Taurus M44 Titanium

**Edg** · March 17th, 2010, 03:39 PM

Had the boys out today in the beautiful weather. Finally got to shoot the Taurus enough to adjust the sights.
This gun wieghs only 28 oz, today I shot 70 full power 44 mags, and 30 44 specials and my wrist feels fine. I am very impressed.
At first I liked the fiber optic front sight. Now not so much. It is fine for shooting a charging bear at 15 feet, what its made for as a backpackers gun. But the front sight post is big and square with a round fiber insert. at 25 yards the front sight can entirely cover a 12" round target. It will take some getting used to. On the plus side after getting it adjusted when I move up to 15ft the orange fiber front sight is the same size as the orange 10x ring on my targets and I could blow the 10 ring out. at 40 yards all the shots were in the black part. I have it adjusted to hit about and inch high at 25 yards, Im hoping that keeps me zeroed resonably well out to 50-75 yards...cant find any ballistics for 4" barrel 44 mag.

Then there was my Sig p229...such a perfect gun. It hasnt been fired in at least 8 months, Its been carried everyday since then. Banged around many ways. I fired the first mag rapidly with the laser at 25 yards, no rounds were outside the 8 ring with most in or touching the 10x. This is better then i shot with it last fall. two more mags just like this. last mag was one handed from the hip and got a 4 inch group. I LOVE THIS GUN. CT lasers are amazing, this thing is over three years old and abused heavily and still hasn't lost its zero or battery after 5k+ rounds.

**Edg** · March 17th, 2010, 03:41 PM

about the Taurus Fiber sight. It is very hard for me to get used to trying to line up the front site post in a square opening(rear sight) with the round fiber out there. Its going to take some practice.

Sorry for those of you who had to work today

**Steve_NEPhila** · March 17th, 2010, 03:45 PM

Working or not, we can all enjoy a good range report on a slick wheel gun. What kind of loads were you using and did you have any issues with bullets pulling out of cases with the magnum?

**Edg** · March 17th, 2010, 04:02 PM

nope. I shot 20 federal 180 grain at 1660 fps, 20 hornady 180 gr at 1550 fps, and 20 winchester silvertip 210 grains at 1200 fps. These all performed and hit the target in the same spot.
I then shot half a box of magtech 240 grain that someone gave me, more recoil hit about an inch higher at 25 yards.
then I shot about 25 rounds of 44 special, 268 grain lead roundnose.

No issues at all except once, I thought I had only fired 5 shots and heard a click, so I waited, then I opened the cylinder and the unfired bullet was in the wrong position. Not sure if it jumped a spot when I cocked it, or if while adjusting my sights I let the hammer down on one then cocked it again when ready to fire again and messed myself up.

The main thing I noticed is Titanium does not hold heat. I rapid fired some of these to see how I could do. and shot all 70 of them in less then 30 minutes. the barrel, or cylinder never got more then lukewarm. It freaked me out so I opened the cylinder and touched the barrel itself and it wasnt very hot for something that just fired 6 44 mags.
The slide on my sig gets hot after a few magazines and that isnt even touching the barrel for the most part.

**Edg** · March 17th, 2010, 05:39 PM

I just cleaned the gun, there is some pretty substantial (i think) swelling going on. When I look through the cylinder from the rear to the front there are rings where the crimp would be. Below that the cylinder is a larger diameter by a little bit. Maybe this is normal I dont know, some of the shells were hard to extract, had to push the rod really hard. I never had a 44 mag before, but this never happened with any of my .357s