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Taurus Judge

Uziel Gal

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Messages
93
Location
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
I'd like any input from those who actually own these. Pros and cons, quirks, value. I'm interested in one to maybe use as a back-up for a .410 shotgun. Share your wisdom. Also 2 3/4" vs. 3" chamber. Thanks in advance.
 

me812

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2008
Messages
216
Location
federally occupied Arizona
The Judge sounds gimmicky to me. .410 shotshells are a piss-poor manstopper and the only other thing you'd want a .410 handgun for would be to shoot snakes, which could be done just as effectively with .45 LC snakeshot rounds. Also bear in mind that Taurus cuts the rifling on the Judge shallower than normal to help pattern the shot correctly, but that degrades accuracy when shooting .45 LC rounds.

I'd take a pass on the Judge, but perhaps there's something I'm missing.
 

WARCHILD

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2008
Messages
1,768
Location
Corunna, Michigan, USA
The Judge is more negative than positive. Okay for a novelty piece but useless for self defense. Go to YouTube and type in Taurus Judge, there are some really good videos...pro and con... mostly negative from the 6 or so that I watched.
I have fired the Judge and found it off balance and uncomfortable to shoot.
Nice to "plink" with, but not worth the money.
JMO
 

.45acp

Regular Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2009
Messages
333
Location
Salt Lake City, UT
I'd like any input from those who actually own these. Pros and cons, quirks, value. I'm interested in one to maybe use as a back-up for a .410 shotgun. Share your wisdom. Also 2 3/4" vs. 3" chamber. Thanks in advance.

The Judge with .410 is an outstanding snake gun out to 15 feet or so with small shot (6 7 1/2 or 8). For self-defense at carjacking range you will be hard pressed to beat some of the 3 or 4 ball 000 loads at 1450 fps. My father has a Judge, we have fired .45 Colt, .410 slugs (Which are fairly anemic) and all sizes of shot. His gun has 5 or 6 rattlers to its credit, all one round at 8 to 15 feet. A .410 loaded with no. 6 or 7 ½ shot is much more effective than .45 Colt shot loads ever thought about. I load 255 Keith type SWC’s at 870 fps (out of a chrono), the Judge is certainly not a target gun, but you can easily hold 5” or 6” groups out to 25 yards (I think the sights are problematic here as they are not designed for precision work but fast close target acquisition). For 000 loads, on a full sized human silhouette, I can keep all 000 balls in the chest area out to 15 feet.

Will it replace a .410 shotgun? In my opinion no, but it does make a very effective short-range self-defense gun (10 to 20 feet) loaded with 3” 000.

The 2 ¾ gun seems to be better balanced, but the 3” gun has a fair bit more horsepower. They do take a little getting used to, and you need to place the front sight deep into the rear sight notch to keep shot from going high (short sight radius makes this fairly critical at any distance).

Depending on your use, they can be a very effective little gun.


Steve
 

merc460

Regular Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2010
Messages
229
Location
North Carolina, USA
I own a "Public Defender" 2 3/4". When I carry it, I carry it with a .410 000 buckshot load first, then four 45LC's behind that. It is definitely a close range weapon. I say the accuracy is good. (not great, only a 2" barrel) but again, I say a close range weapon, out to 15' maybe. I feel confident that it will stop any threat I may run into. Biggest problem I have with it right now is finding a nice retention holster for it. I will say that it not real suitable for concealed carry because of it's girth. Definitely a small hand cannon. :)
 

45acpForMe

Newbie
Joined
Nov 21, 2008
Messages
2,805
Location
Yorktown, Virginia, USA
For a brief moment I was interested in the Judge revolvers but after looking at the box-o-truth website showing the small firepower of a 410 I decided to avoid the gun.

If you definitely want a revolver my choice would be a 45LC which can also shoot snake shot.

As far as shotguns I think the 12ga is the best but if you need lighter recoil a 20ga is fine.
 

Uziel Gal

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Messages
93
Location
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
I was thinking about the new Taurus Raging Judge, which is a 454 casull, 45LC ,and .410 for a survival sidearm to use in conjunction with a .22 over .410 combination rifle. After spending some time thinking about it, and reading some helpful posts, I have come to the conclusion that I don't think the ability to share ammo with the .410 is significant enough to offset the problems inherit in the Judge revolvers. In a perfect world it would seem to make a sweet combination but I think a dedicated big bore revolver will answer the call. Thanks and feel free to keep posting. I'll keep watching.
 

KBCraig

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2007
Messages
4,886
Location
Granite State of Mind
Typical 3" .410 000 velocity is 1150-1250 fps, but that's out of a long gun; you'll get much lower velocity out of a handgun, especially a revolver with its gas leak.

Federal makes a 3" 000 load especially for The Judge, and they only claim 960 fps.
 

.45acp

Regular Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2009
Messages
333
Location
Salt Lake City, UT
Typical 3" .410 000 velocity is 1150-1250 fps, but that's out of a long gun; you'll get much lower velocity out of a handgun, especially a revolver with its gas leak.

Federal makes a 3" 000 load especially for The Judge, and they only claim 960 fps.

I'm about 11,000 miles from the ammo cabinet right now. I'll take a look at the brand and load in 2 weeks when I return. If I get a chance I'll run a few over the chrono first.

Steve
 
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oldkim

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2009
Messages
375
Location
Kent, Washington, USA

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The Expert

Regular Member
Joined
May 25, 2010
Messages
118
Location
Taylor, Michigan, USA
I didn't see this mentioned before in this thread, so I'll mention that this gun is considered a "sawed off shotgun" in some states. Best to check if it's legal in yours.
 

NRAMARINE

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
Messages
523
Location
Anywhere but here.
Get a stainless one. The blued ones finish comes off and I had to get Tauras to replace the gun. Also use the federal 000 buckshot loads that were designed with this gun in mind, they pattern good. You can get pretty good accuracy out of these and the.45's if you use the hornady leverevolutions. I agree also that it's a good snake gun with #4's or 6. As far as the stopping power, it's not as good as say a .38 or .357. However with the judge and federal loads you get 4 hits for one trigger pull. Each the same diameter as a .357. Also a 45 colt with a non cowboy load ( defense load) is a damn hurt bomb.

Mine has the 2 3/4" chamber and a 3" barrel. I oc with it sometimes in a serpa level 2, but mostly carry a glock 19.
 
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Don Barnett

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
451
Location
, ,
Shooting Shot Through a Rifled Barrel?

Just for the heck of it, I shot a OO Buckshot round through a rifled barrel. The target was about 40 yards away and not one pellet hit it. I saw pellets hitting way in the tree limbs to the right, left and above the target, as well as on the ground.

Apparently, the rifled barrel spun the shot around like a pinwheel.

I don't know if the same thing would happen in the Judge.
 

JohnH

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2008
Messages
87
Location
, ,
Just for the heck of it, I shot a OO Buckshot round through a rifled barrel. The target was about 40 yards away and not one pellet hit it. I saw pellets hitting way in the tree limbs to the right, left and above the target, as well as on the ground.

Apparently, the rifled barrel spun the shot around like a pinwheel.

I don't know if the same thing would happen in the Judge.

Please elaborate. What caliber barrel, what powder charge?
 
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