Taurus 850 .38 Special Black Revolver

Even though this is...

Even though this is now my carry peice I have to ding it a star. It passed my initial inspection prior to accepting the transfer however when I got it home it was not advancing the cylinder after 30-40 trigger squeezes intermittently. The cylinder ejector and extractor action was also very notchy and rough as well. I am fairly seasoned with these Taurus small frames and I tore the revolver down cleaned it (degreased) thoroughly disassembled the cylinder cleaned it. Inspected all the parts. Replaced the cylinder stop plunger and spring and the yoke screw assembly and regreased it reassembled it. Problems solved. It came from Forjas Taurus pretty rough out of the box. A novice, which most people are, would have sent it back to Taurus after a range session or two. I would advise getting the stainless steel version. These alloy black oxide samples(which I wanted; the black version (alloy is also better than carbon steel a nice upgrade) are usually a little rough out of the box. The black oxide coating lends to this as well(can be pretty dry). The nice thing about the black oxide if you like a "wet gun" is you can grease it up and it'll absorb it and help weatherproof it and hold the grease,(I use Birchwood Casey gun grease every two to three months on the external finish). Internals should not be over greaed on the relube after the initial cleaning. *If you don't want to go through all the hassle get the stainless sample.* I swapped a night site on the front compliments of 'shop Taurus dot com"(great that the front site is pinned) and old some old Taurus boot grips I had (which accept all speed loaders). The triggers' real nice on these, about 8lb's from the factory, real smooth no stacking. Different from the usual small frame. Not real stagey pulls right through. Good reset, not easy to false reset. I like weight to my snubs. It's a little chunk 22oz, but small, sits in my pocket fine. The weight mitigates recoil stays on target nicely. Shoots standard pressure real nice, which is what I carry: 158gr. Semi-Wadcutter Hollow Point by Underwood. This gun is a solid defensive peice. There is a .357 version in the M650. Fine snub! I don't really shoot .357 in a snub. To much blast and recoil, waste of powder. The reason I went with the M850 is the cylinder is machined for .38 so you won't have extra space in the cylinder bore due to shooting .38 out of a .357 machined cylinder. The .357 is a longer cartridge as are the chamber bores of a .357 cylinder. It will of course shoot .38 but the cylinder chamber in a .357 revolver is designed to shoot 357. Shooting .38 out of a revolver chambered for .38 is usually more accurate since it's a .38 chambered revolver. That's just my opinion. Per Taurus these are P rated. They are built pretty stout. Definitely not an ultralight but nice and small for easy pocket carry.