Thoughts on a Taurus 608 6''?

[gnmwilliams]

I've been wanting a hunting pistol for a while now and came across the Taurus 608 with a ported 6''barrel. I've been reading reviews that are about 50/50 on whether it's a good gun or not and how reliable/unreliable a Taurus revolver is and blah blah blah.... I figured I'd get some opinions and thoughts from you guys here whom I trust a whole lot more than some random review blog. Thoughts and comments anyone?

Edited October 26, 2010 by gnmwilliams

[JAB]

I have an older, six-shot Taurus 66 (more of a medium frame) with a four inch barrel that I bought earlier this year for hunting backup and to carry when I am in Tellico trout fishing, etc. It looked so new when I got it that I thought it couldn't be more than a couple of years old but a serial number search at the Taurus website revealed that it was built in 1987. It must have spent much of its previous life in a drawer or safe. I have heard that some of the late 80's Taurus revolvers are better than what they are making, now, but I can't speak to that one way or another.

I haven't shot it a whole lot but I have put a few Buffalo Bore 180 grain hard cast, flat-nosed lead rounds through it just to see how it handled them. It did just fine, as far as I could tell. I have also fired some PMC 158 grain soft points, some Remington 125 grain SJHPs and some WWB 110 grain JHPs (which also look more like SJHPs, to me) through it, all in full .357 Magnum. Other than a slight change in POI for some weights, it seems to like them all just fine.

It did have one, minor problem when I first got it. Unfired rounds would eject with no problem. In fact, unfired rounds would fall out on their own under their own weight when I turned it butt-down with the cylinder open but there was often a good bit of difficulty ejecting spent casings. Paying close attention, I realized that one chamber was the problem. At first I thought the chamber was too tight but upon closer observation I saw that the spent casings from that chamber had a hairline scratch running lengthwise along them. I ended up finding a tiny burr at the mouth of the chamber - smaller than a grain of sand and so small that I had overlooked it several times. Assuming that burr had been there since the gun left the factory - and I have no reason to believe it hadn't - I guess that and the resulting difficulty in extracting casings might explain why it seems to have not been fired very much. Funny thing, the burr was so small that I was able to polish it out with fine sandpaper without even hurting the finish. The empties now eject easily.

Edited October 26, 2010 by JAB

[krunchnik]

I have the Tracker M627 in the 4 inch barrel with porting and really like the pistol.Its very accurate and actually fun to shoot even with magnum loads.I think the porting really helps.I have a total of 3 Taurus revolvers all made in the last couple of years and have had zero problems from any of them.I would definetely buy them again and probably will pick another one up in a different caliber a ways down the road.heres my 3.