[mele]

Next gun in Mel's armory:

This is a Taurus Model 85. It was originally purchased (via layaway) for my wife. Its a .38 Special and is a nice little pistol. This pistol is now my primary home defense firearm and is pretty much always loaded. For many of the same reasons I prefer bolt actions for primary duty sniper rifles, I prefer revolvers for home defense. The big one being reliability. When Semi's remain loaded for long periods of time, mag springs begin to lose tension, etc. The other big reason is ease of operation. Point and click, no jams, misfeeds, etc to worry about. This one is double action, though the trigger is a bit stiff in DA.

Anyway, there is number 5... more to come soon.

MEL

 

[Jeff_850]

nice pistol
yea the simplicity of revolvers is a big advantage
there is nothing in there that can really go wrong
the only thing that could happen is you get a bad primer that doesnt go off which really doesnt happen too often with good self defence ammo
the .38 Special should keep penetration to a minimum but with good ammo should keep stopping power more than sufficient if hit in the center of mass

 

[spade]

actually i was reading a review recently on a speer +p load for the .38 special that gave 11.5 inches of penetration in 10 percent ballistic geletain and had muzzle velocities of close to 1000fps in a 2.5 inch S&W.

How does the taurus shoot? Ive been thinking about getting one but was probably going to go back to the classic S&W just for reliability's sake.

And Jeff is right, We used to call these guns PHD guns.

Pull Here Dummy. If something goes wrong then your holding it backwards...lol

 

[mele]

the only thing that could happen is you get a bad primer

Again, the beauty of a revolver, if there is bad primer, just pull the trigger again, it rotates to the next round and fires. With a semi, you would have to take your malfunction procedures (rack the slide to chamber the next round). Nothing against semi's, I love them, and prefer them for duty.

The taurus shoots pretty well for a snub gun. It certainly is plenty accurate for home use (violent encounters in the home that result in discharging a firearm, average only 7 yards in distance). I think a tritium dot for the front would be nice.... but not necessary. I like S&W also, but the taurus was a bit less money, and I liked it just as much.

MEL

 

[Jeff_850]

since revolvers have less moving parts i was wondering if they are not only more reliable but have more accuracy potential?

and yes i know about revolvers that you just pull the trigger again

only thing you need to worry about is if you go over 6 shots
suppose the same could be said about a 1911 for 7 shots but i can load a semi-auto faster than a revolver

 

[spade]

most (93% i think) armed conflicts on the streets or in the home are resolved in less than 5 shots. And speed loaders bring reloading time down a good bit.

 

[Jeff_850]

yes but not quite as fast as a semi-autos, still very fast

 

[Drew]

Looks like a good gut buster!!! You should put a Pacmar grip on it though they are very nice my dad has a snubnose 38 and a .357 mag both with Pacmars very comfortable to hold and easy to grip.

 

[mele]

Drew,

Funny you mention it, I actually have a Pac grip for it at home, picked it up cheap on clearance about 8 years ago.. never put it on though....

MEL

 

[Drew]

PUT IT ON!!!!

Once you do you'll feel stupid for waiting all these years.

 

[muzzleblast]

Nice pistol Mel!

Muzzleblast has only shot two pistols in his life...One was a SW .357, and I was impressed! Like the look of that Taurus a lot!

Ever hear that the different chambers in a revolver have different accuracy? Just read a magazine where a writer fired a ten shot group with each chamber...Interesting stuff. Some were tight, others not so nice.

 

[mele]

I've never really thought about it, but it makes perfect sense with manufacturing imperections.

MEL

 

[westpointranger]

I have a friend that works security in a prison. He was using a revolver at the indoor range and about mid way through the cylinder it quit shooting. The cylinder was turning and the hammer falling but nothing was going bang. He took the pistol to the gunsmith who found the problem. A certain part had been worn down through use and was keeping the pin from hitting the primers with enough force. He commented that he was using a revolver because he thought it wouldn't fail. The gunsmith replied, "Anything manmade WILL fail."

Just thought I'd mention it.

 

[CM2k]

That's alot of wear to wear the part down. We aren't talking 1000 rounds here, we're talking in the tens of thousands. And 1 failure in over 10k is good enough, as far as reliability goes.