Right out of the box, we fed it 60 rounds of those 200 grain factory Silvertip ammo.
Mrs. Lurker fired 50 of them, your humble correspondent fired 10.
Being a brand new firearm, the trigger was a bit stiff for both of our taste, but the weapon functioned flawlessly. Every round went 'boom' every time we dropped the hammer.
The factory port job was more than satisfactory IMO. Follow up shots were quick, considering that the springs were still a bit stiff. A few hundred rounds should smooth the action out very nicely IMO. The cylinder break works easily as well.
The weapon ejects spent rounds without undue effort.
Here's an interjected comment from Mrs. Lurker: "It's so light, yet it hardly kicks at all! Firing single action it's easy to put my shots in the middle of the target at 30 feet. "
End of comments from Mrs. Lurker...
Keep in mind that this thing has a 2" barrel and she's shooting factory loads through a brand new gun.
The next hundred rounds we put through it were some handloads I made today. 240 gr. JHPs with over about 5.6 grains of Bullseye. According to my books, they should be moving about 800 fps or so, perhaps a bit less.(I gotta get a chronograph...)
I managed to put 4 out of 5 rounds through the head of a standard police silhoutte target at 30 feet in about 5 seconds firing DA. The one loose round hit a couple of inches low, but I'm certain that was the fault of the shooter, and not the weapon or the ammunition.
These heavier loads had a bit more 'bark' to them, but the weapon still functioned flawlessly for both me and Mrs. L. We both thought that our groups tightened up just a bit, but that could just be because we had some time to get used to this particular weapon.
Did I mention how light this thing is? According to Taurus, it's less than 20 ounces unloaded.
Let me get to the finish, lest I be called a poor gun reviewer. The matte blued titanium finish is even overall, and there are no sharp edges or evidence of unfinished machine work anywhere that I can see. After a thorough cleaning, no evidence of poor workmanship is evident to my eye. There are no obvious tool marks anywhere.
The molded rubber grips supplied by the folks at Taurus were comfortable for both my hands (somewhat small) and my wifes hands (somewhat large). They aren't Hogues, but they are definetely adequate for a titanium large bore revolver considering what we paid for it. (I'll tell you the purchase price when I'm done here.)
This pistol has been sitting in our local gun dealers display case for about a year or so, and we figure that more than a few folks dry fired it before moving on to something else, so maybe the springs had been worked in just a bit.
This revolver comes from the factory with some kind of 'safety lock' which uses a cheesy littly plastic key to 'lock' the firing mechanism by means of a small device milled into the hammer somehow. I'll let you know how this holds up once we hit the 5,000 round mark...LOL.
Overall, we would both recommend the purchase of one of these revolvers if one could find one in the now discontinued matte blue finish. Both Mrs. L and I think that the bright blue finish looks like something a pimp might fancy, but don't let that stop you if that's all you can find.
What I will most likely do is work up a fairly 'mild' load using the 210 grain JSP or the 200 grain JHP with either Bullseye or Unique powders. I figure if I can get either of these bullets moving at velocities over 850 fps they should perform very well.
But, you didn't ask about 44 Spl loads, you just asked about this particular sidearm.
The bottom line is, I like it. It seems to be made well, and did I mention that it's small and it's really light? You could carry this thing all day long and not even know you had it, at least until you needed it anyway.
I can't wait to shop for some leather. This thing will positively disappear on a person.
That's it for now, but if you have the chance, buy one. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the purchase price. It was $409.00 US. Not bad IMO.
Regards,
L