A few days ago, I had the chance to visit central Florida and spend time on new products from Taurus. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve actually had that opportunity. Lots of things have happened with Taurus over that time.

Another CEO has departed, and the company’s gone through some significant changes due to the financial difficulties of its Brazilian parent company. Despite all that, I’m glad to report that Taurus seems to have come through all that and is pushing forward.

The most significant change is that for the first time, they’re offering products that have been conceived, designed and manufactured entirely in the United States. For the first-time ever, Taurus USA actually is a full-spectrum American gun company.

The changes were reflected in the tables full of new products for all of us on hand to examine- and shoot. We even had the opportunity to shoot some top-secret project guns we can’t discuss, but there were more than enough other guns there to keep our time at the range interesting- and open for discussion.

Having not spent any significant time on one of the company’s Judge .410/45 Colt revolvers since their initial introduction, it’s safe to say a lot’s changed, but the basics remain the same. There are varietals in barrel length and finish, but the base premise of the Judge hasn’t changed: it’s still a very viable choice for a single gun for anything from backpacking to home defense. 

We spent plenty of time shooting the Judge -at clay targets in what I called “report volleys” -after calling the initial clay, the trap master sent the next bird flying at us as soon as we’d fired at the prior target. I was feeling pretty good about myself after finishing 5 for 5 on the initial group, but I quickly realized that even when your shotgun was a handgun, it’s impossible to break clays if you aren’t concentrating on them.

 

Two of the company’s longtime favorites, the Judge and the Raging Hunter revolvers (below) were available for shooting. Not everyone was capable of breaking 10-straight clay targets with a Judge in both hands (above), but everyone appreciated the performance center-type improvements in the .44 magnum Raging Judge. Most notably, the ported barrel significantly reduced muzzle rise as Jim Tarr demonstrates (below). Jim Shepherd/OWDN photos.

 

Concentration, especially when shooting a big-bore handgun, has never been a problem. I actually enjoy big bore handguns -when they don’t punish my wrists, elbows and shoulders with recoil. Judging from the time I spent on Taurus‘  new Raging Hunter, it definitely didn’t punish. In fact, the new models we shot included features previously available only on a customized model. A longer, heavier ported barrel helped turn full-house .44 magnum loads into light-kicking opportunities to keep some reactive- and automatically resetting- hostage targets from (appropriately named) Revolution Targets (www.revolutiontargets.com) spinning and ringing like temple gongs.

Get a bunch of gunwriters together along with lots of ammunition and fun targets, and you’ll quickly get informal competition. Although it doesn’t take long for elderly members (like me) to realize that competition shooting is still dominated by the swift of hand and sharp of eye, we found the Revolution targets to be the eiptome of “fun with a gun.” 

Normally used for long range matches, Revolution’s flasher targets found themselves spinning like ferris wheels while writers gleefully pumped them full of .44 Magnum rounds from the Raging Hunters. Writers trying out other new products, ranging from their now-shipping Spectrum .380 pocket pistols to their full-sized 1911s found the portable and heavy-duty resetting plate racks equal tests of the pistols.

 

Revolution’s reactive steel targets (above) proved to be solid tests for the accuracy of a variety of new pistols, including the now-shipping Spectrum .380 pocket pistols.

 

We also had the opportunity to try new rifles from Rossi in .22 Long Rifle (RS22) , .22 Magnum (RB22) and .17 HMR (RB17). While I didn’t spend as much time on them as the handguns, it’s safe to say they’re solid contenders as first rifles for new shooters or a reliable truck gun for trips into the woods. They all carry MSRPs under $200, making them affordable for almost any budget.

 

Rossi’s rifles in .22 LR, .22 Magnum and .17HMR were solid shooters with prices that make them viable “first” guns for youths or truck guns for adults.

 

The biggest general impression the trip left with me was the optimism from Taurus’ staff. Longtime CFO David Blenker is now the CEO and he was quick to let all of us know that while Taurus USA isn’t a new company, it’s added research and development staffers to help keep the company moving forward. “They’re a young group,” Blenker told me, “but they have experience with Colt, SIG, Smith & Wesson, Ruger and other companies. They know how to design guns that shooters want.”

We spent time on Taurus’ now-available Model 856 .38 Special revolvers, G2S and G2C striker-fired pistols, and their full-sized 1911s  as well as their new Commander and Officer models. I put hundreds of rounds through them and with the exception of a single recurring feed problem (fixed on-site), had no issues.

While I was impressed with the improvements across the board -especially in their big-bore models, I was most intrigued by their newest project- you know, the one I can’t discuss.

If that “top secret” project is any indication, they may be onto something down in South Florida.

As always, we’ll keep you posted.

--Jim Shepherd