Boomer and The bummer; Taurus Judge

[Papa_timmy13]

I bought the Taurus Judge in Feb. of 09 and I have shot countless rounds of all varieties and loads. The day before deer season I was just out checking my bearings and put about 20 rounds of .410 slug and #7 shot, as well as 20 rounds of 45lc HP and FMJ. on my last 5 rounds the first 4 went smooth and on the 5th round the bullet hit perfect but the judge blew up. the barrel cracked and the top rail bent up as well as the cylinder popped out. i was devastated but with no injuries, I just wanted answers. Taurus has now had my gun for 4 weeks and still wont answer my Q's. I would just like to know if anyone has had this problem. I love the gun but want to know if it's worth happening again.

[Dave85]

Were you shooting reloads, or factory ammo?

[Papa_timmy13]

All brand new virgin ammo, no plus P and i only shoot the short .410 loads

[gmeister]

I ws at a gun shop and saw another customer return a Judge that had the barrel break off right where it goes into the frame. It was the first time at the range, supposedly with factory ammo.

My Judge is doing fine but I don't shoot it much.

[Papa_timmy13]

I have put over 500 rds threw it and i clean it after every use, i just dont understand why it blew and taurus wont give me an answer if this is a reaccurring problem.

[Bigjim3]

I would like to see pics if able

[Papa_timmy13]

This is one of the picsDSCN0309.jpg

[Papa_timmy13]

here is another....DSCN0317.jpg

[Dave85]

Wow. Unless that is a trick of the angle the picture was taken from, it appears that the cylinder was not damaged. Is that correct?

[Papa_timmy13]

no cylinder damage only frame and barrel damage

[Papa_timmy13]

better view of the cylinder.....DSCN0303.jpg

[HFD]

this is so common with taurus that its a question of when and not if...
a friends UL 44 did the same thing on factory 44 special...
wouldn't have any taurus product even if it was free...

[jad0110]

has now had my gun for 4 weeks and still wont answer my Q's. I would just like to know if anyone has had this problem.

Well, I've never had a Taurus blow it's barrel off, but I have experienced Tauri's infamous Customer Dis-service.

There have been other instances of Judges blowing their barrels off. I know posts 2 and 3 are related, but I'm not sure if 1 is a completely separate incident from 2 and 3 or not.

Note that even S&W and Ruger have had problems with barrels blowing off, so it isn't just a Taurus thing.


http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=320326

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=407906

Follow up thread to link #2:

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthrea...ht=taurus+blew

[The Great Mahoo]

I've owned several Taurus guns in the past, never having been dissatisfied. However, recently, I was going through my collection, testing various guns with snap caps and found a frightening feature to my Judge. I realized that if I jerk the trigger on it, the rotation falls out of timing, allowing the hammer to drop before the cylinder is properly in its place. This could allow a solid .45 round to impact the forcing cone head-on, as it seems the cylinder is only about halfway through its cycle at the time of the hammer drop.

Extremely disconcerting, I have decided that my Judge will either be sold, or shipped off for eventual repair. As of now, I kept it for single-action use of popping clays that I toss, or dealing with pesky varmints that show up. However, knowing that a catastrophic failure is only an addrenaline-fueled trigger pull away, the Judge is just not worth keeping around in its present shape.

I am now of the mind that it is worth the money to buy some higher-quality, and will not be purchasing any more Taurus products in the future. Prior to this, I had no real stock in the anti-Taurus propaganda circulating the web. I am just glad I noticed this with some snap-cap-practice, rather than with live ammo.

[Glock-19]

I had to send a revolver back to Taurus for repair, it took ten weeks from the time they recieved the gun just for them to look at it. They would not answer any of my questions either, they would even get annoyed at me for calling, saying "we've only had the gun for 6 weeks."

I bought two Taurus pistols back when that was all I could afford. I have since moved on to better quality firearms.

[rock185]

Several months ago, I saw pictures of a Taurus Judge blow up that happened locally. On this one, the top two or three chambers of the cylinder were blown off, top strap broken at one end and bent upward. The shooter did suffer injuries. I spoke to a family member a while back and he indicated that the shooter's hand is healing well, kept all his fingers,etc. Don't know what ammo he was using.

Seeing the photos of the guy's gun and injured hand didn't make me want to go out and buy, or even shoot, a Taurus Judge... ymmv

[Papa_timmy13]

Thx man as long as i aint the only one with the infamous taurus customer dis-service problem. nice to know my smith MP40 will b my dependable carry gun.

[jakeg823]

I realized that if I jerk the trigger on it, the rotation falls out of timing, allowing the hammer to drop before the cylinder is properly in its place. This could allow a solid .45 round to impact the forcing cone head-on, as it seems the cylinder is only about halfway through its cycle at the time of the hammer drop.

someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but the odds of a round firing when the cylinder is only halway through the cycle aren't too good because how would the firing pin make contact to actually fire the round?

Don't get me wrong it does sound like there is a legit problem there, but it just sounds like you have over thought it a bit

....but I have been wrong before from what I'm told

[Papa_timmy13]

the only pics i could post of my judge r on thread#7, #8, and #11. the pic i have of the barrel is amazing but i coundnt get it to upload. the barrel didnt snap, it cracked from the threads at the bottom but when the side piece of the frame blew it just kinda plopped out. the 5th and final round hit dead nuts on the target which is why im so boggled.

[Papa_timmy13]

to jakeg: if the firing pin just strikes the edge of the primer it could very well fuzzle ur day all to hell. and if it only catches the edge, the bullet aint gonna fire straight down the throat, its gonna slam the wall

[Kreyzhorse]

Wow. Glad you weren't hurt and I hope Taurus eventually gets around to taking care of you...

[john-_-grim]

i've been wanting a judge ever since it first came out.
i'm rethinking the notion now.
mabey i'll just keep my dreams set on s&w.

[CraigC]

Note that even S&W and Ruger have had problems with barrels blowing off, so it isn't just a Taurus thing.

Please note that there was a very small batch of Redhawks with this problem due to a mishap with the barrel thread adhesive. This failure is very uncommon. Start talking about Taurus and people come out of the woodwork with stories about their guns failing.

[Papa_timmy13]

cant be that uncommon if it keeps happening, I originally thought it was just my gun but after only a day on this forum i have come to realize that this problem(even though it happened to S&W and Ruger) happens a little more than i expected with taurus. i still aint cutting them down, hell the first 500 rounds out of my judge were a blast( no pun intended). I only wanted gratification that it wasnt a defect/ recall. Taurus is still blackballing me and i can't understand it.

[Dave85]

Internet forums are subject to John Ruscio's media paradox just as TV and other news outlets. The volume of internet accounts reporting a specific type of unusual event will cause the appearance of a higher incidence of that event than actually occurs.

This type of failure is statistically rare in any revolver, even those Rugers with a known issue. While Taurus' reputation certainly could be better, it has really been sullied more by mundane complaints on the order of binding cylinders and such, as well as disappointing customer service practices, than it has by these types of catastrophic failures. This is all to say simply that every Judge is not necessarily a ticking time-bomb.

Sometimes reports from the field are the beginnings of a discovery process that leads to the correction of an actual issue. Other times it merely results in the commiseration of an unlucky few, and the propagation of urban legend. The former, while painful, is fixable after the fact. The latter is best addressed before the fact; i.e. take pains to protect your reputation so that people don't believe that a catastrophic failure of every gun you produce is a matter of when, not if.

Ruger did find these reports to be the former. They looked at their manufacturing methods and found a problem. They then fixed it, and not just down the line, but for all those in possession of the guns from the offending run. If, in the case of the Taurus Judge, it turns out to be a real issue with design or process, we can only hope they fix it in the same manner as Ruger. Either way, they will not receive the charity that Ruger has. Here we are seeing why.

Regardless of the statistics involved as well as the cause of the failure, a month's time should not have elapsed without a Taurus representative contacting you for a good long conversation on the matter. They may very well be involved in the process of determining the cause and frequency of this failure, and it may indeed take more than a month to do a good job of it. However, they should keep you, and any other Judge owners to whom this happened, "in the loop" during this process. One of their guns blew up in your hand; you've earned it.