I am thinking about buying a 5-shot, short barreled .44 Taurus tracker to carry when I won't have a rifle or larger handgun nearby. Are there any serious issues with Taurus revolvers and how do they compare to Ruger revolvers?

Thanks,

I'd buy a Ruger 10 times out of 10.

You will mostly get slams here on any Taurus handgun. I am a big Taurus fan. Think they a maligned by people who have no personal experience with them. I carried a 4 inch Taurus Ti Tracker in .41RemMag for about three years. Think enough of them to trust my life to one. A more realistic comparison would be between a Taurus and a S&W of the same size. Fine guns.

I've had the same gun as crawfish for about 4 years. I love the gun, but it's not perfect. The accuracy is not as good as I would like, but good enough. The overall fit of the gun is not as tight as I would like, but again it's not terrible. I would rather not have the barrel ported, but it does make the gun extremely pleasant to shoot.

I love the way the gun carries. I have actually forgotten I had it on before. The loaded Taurus with the holster weighs 1 lb 15oz. That's less than my Glock 29 loaded and holstered at 2 lb 2oz. And the 41 packs considerably more punch, even if it only has 5 shots. Even with full power 250gr Federal Castcore loads or the handloaded equivilent, the gun is easy to manage. With a 215gr SWC and 5.5gr of Trailboss, it's a pussy cat to shoot.

I have shot the 44mag Tracker, and it was on par with my 41mag as far as quality. I would opt for the 41mag Ti Tracker just for the weight savings over the 44mag version. If I were to do it over again though, I might look at the S&W 329 Scandium 44mag.

Now if it were a dedicated hunting gun, I'd go with the Ruger. Only because I know it will take the abuse of heavy loads. I can already see the toll taken on my 41mag by a steady diet of heavy loads.

I looked at one and I think the cylinder is shorter than other 44's. Using big 300 gr bullets may have an issue with this. I think Taurus is good for the money.

I have a Rageing Bull in 454 and like it. About the best accuracy I can get is around 1.5" at 50yds. The trigger is great. I don't think they are built as strong as a Ruger(Tank)
I did have one problem with it, the cylinder unlocks sometimes under recoil with heavy bullets(350gn ish). So it won't advance to the next chamber when cocked.

I'll pile on for the Taurus as well. I hunt whitetails with a .44 RB and 2x Leupold. It shoots 240 XTPs and Federal 300s much more accurately than I do.

My buddy just bought an RB in .41 with a 6" barrel and absolutely loves it.

I have a Taurus tracker in .41 magnum and I love this gun. My blackhawk in .41 rarely gets to go play anymore since the taurus came along.

I have owned a couple of Taurus revolvers. The only one I have left is a knock off of the Smith model 19 in .357. It is about 10 years old or so and in terms of fit, finish, function and accuracy it is the equal to a Smith. Having said that, the newer Taurus' I have owned, (past tense) were gritty and poorly fitted. Customer service from Taurus is non existant if you have a problem...save your money and buy a Ruger.

My local pawn shop has one in .480 Ruger.

I am waiting on the price to drop from $450 to 300 or so before I put it in the safe though...unless for some odd reason I find $450 in the gutter. I don't even think Taurus makes the Raging Bull in the .480 anymore either

You couldn't give me a Blackhawk- the grips eat my hands alive. Seemingly designed for your average 12 yr old boy's hand. The Taurus has a nice, full, grip and always shot the .357's well.

I agree with collegekidandy I like mine his opinons are the same as mine.

I have a Taurus Total Titanium with the 4" ported barrel in 45 Long Colt and I love the way it shoots and carries. It is very light but even with stiff loads of 250XTP's @1150 fps it does not bite your hand in the least. The Gripper grips work very well. I sent it back to the factory when I first bought it and had absolutely no issues with their service. Believe it or not these lightweights are rated by the factory to be able to handle +p loads without a problem.

I think their service is pretty good. The cylinder latch on my brother-in-law's .38 Titanium snubbie broke and he sent it to Taurus and they turned it around pretty quickly. It looks like they stand behind their products.

I have a tracker ti in 41 mag 4" also. I do love that pistol. Plenty accurate for me and if I dont want to carry it on my belt I just put it holster and all in my coat pocket.

Ya'll are trying to make me regret selling my Tracker 41 or what? Really would have liked it w/o ports, what do you think?

Blast much worse for you?

I too don't like porting. Too bad they don't offer porting simply as an option.

I have never noticed a difference in porting or not porting except that the kick seems a bit less.

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I think that the porting is a big help while shooting. It just makes cleaning a pain if you shoot many cast bullets.

The porting helps recoil, and the grips works as designed, but the recoil seems to come more straight back since the gun does not jump as much, but more of issue with me, is above, the cast bullet/cleaning issue, and #2, my perception that blast is increased.

Handy handguns for sure.

RM, the TI, must be light as my SS was so I wonder how much it might 'sting' with top 210 loads....

24 ounces. The trigger guard does slap my middle finger with some loads.

My handloads are a 210 cast at 1150 these are mild.

The other loads I have are 240 grain win platinum tips and federal castcore hunting 250 grain bullets. Both of these have a little sting.

Hate to get in front of your 'mild' load!

Seen a 44/240 swc @1050 cut through a 7-10" Willow like hot butter, and hit with a whop in the river behind it, enough to seem like it'd put a hole in you!

Also, cut through a deer, both lungs with ease.....so that is enough....for what I need.

Shot some loads today.

The 41 platinum tip 240 grain winchester load went 1136 f.p.s.

The 250 cast core federal load went 1058, 1047 f.p.s.

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265 grain hardcast gas check H110

17 grains --- 1022 recoil was mild
18 grains --- 1089 felt like a factory load
19 grains --- 1116 Ditto

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293 grain hardcast H110

15 grains --- 977 mild
16 grains --- 1033
17 grains --- 1075 kicks like a factory load


Think I would go 17.5 H110 for the 265 and 16.5 H110for the 293. Going for 1050 F.P.S. each.

These are well under what I would shoot in my 41 blackhawk 4-5/8". Which was 19 H110 for the 293 (1275F.P.S.)and 21 H110 for the 265. These are loads listed in Hodgdon manual.

I found that I could seat the bullet to the front edge of the shank of the bullet and they would fit in my tracker ti. The 293 actually came shorter than the 265. Gotta find more of them 293's.

I would spend a little more and get a Ruger Redhawk. They offer one in a 4" barrel now.

http://www.ruger-firearms.com/redhawk44/index.html

I love my Ruger Super-Redhawk 454. Not to say that the Taurus is the bad gun but in the 28 years that my family has operated a gunshop we have sent in more Taurus products for service than Rugers (although not a significant amount). Both have good service.

I could tie a brick to my taurus and pretend it is a redhawk.

Just kidding. I got my taurus for the weight.

Rmiller, amen to that, if Ruger made a 5 shot GP100, I think it would be very tempting.

They just don't want to listen to my tastes I reckon.

Did I ever ask if you had a Freedom 97?

LOL -- I wouldn't want my Rugers any lighter -- they beat me up badly enough as it is!!

Joke, or what? Maybe an SP101 357.

6.5 -- I was referring to my SRHs -- one in .454 Casull, the other in .475 Linebaugh -- I realize you were talking about SP101s -- bad joke, sorry!

I just have a tracker TI 41 mag and a raging bull 454 casull (and I am making jokes about heavy revolvers ).

quote:

Originally posted by Whitworth:
LOL -- I wouldn't want my Rugers any lighter -- they beat me up badly enough as it is!!

I'm ready to get an Alaskan .454! it may be my carry pistol for the Concealed handgun license

RMiller, are you picking on our heavy SRHs?! LOL!! Let's see, if that Raging Bull of yours didn't have any porting, I'll bet you would complain about it being on the light side!

Just playing, no offense intended!

And I load 340's down to 1350 also to keep the recoil mild. HEHE

RMiller -- what length barrel does your Raging Bull have?

6.5 with porting. It is brushed stainless.

I wanted to try the 265gr hard casts, but I didn't think they would fit in the cylinder. I didn't even think of just seating them deeper.

I'm working with the 250gr bullets and H110 now. At this point pressure is erratic and groups are terrible. I am going to switch to using CCI LPM primers instead of the Federal LPM. Hopefully that will help.

The 300 grain beartooth bullet should work in the tracker at the .360 seating depth.