# The Judge?



## glockuser86 (Jul 29, 2010)

I recently started looking at the Taurus judge with the 3" cylinder. I know the gun is not gonna be good at any distance, but does anyone have any experience with this gun and is it worth buying.


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## Kharuger (Jun 19, 2010)

The thing I've noticed about them is that they're a lot bigger "in person" than they seem in pictures... never fired one.


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## zhurdan (Mar 21, 2008)

In a word... NO.

Personally, I think it's a hell of a marketing tool. It plants the notion in peoples heads that "it's a shotgun, you can't miss". Generally speaking, people that believe they're going to get 4 feet of spread out of it are the perfect targets (no pun intended) for this type of marketing. The only thing that gives a person, or should give a person the confidence and skill to hit what they're aiming at is practice, practice, practice.

It's a gimmick.


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## soldierofchrist (Jul 11, 2010)

Had one for a brief period of time, it was a decent handgun and I think what it is suited for best would be if you hiked in snake country a lot or a car gun. Anything past 10 yards with the .410 the rifling causes the shot or buckshot to spread very rapidly. They make slug loads for it, but you are better off just shooting the 45 Colt out of it as it is more accurate. I won it in a raffle and wouldn't have bought it otherwise and sold it to a buddy of mine that wanted it more then I did. Just wasn't my cup of tea. Its a large gun, and not the easiest to conceal, but like I said before it would be a great gun to carry in a vehicle.


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## zebramochaman (May 6, 2010)

I've had mine for about a month now. I purchased Federal 3" #4 .410 ammo for it and I have had problems. After firing only a few rounds the cylinder locks up. I am not sure if the problem is with the gun or the ammo. It looks like the brass shell expands enough to freeze up the action.
I have shot many .45 Colt rounds through it with no issues.
The gun has great sights that are adjustable, the grips are comfortable and the recoil is very manageable (heavy gun). With the 45 ammo it is very accurate.
I am not sorry I bought it but I will not be using the gun for SD using the .410 ammo until I can solve the problem of the cylinder freezing.


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## freeze3kgt (Aug 7, 2010)

I dont own a judge but I have fired one multiple times. I don't care for the gun but the new winchester pdx1 410 rounds are really impressive from my experience with them. The gun is great up to 10 yards and to be honest for home defense i dont think you really need to worry about anything past 10 yards inside of a house.

just my 2cents


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## jediwebdude (Nov 30, 2008)

zebramochaman said:


> I've had mine for about a month now. I purchased Federal 3" #4 .410 ammo for it and I have had problems. After firing only a few rounds the cylinder locks up. I am not sure if the problem is with the gun or the ammo. It looks like the brass shell expands enough to freeze up the action.
> I have shot many .45 Colt rounds through it with no issues.
> The gun has great sights that are adjustable, the grips are comfortable and the recoil is very manageable (heavy gun). With the 45 ammo it is very accurate.
> I am not sorry I bought it but I will not be using the gun for SD using the .410 ammo until I can solve the problem of the cylinder freezing.


Interestingly, we had just the reverse problem this morning. My dad purchased a new 4" barrel Taurus Judge. I took him to the range this morning to try it out. Shot 2 kinds of .410 ammo through it and had no issues. But when we loaded the Winchester PDX1 45 Colt ammo, the cylinder locked up after one shot. I removed the ammo, reloaded, shot and this time not only did it not let me shoot again, but I couldn't eject the cylinder. Only after it cooled was I able to eject it. The ammo cartridge is not brass, so I'm wondering if the cartridge material is the issue.

-PJ


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## jediwebdude (Nov 30, 2008)

As a followup to my post, I just got off the phone with Taurus customer service. They are sending a Fedex truck by to pick up the gun.


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## rccola712 (Aug 26, 2008)

a good friend of mine has a judge... he loves it, but im not convinced he's not bought into the market scheme mentioned earlier. I personally wasnt a fan, its a neat gun, but i personally didn't find it practical. just my opinion though, i could see it being great for snakes!


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## Packard (Aug 24, 2010)

It sounded to me like Taurus was trying to sell to criminals with this weapon. The shot gun ammo will leave no ballistics, and the revolver will leave no casings. 

The big bullet in a small weapon sounds like a lot to handle. I had a model 29 in 44 magnum and a 2-1/2" barrel and it was a beast to shoot, whereas my earlier weapon with a 6" barrel (as I recall) was not bad at all. 

I would imagine that this would be worse than my small 29 as it is a much smaller (and lighter) frame.


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## Bisley (Aug 24, 2008)

zhurdan said:


> It's a gimmick.


I agree.

It's a very poor excuse for a shotgun. It doesn't shoot .45 Colts very accurately. It's heavy, ugly, and worst of all...it's a Taurus.

I'll kill my snakes with a stick, and use that $500 to buy ammo for practice with a better gun.


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