I will explain to you the way it was explained to me from the Beretta rep. in the late 80's. Beretta and S&W were fighting for the contract for the government 9 mm. In order to get the contract the pistol had to be made in the USA with new tooling. Beretta set up a plant in Acokeek(spell check), MD. Both Beretta and S&W retooled their plant. Both Beretta and S&W sold there old tooling to Taurus. In S&W's case they also sold alot of their wheel gun tooling. Not all of it, just some. This is when the clonedBeretta and S&W pistols, made by Taurus showed up.
In my opinion the S&W is worth more than $200 more than the Taurus. The S&W is made on better tooling, and is a superior product. Take them apart and look at the internal parts. You should be able to tell the difference. Talk to a "RELIABLE" gunsmith. He will explain the difference.
In short "YES", buy the S&W and never look back. Below is a picture of my S&W 44 magnum. Taurus has never made a pistol that will shoot with this one. Tom.
