Which is better, Ford or Chevy? :)
I never really thought about this sort of thing before. I wonder why this option has not been available for decades.
I had one of the older Taurus Judges before the Governor was produced.
It’s handful and very intimidating IF you happen to be on the wrong side of the barrel. My brother wanted it and kept hounding me to sell it to him which I finally did. Either one would probably work fine.
My cousin bought the plastic one, the Taurus “Public Defender”. Meh. I wasn’t really impressed.
Be careful when comparing velocities. Some may use shotgun length barrels which generate much more velocity while some 2.5 inch loads designed for handguns us the short handgun barrels for their claimed velocity.
I love the 3-inch loads that have 5 pellets of 000 buck. It is just devastating from a full shoulder fired .410 barrel.
I like my S&W. Great snake gun, for all kinds of snakes. Was not impressed by the fit/finish of the Judge even if it was a couple of $ less expensive.
I love my Governor. 6 shots of increasing lethality. Now if they would only make a tactical nuke for the 6th chamber...
Any article that uses “hand cannon”, “badass”, and “man stopper” should not be considered as any sort of serious look at a firearm.
While the concept of a handheld shotgun has helped sell a ton of these guns, true ballistics testing has been pretty unimpressive. Take a look at this standardized test, using some of the ammo mentioned in the article: http://www.410handguns.com/410_gel_results.html
The ONLY rounds with somewhat acceptable penetration were the 000 and #4 buck, and even with those, almost all of the pellets from each test failed to meet the FBI penetration standard of 12”.
An older, less formal test is here: https://www.theboxotruth.com/the-box-o-truth-41-the-taurus-judge-vs-the-box-o-truth/
In my opinion, these guns are a very heavy platform that give you 5 effective projectiles. They have significant recoil, making recovery and followup slower. As a snake gun, etc they are fine. For defense though, I believe there are many far better options.
There is no good reason to utilize the .410 or the .45 colt out of a short barrel. The ballistics are appalling. There are many tests showing how poorly both perform. Get a different gun/caliber unless you want to trust your life to a novelty.