Smoothing the Taurus Double-Action Revolver

Over the last generation, I’ve watched the steady improvement of handguns from Taurus International, the well-known manufacturer of double-action revolvers and semi-automatic pistols. These guns were a good value 30 years or so ago, when they sold for about twothirds the price of an American-made handgun. But, today, these guns can stand on their own merits against any handgun, regardless of price. I often carry a .44 Magnum Taurus in the hunting field and carry one of several compact versions for personal defense.

That’s as high a compliment as I can give. When the practiced eye looks over Taurus revolvers, it’s obvious that they are modeled after the Smith & Wesson. There’s nothing wrong with that; the Smith & Wesson revolver, Colt automatic pistol, and Colt Single Action Army revolver clones and copies have given work to quite a few factories over the years. But Taurus has seen fit to incorporate changes that make their handguns quite different from those coming from Massachusetts. On the whole, I like these changes.

Let’s take a look at some of the differences, starting with the lockwork. Most Smith & Wesson revolvers have a direct-impact hammer. In other words, the hammer features a firing pin mounted in the hammer that falls directly on the cartridge primer for ignition. The most significant difference in the Taurus is that the firing pin is frame-mounted. The Taurus revolver shown here uses a frame-mounted firing pin and transfer-bar ignition system.

In this system, the bar lays over the firing pin and protects it from a blow by the hammer. The hammer simply can’t connect with the firing pin, no matter how hard the hammer is impacted from the gun being dropped or other accidental strike. As a result of this improvement, Taurus has been able to eliminate the rebound slide. There is a spring-loaded trigger-return plunger that pivots, but no rebound slide.

In the Smith & Wesson, the rebound slide is necessary to prevent the direct-impact hammer from firing the gun if you were to slip while cocking the gun and release the hammer prematurely. Another difference incorporated into Taurus revolvers since 1999 is that there is no locking point on the ejector rod. The old system was the cause of more than one revolver tieup in my experience. I’m not unhappy to see it go. Additional lockup is guaranteed by a spring-loaded indent in the crane that bears against the frame.

This gives the gun sufficient rigidity for good accuracy. This har kens back not only to the Smith & Wesson Triple Lock, but numerous custom efforts. While the Taurus revolvers differ from the S&Win several respects, in evolutionary terms, they share a common ancestry and

That is simply a nuance of distribution. the same basic principles apply. The revolver works in a straightforward double-action manner. The trigger is pressed and the hammer moves, which compresses a coil spring. (Once, lever type-springs were used.) The cylinder bolt falls away from the cylinder notch at this point, and the hand, which is mated to the trigger, moves the cylinder. The cylinder bolt comes into play and holds the cylinder steady for firing.

The sear on the trigger can hold the hammer in a fully cocked single-action mode if desired, or the trigger is simply pulled through and the revolver fires. The compressed spring’s release-lever or coil spring, depending upon the revolver generation, propels the hammer forward to fire the revolver. At one time, the rebound lever forced the hammer back after firing, but with newer designs the transfer bar simply returns to its protective position.

The Taurus will respond to the same general gunsmithing skills needed to smooth older-generation revolvers. I’ve found that in the newer revolvers, the steel used is up to standards, and will take a good fit and polish. In fact, if better steel is used elsewhere, I have not seen it. The early guns were often rougher on the inside than the outside, but the steel was not of poor quality and they will indeed take a good fit and polish.

It seems to me that Taurus saw that consumers were willing to pay for quality, and they upped their standards, although we were already getting what we paid for. You can still purchase a pretty bare-bones 4-inch blued Taurus .38 at a price that is even better in 2005 dollars, but it is much better made, fitted, and polished than anything offered 30 years ago. So, you can file and polish modern revolvers and obtain and retain a good slick double-action trigger.

You may void a generous warranty, but that’s never stopped a shooter before. I’ll briefly go over the steps I’ve taken to work over my revolvers. They’ve responded well, and the work is straightforward revolver mechanics. But the Taurus does have differences from the Smith & Wesson, and these have to be understood, just as the modern Taurus differs from the older-generation revolvers. Improving Single-Action Triggers For the most part, the single-action compression of modern double-action revolvers is acceptable.

I’ve put the RCBS scale on several Taurus revolvers, and 2.5 to 4 pounds is normal for single-action compression. For a revolver intended for defense work, this is more than acceptable. However, I once owned an otherwise decent Taurus Model 66, the pre-669 Magnum, which featured a single-action trigger to rival the double-action’s weight! (I should point out that I’ve seen this but once.) The cure was relatively simple. Take a look at the single-action notch in the action. There is a slight bevel in the notch.

I lightly stoned this section, being sure not to destroy the factory angles, and improvement was immediate. I think that sometimes when we come across a really bad trigger, we tend to be more enthusiastic with stoning than we should be. Oddly enough, I’ve found that the amount of correction needed doesn’t necessarily correspond to the initial pull weight. In other words, a very bad trigger action may take about the same effort as one that’s decent to start with, in my experience.

The standard improvements that apply to any double-action revolver apply equally to the Taurus. These improvements to the trigger action are simpler to do with a stainless-steel gun, since polishing and chamfering will likely require a refinish of a blued gun. I really prefer blue steel to other finishes as far as

appearance goes, but for practical, hard service, I believe the stainless revolver is clearly a better choice. As for the revolvers used here, I settled down on the bench rest and confirmed that each would group five rounds of quality ammunition into an average group of 2 inches or so at 25 yards, which made them worthy of custom work. In fact, the 6-inch-barrel Taurus 669 .357 Magnum revolver placed five rounds of Federal’s 180-grain jacketed hollowpoint "deer killer" into a group of less than an inch at 75 feet.

That’s good enough for me. Like many Taurus revolvers, the gun is more accurate with jacketed ammunition than with lead, but lead-bullet He does not recommend cutting these springs for a lighter action. Magnum primers must be stronger than average to withstand Magnum pressure, and require full-strength springs to propel the hammer with sufficient force. accuracy is acceptable nonetheless. To perform this work, simply disassemble the revolver. Carefully remove the sideplate screws.

I use the handy Chapman screwdriver set as I have for many years. I set the screws carefully in order on the bench—they’re not all the same. Carefully, carefully remove the sideplate. The plate can be warped by a ham hand, so gently tug it out of its slot in the frame. If the sideplate is warped, the action can’t work properly, as is most often shown by a hand out of line. The standard revolver action job requires patience, but can be done relatively quickly. First, cock the gun to the single-action position.

Place a small pin—I often use a small Allen wrench—in the hole in the mainspring and in the trigger-spring center pin. Release the trigger and the two pins will come out. Don’t allow any springs to escape. (This is one reason we wear safety glasses when working with revolver springs.) I polish these pins until they have a pleasing appearance, and they will be much smoother in action. Taking the hammer out, we find the hammer-axis pin. This part is often overlooked, but can be a drag on the action.

I polish the hammer-axis pin as well. It doesn’t take very long and adds to the action’s smoothness in the final chapter, I am certain. On most Taurus revolvers the transfer-bar hand and trigger come out as a group. I don’t get ambitious in polishing the hand—bad things occur when the angles are broken—but I do give it a once-over and check for burrs. Now is a good time to apply a quality lubricant to the moving parts. The trigger’s sharp edges should be addressed at this time.

The mating surfaces of the hammer and trigger will be shown by high wear on stainless guns. If not apparent, the parts can be smoked or painted lightly and the gun reassembled, and the contact or load-bearing surfaces examined. These surfaces can be lightly, smoothly polished, with all surfaces remaining even and no original angles broken. This is the heart of the action job. To keep the surfaces smooth and even is the main goal.

The sideplate will occasionally have excess roughness, and this is most common with stainless guns. After all, they don’t have to be polished to be blued, and tool marks don’t hurt anything when they are hidden. But, of course, nothing is hidden from a pistolsmith! It’s a good idea to smooth out any glaring errors in polishing of the sideplate as delivered from the factory. It’s fairly common for the hammer to bind on the sideplate or frame. Again, a light polish will cure this problem.

Occasionally, the cylinder release will protrude and bind on moving parts. Once discovered, careful polishing will keep the cylinder release from causing trouble. Cylinder drag is often demonstrated in revolvers by a line around the cylinder where the bolt has etched its signature across the cylinder. This happens when the bolt fails to release after the hand has begun to turn the cylinder.

I’ve examined revolvers that have exhibited this defect for years, and the guns always worked, but it’s not a good thing and can be corrected easily. The standard cure is to slowly actuate the action and observe to see if the bolt drops clear as it should during the action phase of the cycle. If it does not, polish or stone the rough edges of the hand until the bolt clears as desired. Only the section that enters the cylinder needs to be stoned.

However, it is sometimes helpful to polish the extension of the trigger where it meets the bolt as well. The watchwords in all action work is "smooth and slow." The pull

weight of the double-action trigger may not be reduced much on the scale, but the perceived smoothness will be impressive. Any revolver can be improved in this manner, but the Taurus responds especially well. Cylinder and Recoil Shield Mods With the sideplate and the screw holding the cylinder removed, the cylinder simply pulls from the frame along with the cylinder stop and plunger. Place them aside in a box or plastic bag. The first Taurus 66 I worked on had a fairly rough recoil shield.

At certain angles of fire, the case rims actually bound on the recoil shield. I didn’t repair it (the owner sent it back and it was repaired under the warranty), but I have addressed this issue several times on Smith & Wesson revolvers. And it doesn’t hurt to do the same with the stainless Taurus. I simply use abrasive cloth and metal polish to give the recoil shield a good polish. I didn’t remove all the tool marks; they were few but noticeable. Nevertheless, the result was a nice improvement.

I own a nice little Smith & Wesson Model 60 with chamfered cylinder chambers by the Action Works. It turned out so well, I elected to do this operation with the Taurus Model Careful polishing of the stop can put an end to this dragging. 44. This is one of those modifications that you don’t realize works so well until you have used a revolver so modified. It’s fairly simple and aids in loading the revolver, especially when loading quickly with speedloaders.

The cylinder chambers are cut at a relatively sharp angle, about 90 degrees. Breaking this edge helps more than one would think when loading the revolver with a speedloader. Blunt bullets tend to catch on this sharp edge. There are several ways to polish the bevel. (We’re just breaking the sharp edge and no more.) A Forster case trimmer with appropriate pilot wrapped in lapping compound will do the trick, and so will a dowel of about .380 inch, also liberally swathed with lapping compound.

You will have a very nice, neat chamfer that makes for more efficient loading. The Model 44 is my all-purpose, do-anything, go-anywhere revolver. I wouldn’t compromise its reliability. I have no doubt that, straight from the factory, it would have kept going for many years and provided good service. But the simple work performed on this revolver has given me greater confidence and enhanced my ability to deliver the payload.

When that payload is a 270-grain Gold Dot bullet at over 1,100 fps, we’re talking real power. The Taurus M44 is much more pleasant to use after a bit of smoothing, and I’m able to fire it more accurately in double-action. And that is what this type of work is all about. ■