.44 Mag Revolver . . . Taurus or Ruger?
08-05-2010, 07:30 PM
#23
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Titusville Florida
Posts: 1,727
I sent a 35 year old Ruger Mark 1 back to have it looked at because it started to jam. It turned out that the ejector was loose, it's riveted to the inside of receiver. I expected them to tighten the rivet. Instead they riveted a new ejector and then proceeded to go over the entire gun. The report said that the trigger pull was too heavy for their liking and the safety was stiff to operate. So they replaced the safety, trigger, sear and all associated springs. Then they gave me a new bolt main spring, an extractor claw and spring and a new magazine. The technician wrote on the receipt "Warranty work, no charge". Then they sent it back to me and refused to charge me for shipping. I just bought a gun for pocket carry and the choices that my budget allowed was either a Kel-tec P3AT or a Ruger LCP. I hope that I never have to send my LCP back for work, but if it ever becomes necessary I know that they'll take care of me properly.
08-06-2010, 06:40 PM
#24
Typical Buck
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Amongst far too many liberals
Posts: 919
Ruger doesn't give a written warranty. I have known allot of people including myself that Ruger repaired the gun at no charge. I had a 15+ year old Redhawk 44 practically rebuilt for no charge. If it's been abused or altered that's a different story. Ruger does stand behind their products no matter how old it is.
Ruger's are made in the USA. The Taurus is made in Brazil, buy American and keep our people working. I owned one Taurus a few years back. First time out I saw a dangerous defect. The cylinder would not lock up on three of the chambers with the hammer back. It went back to Taurus. When it came back it was traded in on S&W the same day. I would never own another Taurus. Check other forums and read the complaints about Taurus and their customer service. Another point that's already been brought up Rugers are probably the strongest guns made. They can handle most anything they are fed.They hold up allot better then S&W's with a steady diet of magnum loads. I'm not bashing Smith I have several of the older ones for the 1970's.Pre lock of course.
The only complaint I have with Rugers is their triggers could be a little better. Now days with all the ambulance chasers out there you don't get the lighter trigger you once did from the factories. A SBH is a fine single action and it will probably out last you if taken care of. I have both S/A and D/A Ruger's and all of them have been great guns. Sure a bad on will slip through once in awhile. It's nice Knowing Ruger will repair it if it's 10 years down the road or tomorrow. If it's a serious problem Ruger will replace it. I know they did one of mine that had a frame issue.
Ruger's are made in the USA. The Taurus is made in Brazil, buy American and keep our people working. I owned one Taurus a few years back. First time out I saw a dangerous defect. The cylinder would not lock up on three of the chambers with the hammer back. It went back to Taurus. When it came back it was traded in on S&W the same day. I would never own another Taurus. Check other forums and read the complaints about Taurus and their customer service. Another point that's already been brought up Rugers are probably the strongest guns made. They can handle most anything they are fed.They hold up allot better then S&W's with a steady diet of magnum loads. I'm not bashing Smith I have several of the older ones for the 1970's.Pre lock of course.
The only complaint I have with Rugers is their triggers could be a little better. Now days with all the ambulance chasers out there you don't get the lighter trigger you once did from the factories. A SBH is a fine single action and it will probably out last you if taken care of. I have both S/A and D/A Ruger's and all of them have been great guns. Sure a bad on will slip through once in awhile. It's nice Knowing Ruger will repair it if it's 10 years down the road or tomorrow. If it's a serious problem Ruger will replace it. I know they did one of mine that had a frame issue.
08-07-2010, 12:14 PM
#26
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kansas
Posts: 3,902
My first revolver was a Ruger Super Blackhawk in .44mag over a decade ago. While it's remained my standby deerhunting revolver, I've strayed to Taurus and S&W a few times, and I've also added a dozen or so Ruger's to the safe since then. I'm always pleased with Ruger's.
Alongside the rugers, I've owned 6 Taurus's, but have only kept two of them, a 7shot .17mag and a .357, and I have a S&W 629 .44mag that I'm quite happy with as well. We've been very happy with my fiancee's Taurus 85 ultralight .38spcl, but by and large, Ruger is the way to go for us.
The Super Blackhawk Bisley Hunter is a great revolver, and very comfortable with a scope. I shoot single action Ruger Vaquero's A LOT, which have a "standard" gripframe, so I don't shoot bisley's often, but it's hard to beat the bisley frame for a hunting revolver. It's nice having the straighter gripframe to reach up for your hammer underneath the scope.
The taurus is no slouch, but I'm certainly a much bigger fan of Rugers.
Want a better trigger on a ruger? **** the hammer, press forward on the hammer with your thumb, and pull the trigger. Repeat five times. The trigger will be smoothe and crisp. Want a lighter trigger? Cut 1-2 (I always do 2) coils off the mainspring. AND lift ONE of the legs of the trigger return spring off of the stay-pin. One leg of the spring is plenty to return the trigger, and it'll lift a few ounces off of your trigger pull. I've done this same "trigger job" to over a dozen Rugers, and had the same great results.
And to reiterate, Ruger guarantee's the function of their guns forever. Period. It's made to work, so if it doesn't work, they'll MAKE it work. Free. I've had more than a few opportunities to deal with Ruger's warrantee/customer service/parts departments. I called to ORDER a new mainspring for a revolver once, so I could cut more coils off to test how light I could make the ****ing and trigger pulls. While they had me on the phone, they sent me 6 mainsprings (one for each of my guns at the time), 6 detent springs, and 6 trigger return springs... Basically a spring-kit for all 6 of my revolvers... For free!! Didn't even charge me shipping.
On another occurance, I had loaned a Mark I .22lr pistol (over 30yrs old) to a friend. While cleaning it, he hadn't noticed a piece of patch lodged in the bore, so it bulged the barrel when he fired it. I was devastated, but Ruger replaced the barrel and "overhauled" the action to send her back to me good as new. The only thing I paid for was the shipping to mail it to them, they covered all of the parts and replacement install, as well as the return shipping.
Ruger is hard to beat for durability and quality. They're as good as you can ever expect on accuracy, and their fit and finish sets the industry standard for production firearms.
Alongside the rugers, I've owned 6 Taurus's, but have only kept two of them, a 7shot .17mag and a .357, and I have a S&W 629 .44mag that I'm quite happy with as well. We've been very happy with my fiancee's Taurus 85 ultralight .38spcl, but by and large, Ruger is the way to go for us.
The Super Blackhawk Bisley Hunter is a great revolver, and very comfortable with a scope. I shoot single action Ruger Vaquero's A LOT, which have a "standard" gripframe, so I don't shoot bisley's often, but it's hard to beat the bisley frame for a hunting revolver. It's nice having the straighter gripframe to reach up for your hammer underneath the scope.
The taurus is no slouch, but I'm certainly a much bigger fan of Rugers.
Want a better trigger on a ruger? **** the hammer, press forward on the hammer with your thumb, and pull the trigger. Repeat five times. The trigger will be smoothe and crisp. Want a lighter trigger? Cut 1-2 (I always do 2) coils off the mainspring. AND lift ONE of the legs of the trigger return spring off of the stay-pin. One leg of the spring is plenty to return the trigger, and it'll lift a few ounces off of your trigger pull. I've done this same "trigger job" to over a dozen Rugers, and had the same great results.
And to reiterate, Ruger guarantee's the function of their guns forever. Period. It's made to work, so if it doesn't work, they'll MAKE it work. Free. I've had more than a few opportunities to deal with Ruger's warrantee/customer service/parts departments. I called to ORDER a new mainspring for a revolver once, so I could cut more coils off to test how light I could make the ****ing and trigger pulls. While they had me on the phone, they sent me 6 mainsprings (one for each of my guns at the time), 6 detent springs, and 6 trigger return springs... Basically a spring-kit for all 6 of my revolvers... For free!! Didn't even charge me shipping.
On another occurance, I had loaned a Mark I .22lr pistol (over 30yrs old) to a friend. While cleaning it, he hadn't noticed a piece of patch lodged in the bore, so it bulged the barrel when he fired it. I was devastated, but Ruger replaced the barrel and "overhauled" the action to send her back to me good as new. The only thing I paid for was the shipping to mail it to them, they covered all of the parts and replacement install, as well as the return shipping.
Ruger is hard to beat for durability and quality. They're as good as you can ever expect on accuracy, and their fit and finish sets the industry standard for production firearms.
08-12-2010, 03:53 AM
#27
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Southeast Alabama
Posts: 1,625
No question Ruger. It has a better reputaion and is notorious for staying tight longer then Taurus and some say even S&W when shot with full house loads. I went Ruger whent he same Taurus or Ruger question came up last spring and never looked back on my choice.
08-24-2010, 08:48 PM
#28
Spike
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 10
I've shot both ruger and taurus.
I'd have to pick the Taurus. Fits my hand way better than the ruger and was smoother for me to fire.
Taurus doesnt have as big of a name as ruger, S&W, or Colt. But they sure do perform just as well and have a lifetime warrenty. I trust my life on my Taurus .45 auto
I'd have to pick the Taurus. Fits my hand way better than the ruger and was smoother for me to fire.
Taurus doesnt have as big of a name as ruger, S&W, or Colt. But they sure do perform just as well and have a lifetime warrenty. I trust my life on my Taurus .45 auto
08-25-2010, 04:10 AM
#29
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: VA, USA
Posts: 3,116
Ruger.....bought a Ragin Bull in 44 mag a few years back and wish I had went with the Ruger. Fit and finish is better with the Ruger, more accessories available, and a better resale value should you want or need to sale.
08-25-2010, 04:28 AM
#30
Typical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: USA
Posts: 868
Getting ready to drop my money on the Ruger Super Blackhawk Bisley Hunter.
I went through this very quandary a couple of weeks ago and came to a couple of opinions.
1) Ported guns for hunting are unneeded. This goes for both rifles and handguns. While you may get a bit less muzzle flip, I can honestly say that anytime I have needed a 2nd shot the animal was either a) already down and required a finishing shot or b) had the afterburner lit and was getting out of Dodge in which case the range, direction and lead had changed significantly enough that the extra time to get on target due to muzzle flip was minimal. Not only that, the muzzle blast is deafening.
2) As others have noted, when hunting most of the time you will be shooting single action so I see no advantage to the double action revolvers.
3) The Ruger is simply a strong revolver. All of the Ruger revolvers I have ever owned have been extremely strong and have stood up very well to years of heavy loads with no degredaton in accuracy or function.
4) The Taurus is a really heavy gun. I wanted a barrel a bit longer than 6" so that meant going to an 8 3/8" barrel on the Taurus. This puts the weight of the gun alone at 63 oz. On the other hand the SBH with a 7 1/2" barrel is 52 oz.
I went through this very quandary a couple of weeks ago and came to a couple of opinions.
1) Ported guns for hunting are unneeded. This goes for both rifles and handguns. While you may get a bit less muzzle flip, I can honestly say that anytime I have needed a 2nd shot the animal was either a) already down and required a finishing shot or b) had the afterburner lit and was getting out of Dodge in which case the range, direction and lead had changed significantly enough that the extra time to get on target due to muzzle flip was minimal. Not only that, the muzzle blast is deafening.
2) As others have noted, when hunting most of the time you will be shooting single action so I see no advantage to the double action revolvers.
3) The Ruger is simply a strong revolver. All of the Ruger revolvers I have ever owned have been extremely strong and have stood up very well to years of heavy loads with no degredaton in accuracy or function.
4) The Taurus is a really heavy gun. I wanted a barrel a bit longer than 6" so that meant going to an 8 3/8" barrel on the Taurus. This puts the weight of the gun alone at 63 oz. On the other hand the SBH with a 7 1/2" barrel is 52 oz.