Judgmental
I’ve said before I don’t get the Taurus Judge. And it jumped the shark when they made a tactical one. It’s not practical. .410 sucks from that barrel. And it’s roughly the size of a Buick.
Tam doesn’t get it either, neither does Caleb. PDB tells you why it sucks.
October 15th, 2010 at 11:16 am
I like my Taurus .357 mag 7 rd. revolver, but I don’t care for “The Judge”…wouldn’t buy one.
October 15th, 2010 at 11:33 am
While I don’t have a dog in that hunt, it appears four yards, twelve feet, is extreme range for home defense shootings.
While the .410 option usually winds up with a doughnut sized and shaped pattern at the usual six to twelve foot ranges for home defense it is still a lethal weapon at those ranges. The main things are how quickly it can be deployed and what is the size of the hole in the end of the barrel.
The larger the caliber, the more likely an intruder is to “go out the windy and run down the road with the sash over his shoulders.” Which is really the desired result. Especially for those who will have to clean up the blood and brains left after a home defense shooting.
Stranger
October 15th, 2010 at 11:43 am
Ron, is that a Tracker model? Fine firearm.
I agree about the Judge. Not my cup of tea…and they are all over the place at gun shows. They are taking up quite a bit of space that would otherwise get my attention when browsing. I would rather see endless rows of Glocks.
October 15th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
Some things in this world are produced to be sold, not to make sense.
October 15th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Personally, I’d like to see a ‘homeboy model’ in gold or nickel plate…perhaps it might be desirable to start a rumor on the streets that a Taurus Judge will blow a hole clean through a ghetto-cruiser and everyone in it, or some such.
I’d rather see the gangs carrying these (with the #8 birdshot that they bought at Wal-Mart) than Glocks. Plus, it’d be a real hoot to see the “Plaxico Burress carry” in pants that can’t even hold themselves up.
October 15th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
I’d get one if I had need of a good snake gun. .410 bird shot would be perfect for that…
October 15th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
And yet its the best selling gun taurus makes. I have to wonder if these people do any sort of research before buying it. Waste of money as far as I’m conceared. To specialized and does not do any one thing well.
October 15th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Just to stir the pot a little…
How about close quarters squirrel killin’ where you would worry about a .22LR going too far? (Although I do like my four-tenner)
A “feed the horses” barn gun, just in case you see a rat?
A gun for an aircraft survival kit, instead of a M6? (add a few .22LR sub-caliber adapters to the kit)
An inexpensive deepwater cruising firearm that you plan to dump overboard before customs in port?
The laws of supply and demand will probably lead to a bunch of these things at the pawn shop for about an inflation adjusted $100 price point sooner or later. Would anyone else bite at that price?
October 15th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
One of these days I’m going to find a Judge that works and smoothbore it. Then we can see what the shot pattern looks like, as I’m think doughnuts are not that useful for what amounts to a fancy snake gun.
October 15th, 2010 at 7:41 pm
If it gets more people to buy their first gun, more power to them. I guess.
Diomed; isn’t a modern, smoothbore, metal cartridge pistol an AOW? I’ve thought of reaming the rifling out of a Colt Army percussion (repro) revolver barrel, just for handgun trap shooting. No other use for it occurs to me, and that’s a 7.5″ long, .450″ bore. I’ve already patterned it with the rifling, and the doughnut is too big. Even at 10 feet it barely puts any pellets on an 8.5 x 11″ sheet of paper.
Last time I killed a snake I used a stick. Never thought of shooting one. Seems a bit melodramatic. It is certainly a recurring Hollywood theme though.
October 15th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
Lyle,
Yes, smoothbore pistols are AOWs.
For .410 pistols, there’s really no practical use for them other than killing snakes. Not that a reason is needed, or that all guns be practical.
October 17th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Well, I live in snake country. When I’m tromping the woods I could see myself carrying a Taurus Judge. I’d load the first chamber with .410 and the next four with .45 Colt. At snake ranges, the donut patterns don’t matter.
Of course I don’t carry a Judge, instead I carry a clone of the Single Action Army with (surprise) one round of a birdshot handload and four .45 Colts.
Of course, I shoot Cowboy Action so I already have the .45. And with one or two matches per month, plus the practice, I shoot the SAA pretty well, these days. If I didn’t, the Judge would be on my short list. What’s not to like? A shot charge to handle any ill-tempered snake (we have some Water Moccasins ’round here, and some nice big soft lead slugs for any two-legged snakes.
And the Tactical? How about the person who wants a bedside gun with flashlight attached? Hmm, a .410 buckshot load, with three triple aught buck, followed by those four dead soft lead slugs? I wouldn’t want to be the bad guy in front of that. Of course I might change my mind if I lived in that strange gunwriter world where one can miss the first five or six shots and survive a gunfight. Or that equally strange world where one civilian can take on multiple attackers and do anything but, perhaps, buy time for the family to escape or help to arrive. Real world, if the gunfight lasts long enough for the civilian to run out of ammo in a five or six shot revolver, that civilian has either won or is dead. Or almost as bad, indicted for murder because of excessive force.
October 18th, 2010 at 5:50 am
For all those that say the Taurus Judge isn’t practical..Let me go get one and then you “break in” my house..
Getting shot,whether by 12G or .22LR can be fatal..and .410 or 45LC is definitely going to make someone re-think what was worth their life in that particular house..
October 18th, 2010 at 10:01 am
Read the Tom Givens article on the Judge in the most recent Concealed Carry magazine. He covers all the faults of the Judge as a defensive gun extremely well.
Anyone that carries or uses a Judge (or any handgun) with .410 shotshells should go shoot patterns with those shotshells at 3/7/10/15 yards to understand what is and is not happening downrange. You will likely be very disappointed to discover that a shotshell is not the magic “i don’t have to aim” solution you thought it was. Worse, should you be in a situation where anyone that does NOT deserve to get shot is near the person that does deserve to get shot, the shotshell load is going to be an epic fail for you.