When I first heard about the Taurus Judge I thought it was a worthless idea. Why would anyone specifically buy a pistol to shoot shotshells? One day a friend called and wanted to come out and shoot his new revolver. Being a general gun nut I was game. When asked he only stated that it was a .45 Colt. When he arrived and pulled out the long cylinder Taurus Judge I laughed to myself thinking that my friend had just bought a quite expensive and useless toy.
I did have to admit that the Taurus Judge was a good looking revolver that was well fitted and finished. Even that odd looking cylinder began to grow on me. After handing it for a few minutes while we talked I actually began to admire the look of the gun, it was certainly a unique gun which is something that draws me. My friend fired a few cylinders of .45 Colt and asked if I wanted a try. I had shot enough revolvers to not be too interested in shooting the .45 Colt, I wanted to take a crack with the .410.
I lined up a couple empty soda pop cans at about 15 yards. While yes some shot hit the cans it was certainly not impressive. I tried to cobble up a target to pattern the Taurus Judge, but was unable to do so with much success. The short barrel of the Taurus Judge is just too short to develop much of a pattern. With shotshells, the only reasonable hunting use I can think for the Taurus Judge would be for shooting snakes.
We fired the Taurus Judge with only one factory load. I won’t mention the manufacturer as I’m sure the problem was with the gun and not the load. Suffice it to say that the Taurus Judge is not a tack driver. I am not a ballistics expert, but it seems that a bullet that must travel the length of the super long cylinder is not going to shoot well. I’m certain that with proper ammunition, probably a handload, a shooter good make the Taurus Judge shoot fairly well, but it is not a target gun and probably is too inaccurate to hunt with.
The only reasonable purpose for a person to own a Taurus Judge is for home defense. Taurus talks about the Judge being designed for this purpose, but why do they make it with a 5 inch barrel? While I believe that a shotgun is by far the best home defense weapon, many folks choose handguns of one kind or another as it is simpler to hide. Perhaps, the Taurus Judge with large shot or buckshot in the .410 round could be a passable home defense weapon.
While the functioning of the Taurus Judge was solid, good functioning, nice fit, and a smooth finish can not overcome poor accuracy. As Col. Townsend Whelen once said, “Only accurate guns are interesting.” While personal defense guns need not be too accurate I just can’t see this as a great self-defense gun.
