co-worker was settled into a new location I offered him to buy back the Maverick 12 gauge shotgun I bought from him for a home defense gun. He said he longer wanted the firearms because his daughter was still very upset about everything so I sold off all the rest of the firearms including a .22 Browning pistol, a 12 gauge Maverick shotgun and a .22 bolt action rifle. I kept the Taurus model 65 and shot it regularly at my gun club. I keep it cleaned and oiled. This all went down around 1991-92.

Somewhere around 1999-2000 another one of my co-workers approached me about buying a gun for home protection. I asked him the usual questions about has he ever shot a gun before etc... Well, he knew how to shoot a revolver and after I took him to my gun club a few times and got him familiar with the gun he bought the Taurus from me. He had the gun for about six or seven years and had decided he wanted an automatic pistol so I helped him choose one. He like the Beretta 92F or whatever they called the civilian version of the M-9. He sold the Taurus back to me and I've owned and keep shooting the Taurus to this very day. I even carried it with me to the Morrisville Gun rally few years back because it's a big revolver and I wanted the anti gunners to see it.

The gun is nothing fancy but it's had around 6-7 thousands rounds fired out of it by me alone and maybe another 1500 from the other two owners. I've compared this gun to a friend of mine's Smith and Wesson model 19 combat magnum that is about the same vintage with a similar amount of rounds through it and the forcing cone on his is cracked and he does not shoot it anymore. I shoot a mix of full bore loads and .38 specials through this gun and I carried it quite a bit during the 90's. Today I just plink with it with .38 specials but no matter what I shoot out it the thing eats it up, it still has a tight lock up and is pretty damn accurate. If you go to the Taurus forums you'll find that after a certain year in the late 90's to early 2000's the quality that this gun was built with is no longer there. It's a shame but it is what it is.

[buxbandit]

Neat story, thanks for sharing

[Sandcut]

Nice! Way to help a friend, also!

I love my M65 (mdern model). It's stainless. My second one.

I felt bad about selling off the first one, so I ought another. Runs like a champ and shoots where I point it.

I think I'll put the wooden stocks on it. Can't warm up to the rubber ones.

[JenniferG]

Nice! Way to help a friend, also!

I love my M65 (mdern model). It's stainless. My second one.

I felt bad about selling off the first one, so I ought another. Runs like a champ and shoots where I point it.

I think I'll put the wooden stocks on it. Can't warm up to the rubber ones.

This gun fits my hand perfectly with those wood stocks. I had a Model 629 Smith and Wesson for a while back in the 90's and the rubber grips on it seemed a little cheap but after firing a model 29 with wood grips I came to appreciate those rubber grips. Now there's a gun I kick myself in the arse for selling. That 629 had the 6" barrel and was very accurate for the fist 10-15 maybe 20 shots. After that the shooter loses accuracy.

[bripro]

There is one in the classifieds right now (not mine) if anyone is interested.

[Manxdriver]

I’ve got several Taurus pieces, auto and wheel. I like them all and none have ever acted up.

[jthrelf]

Nice looking revolver for all those rounds through it!

[JenniferG]

Nice looking revolver for all those rounds through it!

The pictures make it look better than it really is. I tried a few different setting on the camera to keep from getting excessive flash. There are scratches and some thin bluing in spots. It has held up much better than the S&W Model 19 my friend owns. We used to go through boxes of full bore .357 mag loads side by side. It's too bad the Model 19 couldn't handle those loads, that gun started out as much nicer gun than this Taurus.

[kobsw]

Jen,
Revolvers are a passion of mine and I've always liked the older Taurus blued revolvers such as yours. The 65 is practically a S&W Model 13 and just as rugged by your testimony.

Astra was another great Spanish gun maker and made very similar revolvers to Taurus and S&W. I have a Astra Model 44 that's an absolute tank.

Some S&W model 19's had issues with the lighter weight .357 specifically the 125 Gr which caused some forcing cones to crack. After S&W's recommendations and the vast S&W communities' input It was found that the gun can shoot the 158 Gr without any issues.

My 19-3 has fired some full load .357's but mostly just .38's. It's approaching the big "50" and has become more of a collector's piece to those looking for vintage revolvers.

Here's a pic



Thanks for sharing and Best Regards,

Kobsw

[American1776]

That Taurus doesn't have the flat machined in the forcing cone that the Smith and Wesson K-frames had, which lead to the crack. I wonder if the older Tauri were better made back then? Looks to be a very nice gun there!