I have a Taurus Raging Bull 8 3/8" in 454. The second time I took it out it starting shaving lead off the slugs between the cylinder and barrel. If I cocked the hammer slowly (like in a hunting situation) the cylinder wouldn't rotate completely thus the slug wasn't lined of completely with the barrel. If I'd cock the hammer fast it would rotate all the way and lock up solid. I had the gun fixed under warranty and now it seems fine. They told me the timing was off. Anyone had any simular experiences? Any comments? Should I be nervous about this gun?

Sounds like the hand (or is it called a pawl?) that rotates the cylinder was a bit too short, and it wasn't turning the cylinder quite far enough.

I have a older S&W that is getting that way, won't quite lock if you cock it very slowly and deliberately, but if you cock it quickly the cylinder has enough inertia to keep spinning until it locks.

When you had it fixed under warranty they probably installed a longer hand/pawl thingy.

This is a common problem on revolvers and it sounds like they fixed it. No big deal, don't worry about it unless it happens again.

Wheelgunner,

THis is really a pretty common problem in production revolvers from most makers.

In your case it was a pretty extreme case but if Taurus adjusted the hand as you said, you should have nothing to worry about. It is really a pretty simple fix to adjust the hand length so that the cylinder stop locks up when the hammer hits the full cock notch.

As long as the cylinder is locking up when the hammer comes to full cock, you should have nothing to worry about.

Like I said, even top quality productions revolvers have this problem from time to time, just adjusted a S&W 29 and a S&W 686 for the same problem, just not quite as severe as your case but same thing.

Good Shooting!!!

50

Thanks for the feed back guys. Hopefully no more problems.

Mine is fairly tight and shoots accurate. The only problem I have with it is it unlocks under recoil with heavy loads so the cylinder doesn't advance when the hammer is cocked for the next shot.

I checked my SS Raging Bull 454 it locks up when the cylinder is rotated, but it is the loosest pistol I have ever owned. It has a lot of cylinder play and considering I paid more than $600.00 I don't appreciate it being loose and spitting lead.

I did manage to kill a nice fat Doe with it a couple of years ago

I have problems with mine shaving lead and jacketed bullets. I will have to check it let you know if it locks up properly.

This is an old thread, but...

I've got a 454 Raging Bull 8.5. The timing was off on mine jus as you describe also. We had a squib fire, and my buddy fired another round behind it and it bulged the barrel. Amazingly it didn't blow up.

Sent it back and it took 10 weeks. They replaced the barrel, and definitely fixed the timimg. It locks when you slow cock before the hammer is all the way back.

Now I find .010-11 thousands of an inch cylinder gap between the barrel and cylinder. I thought the Bulls were suposed to be real tight gapped?

I've only shot some 45 colt reloads and it was spitting powder and real dirty, but that may have been the powder. Time will tell on how well it is now. It sucks having problems with new guns after spending all the money.

I sent mine back to Taurus to have it fixed. They didn't charge me anything and it seems to be working fine now. I haven't fired it yet but I'm planning on taking it out this weekend to sight in for deer season. I'll let everyone know if it holds together.