Taurus 692SS .357 & 9mm revolver - First Impressions

[General Geoff]

Picked up this relatively new Taurus wheelgun yesterday, new in box.





Being my first Taurus firearm, I set my expectations a bit low as the price and some interweb horror stories led me to assume it'd be a bit rough around the edges. Boy was I wrong.

This particular gun has a better fit & finish out of the box than two S&W revolvers I've bought new since 2009. Lockwork is tighter, timing is tighter, barrel/front sight is clocked perfectly at 12:00 position, and the barrel-cylinder gap is much tighter too, measured at 0.004" with both the .357 Mag cylinder and the 9mm cylinder. Taurus really hit it out of the ballpark with this one. I'll comment on range performance hopefully tomorrow.

[Brick]

Interesting. Looks great! I hope you get years of great performance out of it! Is it set up for moonclips?

[ArmyVet]

Interesting. Looks great! I hope you get years of great performance out of it! Is it set up for moonclips?

Only the 9mm cylinder is set up for moon clips. For .357/.38, 7 shot speedloaders designed for the S&W 686 / Ruger GP100 work just fine.

The factory 9mm moon clips don't hold up...TK Custom is the way to go but, they're pricey.
The gun has been a solid shooter with no issues to report.

Attachment 131715

[Brick]

Oh that's too bad! 7 or 8 shot .357 is slick as greased goose gop! Think about giving Mark Hartshorne at Pinnacle High Performance a look. See: https://pinnaclehighperformance.com/cylinder-work

[Sandcut]

I've had two Taurus M65s over the years that were smoother and shot better than my S&Ws. The revolvers were awesome. Taurus' customer service sucks donkey goobers.

[General Geoff]

I'm actually gonna get some RIMZ polymer moon clips, I've been using em for over a decade with my Smith 610 10mm revolver and they're very easy to load/unload.

[ArmyVet]

In my experience, the fit and finish on my 692 is substantially better than other Taurus revolvers I've owned (and sold) in the past.
It does not, match the fit and finish of any S&W revolvers I've owned (there have been many...). The cylinder lockup is good but not nearly as tight as the Smith's.
The double action is pretty good but, is difficult to stage (if you're into that sort of thing). The single action pull is a bit creepy and not nearly as nice as an ootb S&W. I'm not a fan of the orange decal Taurus uses on the front sight ramp...they can do better. The transfer bar rattles around if the gun is shaken. Holsters are another issue. I was able to get a Blade-Tech holster designed for a 3" GP100 to work with some tweaking.

The 692 does however, seem to be a good value for the money spent.

I purchased the 692 because I liked the idea of the dual cylinders but, would not rely on it as a primary defensive handgun.
Be prepared to repair it yourself if it goes down as Taurus warranty service is probably the worst out there. I've had to use S&W's warranty service recently and my experiance was outstanding.

My 692 only has around 500 9mm rounds through it, 150 factory .357 magnum and 200 or so .38 Special handloads.
I'll check in periodically throughout the year with updates.

[abner13]

What the hell happened to the cylinder ratchet star?

[General Geoff]

What the hell happened to the cylinder ratchet star?

Not sure what you're asking. It looks far nicer than the extractor star on my Smith model 63:

[ArmyVet]

Here's my 692:

Attachment 131743

My 686-8:
Attachment 131744