Taurus 454 review

Hello all,

I have just purchased a new Taurus 454 with 5" barrel. It was an ordered gun, not one that I cherry picked from a pile of them. It was a random one. I bought it knowing that some people hate them and others seem to love them. So, I thought that I would make this purchase and see for myself if what I bought was a quality piece or just a "piece". My little review will be added to over time and is totally objective. I am not into all the little details about trigger pull weights in actual ounces etc. If you are looking for something like this revolver a couple ounces doesn't mean a damned thing really. It's heavy. They all are. Eat your wheaties before you leave the house and don't wear pants that you start off with plumbers crack and then throw it on your waist. Please, for everyone's sake don't do that.
It is stainless steel, matte finish, adjustable sights with the god awful ugly (opinion here) red skunk striped grips. So far I have only test fired it. Maine is damned cold right now and the other day while shooting it outside the standing air temp was around -3 F. Hard to do anything including creating complete thoughts. Hell is not always HOT.
Anyway, onto the good stuff and the bad so far as far as my initial take on the weapon. Heft. It is heavy. This is not always a bad thing but I would recommend using a chest rig to carry it for long periods. I think that a belt holster would result in fines for indecent exposure due to being "pants" by it. It's weight helps with recoil though.
The fit and finish on mine is nearly on par with Ruger and Smith. Not as polished and there is a slight gap where the crane meets the frame but overall, it is tight enough. Cylinder locks up as well as any with some play evident both side to side in rotation as well as fore and aft. The fore and aft play is enough for the cylinder to contact the forcing cone and if pressure is applied and stop the cylinder from being closed. This does not appear to be an issue if one doesn't intentionally do this but it is something that I have not experienced with Ruger or Smith in the past. I have had other issues with those manufactures but that is for another post.
Anywho, back to the review. As I said, Maine is COLD at the moment which limited me to firing only a few rounds as post nasal drip was turning into stalactites from my nose and I couldn't feel my trigger finger even through a glove.
The first rounds fired (after a thorough cleaning prior to shooting) were Hornady 300 gr. hollow points in 454. Always shoot the 454 first then 45 colt after to avoid sticky chambers and the potential for a spike in pressure. Not good with a round as high pressure as some rifle cartridges.
With the first shot there was a sharp pain noticed in my left hand thumb's pad. I am right handed so this was my support hand. I stopped and took off my glove and noticed that there was a shard (curly-q actually) of brass lodged in there. Hmmm. I unloaded the Taurus and extracted the empty shell. I could find nothing wrong with it in any way. I scratched my frozen head and continued on. And no, my thumb was not out near the front of the cylinder in the gas cutting area. This was back near the shield. Never have had that happen before. I am attributing this to a small imperfection with the cartridge and it was exacerbated due to the high pressure of this round. These rounds did stick under extraction and under inspection of the cylinders I find that they are not as polished as they could be. They did come out with hand pressure however and in no way tied up the gun.
The remaining rounds went off without incident. What I discovered is what others have said prior about the Taurus. First, it was accurate even without a proper sight-in due to the temperatures. All rounds found their mark easily. Just luck for the moment.
Recoil was mild compared to the other 454 revolvers that I have owned and fired in the past. The grip works very well as do the ports. Ah, the ports. Yup, they are loud. I would hunt with this pistol and will but using hearing protection while in the stand. They do however perform well in keeping the muzzle down. The recoil was very similar to a medium loaded 44 magnum, at least to me. It was very controllable. Pleasant to fire actually.
Sights? Easy enough to find and utilize. They are sights. They send the bullet where it needs to go. Are they top notch? No, but they are quite a step above crude.
Action? Not as bad as I was expecting. Double action trigger pull is heavy but usable for sure. No trigger pull gauge used at the moment and have no need to post that info even if I did use it. It is everywhere and easy to look up. Single action pull was crisp but let off feels like there a million tiny springs in there that are clutching at the trigger as it travels back to its reset point. The break is the important part and it was very good. Crisp as I said and light. I liked it more than I thought that I would.
The finish is matte like I said and it always looks dirty. No matter how many times you wipe it off, every bit of oil from your skin, etc creates a blemish. It also is easy marred leaving a bright shiny scratch. I do have to say I will most likely Cerekote it. My fiance thought that it was made of plastic when she saw it. Cartoonish with the finish. Well, that attacked my ego. Gotta fix that. A gun from Roger Rabbit I think is what she said.
I also fired 45 colt after the 454 loads. They were factory and very lightly loaded. 250 Grain Keith at 900 fps. They were like shooting 22's in the Taurus. My ten year old son shot the 45's and loved it.
Bottom line at this time? The Taurus appears to be well enough made for its intended purpose (for me) and that is hunting, bear defense in Alaska and making a lot of noise at the range. The price point on them is not bad.. a few dollars less than the competition and that is a good thing. Is it a Freedom Arms? Nope. Didn't cost as much either.
I hate the easily scratched matte finish and the well performing yet ugly grips. I hate that the cylinder hits the forcing cone. I like the way it points, the way that it shoots and as I said, the cost. This one was 635.00 with tax.
I am going to use this revolver, abuse this revolver and take it everywhere and hunt everything from squirrels (yes I am) to bear and moose. I am going to do penetration tests and post them if people are interested with all manners of factory ammo and home cast solids. I am not going to shoot into wood but wet newspapers with bones inserted wrapped in heavy hide. If people are interested I will post these results here. Photos will be added if there is interest.

Thank you all for your time. I am sure that I have offended some perhaps, perhaps not. I am being totally objective as I said on performance but opinionated on what I like and don't like but will always state my opinions as what they are... my opinions.

Best,
Sean Kerr

Avid hunter and outdoorsman,
Former law enforcement officer
Sig Arms graduate
Former professional bodyguard

Good write up and good points to ponder !!

Comparable recoil to a medium .44 Mag., interesting. Wonder how it'd feel with Pach grips ?

Aaron,

Thank you for taking the time to read my review. I have to say that I can't find any grips that are after market for it! I make custom grips so I might have to go make a set. But they will be wood. Might not be so pleasant after the soft ones with heavy loads.

Great review! Looking forward to the follow-up reports. But I have to say that trigger pull is important and always information that folks find useful as it gives them another point to weigh before making a purchase. That said, IMHO a trigger job is normally on the list of mods that I have performed on all factory revolvers (save for my BFR as it is surprisingly nearly perfect out of the box).

For the record I don't eat Wheaties, but I think I can handle the weight.......LOL!

Would you mind posting a photo and a comparison once the new grips are installed ?

Very nice review.

Thanks Whitworth, I appreciate the kinds words. As far as the trigger pull goes, well, I hate reading the weights vs the feel. I guess some people like to know the weight (and that is A-OK) but to me I have had light pulls that felt terrible and heavy that were very good because of the break etc. But I do see your point. I have weighed this one now and double is coming in at 10.5 lbs and single at 3 lbs even according to my scale. But the feel is better than I had thought. A trigger job to clean it up would be a good idea. On mine I am going to run it as is just because its part of my test. I plan no mods other than the cerekote after it is too scratched up and that's only because my fiance will tease me. That should be in about two weeks. So far I am happy but then again... there is a lot of lead to spit before I have a final opinion. Squirrel hunt for tomorrow after a real sight in. Thanks again Whit.

Aaron,

If I do make them, I will indeed post pics. I am undecided at the moment if I will go through the effort or not. I am on the fence.

I agree with you comment about the grip, the red strip is ugly. I also find it a little concerning that the cylinder hits the forcing cone. Wouldn't you think that at sometime this is going to damage the cone?

Linebaugh,

That is a concern for me. I do think that it could damage the cone. The contact is light and is not touched when the cylinder is closed no matter how much force is applied (within reason of course)by hand. It does strike upon closing the cylinder. Now, this does NOT mean that there is no contact when the revolver is fired. The cylinder may be touching at that point. I am not going to do anything about it right now. I say that because the new president of taurus came out a few months back and said that they have added more people for customer support etc and that all the horror stories of the past will never happen again. I am going to try them out. Test them as I am testing this revolver. If I do have issues then see what they do to correct it. Speed etc. I'm tired of companies saying one thing and doing another. This revolver is brand new and the warranty card has been sent in. Maybe I am approaching this the wrong way... hmmmm. I won't let it go forever.... just for a bit. I have taken copious photos and measurements to check for wear.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I've had a 5" RB for 8-9 years. I love it. Mine's trigger pull is so good I didn't get it worked on. I really like the grips. My hand hides the red, but I don't care about the color if it works and it does. Mine shoots 260 gr. Speer HPs, 265 gr. Swift HPs, and 275 gr. Alaska Bullet works FP extremely well. Mine hasn't been babied, has been shot a lot killing probably 100 groundhogs and 25 deer. I carry it only on a belt holster without problems.
When I want a compact powerful carry gun I get my 5"RB. Obviously, it's not as refined as a FA, but mine is fully equal or a little better than my Ruger Super.

Wvhitman,

I'm glad you have had a good love affair with your RB. I want to with mine as well. I'm not disappointed in it in any real way other than nitpicking. I just hear so much Internet hysteria about taurus and having not owned one personally I needed to satisfy my curiosity. I'm headed out to test fire again tommorow and hunt a bit with it. Small game this time of year. I had the ruger Alaskan prior and to be honest, I wasn't impressed. Every case stuck and timing was off right out of the box.

It seems it's hit and miss with Taurus although one of my distributors a while back was pushing me to stock them. He said they had improved quality control so it wasn't as bad as it used to be and with this particular vendor you send the gun back to them and get a new one rather than send it to Taurus. There customer service is one thing I've never heard anything good about so hopefully it will be better.

As far as the cylinder goes your probably best to take care of it sooner than later, especially with the 454. What will happen is it will start to beat it's self to death. When the firing pin hits the cartridge it initially is force forward and then upon ignition it slams back against the recoil plate and the bounces forward again. It all happens so fast you can't tell but eventually it will damage the cylinder and possibly the frame.

Sean:

I enjoyed reading your review.

Thanks for such great detail.

Mike

Thank you texas. I appreciate that.

Wapitirod,
You are correct there in my opinion. I think end shake that will get worse. Just my thought. I spoke to a friend that works for Ruger the other day in new hampshire. What he told me was there is nothing to worry about as their revolvers do that fairly often and it is not a concern for them or their customers. I don't know how I feel about that. As you rightly stated, it is 454 and not 38 special or 22 or. The pressures are higher. Against my thoughts with my extended review I going to call Taurus today and see what their thoughts are. I will post everything here as part of an update to my little review. Test their new customer service philosophy right away.

I've run into on the ruger sa's alot and those you can fix three ways, gas ring stretcher, shims or install a new bushing which is whay I normally do it. On a DA like that you may be able to shim it, they make shims for the S&W DA's which may fit the Taurus. I don't know if they will fix it if you send it in or not. Just like your friend with Ruger they may consider it "normal" but i've seen gas rings beat up on hard kicking SA's from not being tight enough which is why it's recommended you use a drop of oil or light gun grease on each end of the cylinder where it contacts the frame.

Wap, You are right. I had thought about shimming etc but then I thought, It's brand new! They are going to work on it and after a few years and much ammo later I will fix it if it goes down again. So far, I am 50/50 with taurus. I got a defective one but how fast and well will they take care of me? Things happen and lemons make it out from time to time. But they should be very few and far between.
I called Taurus and they said that is not what is supposed to happen upon closing the cylinder. Thanks, I think I already knew that Taurus! Anyway, they sent me a prepaid label to send it out to them for either fix or replacement. So I guess we will have to see how long this takes.

Well that's a good start, definitely let us know how the rest of their customer service is.

I will indeed. They say that they are better than ever. We will see. I will also see what comes back to me! Maybe they send me a banana instead. You never know!

LOL, I don't know the guy at Davidsons who was pushing me to stock Taurus tried to make me feel better about by saying "we haven't had any more cylinders fall off when we took them out of the box" He was slow at getting that I wasn't interested in carrying any stock. It only took them two years to quit calling me.

" a banana instead " Is that so it's easier to shove up there A$$ if you don't like what you get back?

LOL, you guys aren't helping me, back surgery next monday and it hurts to laugh.

Sorry Rod i'll try to keep it in check. Hope the surgery goes well my friend i'll keep you in my prayers.

That's scary. Really Wap. Nightmare time. Won't be calling you for bedtime stories! They have one shot. Pun intended albeit a bad one. If its bad after it comes back I will have to say farewell. This might be the last test for my Taurus. We shall see.

The great banana suppository. Film at 11.

Well they do have a customer service survey now so maybe they really are trying to make things right.

thanks, I appreciate the thought.

Maybe they are trying to make things right. I hope that they do!

Well, gun went out today. They spelled the town wrong on the FedEx label that they emailed me. Even after I spelled it out with the frenetic alphabet. Oh boy... Great start. Here comes the banana.

Banana

Thanks for the review

Welcome Zack. Quick update; Taurus posted receipt of my revolver getting to them today. Their email response was that it could take up to 6 weeks for it to return to me. The fellow I spoke to on the phone today said it would be back to me quickly.

Any word yet on return time?

Indeed. Return update on taurus 454;

Taurus cranked it out and it's due home tomorrow. They bent over backwards to get it back to me ASAP. They were very polite on the phone when I would call. They fixed it and polished the cylinders even though they were acceptable. I have not seen it yet so I will update tomorrow. We're they as fast as Springfield? Damned close and just as friendly. From what I am say NOW at THIS moment is that they have redeemed themselves in my eyes are a legit company. Their attitude towards me was wonderful. We will see what the gun is when I get it in my hands. Customer service was pleasant to say the least.

yeah I'm curious, against my better judgement I bought my wife a Toreass PT22 for a purse gun because the price was right on it. The only bad thing is I had to scrounge for extra mags and they were almost 30.00 a piece. So far the gun seems to function fine with no jamming or misfires but we shall see.

So far, so good. Hope it runs right when you get it back.

I was at a gun show this weekend, saw a Raging Bull in 454 for $970.

The guy asked me if I wanted him to take it out of the case, I had to chuckle a bit and just walked away. Maybe I'm wrong but that seems a bit overpriced for a Taurus.

It is, but these days he'll probably get it. Supply and demand are in full effect driving the price of many firearms up to and over retail.

Ya, things also tend to be right at MSRP where I'm at, but that being said I can get a BFR for 30 bucks more than a Raging Bull, to me, even being all sorts of new to this type of gun, is a no brainer.

Oh boy! I got the gun back. Not so good. They fixed the issue with the barrel cylinder gap alright and widened that to .020 from .010. Unexceptable to say the least. The ratchet was heavily burred with built in end shake. The cylinder in battery locks up tight on four cylinders but the fifth has nearly .045 of lateral play in it. Bottom line... It's worse than when I sent it in. So being the nasty grumpy [censored] that I am I called them raised holy hell. They are taking it back in and said that it will go to their review board to determine if they can fix it or replace it. I am not happy. I was with the service up until I opened the box today. I'm trying to remain optimistic but I have that feeling like I should known better but was hoping to be proven wrong. I told to get it right this time or I will send it back forever and eat up the cost of a new one many times over. I will update when I hear back from them. To date my recommendation would be NOT to buy one. My gunsmith asked me how many heavy loads I fired through it. He thought it was heavily used. He looked appalled when he discovered it was fired four times with 454.

Sounds like they are stil the same old Taurus, maybe they sound more willing to help but that doesnt mean they are more able.

Sorry you are having a ruff time with them.

yeah, I tell people they are a wasted of money, once in a while you get a good one although most of the time it's lack of knowing what to look for. I bought my first toreass the other day in a pt22 for my wife to have as a purse gun but I ran it through the ringer to make sure it doesn't jam. If I hadn't got it so cheap I wouldn't have bought it but I figured for what I paid I could get my money back out if needed.

Well, the taurus is gone tomorrow. Trading it even for a mint 480 ruger super redhawk. Six shot cylinder. 9.5" barrel that will get cut down a bit. Taurus made it so I couldn't even give a real review. I am all done. I will review the 480 when I get it.

Sean,
I'm sorry to hear the bad luck you had with Taurus (not supprised), but I know you'll be a much happier hunter with a Ruger in your hand..

Congratulations on the Ruger! It's a fine gun and caliber. I hated to part with mine, but I reconciled everything to either .452 or .458 caliber. Are you planning to reload for it?

Its funny if you go to the Taurus owners forum and read around (I did cause I was board)

Anytime a thread pops up complaining about poor service a few thinsg happen

1- The Taurus fan boys slam the pesron complaining saying its clearly the persons fault the gun isnt working

2- They toss out comments that border on cheesey, almost comerical (im talking the clasic 80s cheese fest style) lines about "sending it on back and letting Taurus awesome customer service take care of for you"

Now what happens next is based on the response from the poster, if he says Taurus takes care of it everyone chimes in saying how amazing Taurus is, things like "chalk up another good customer experiance for Taurus"

But if the person comes back and the story is like this thread, it gets locked, and a mod will say something like "well if your opinion is already made up we wont change your mind, no point talkinga bout it"

And of course the mods all have things in their sigs saying they are in no way affiliated with Taurus. Denying someting before your even accused of it say a lot to me.

I read round that silly site a bit more, looked at some of the stickys and rules.

There is one, dont recall if its a FAQ or random sticky but it talks about how if your Taurus is having problems its probably YOUR FAULT.

Yep, a big ole post about how you are probably not cleaning the gun right, or using the wrong ammo, or you dont know what to expect from a gun.

The entire site seems to ignore the fact that Taurus earned its current reputation, and anyone that brings it up or has a negitive story has their threads locked or is banned.

Do some diggin on their site if you're in the mood fo a laugh some time. I had a good chuckle over it today.

Not to defend Taurus, because I've owned them and don't anymore (hint, hint), but there is a little known fact I've learned. There are a lot of newer gun buyers who don't know a thing about guns and are inclined to buy cheaper guns. Although it' not always the case, Taurus tends to get lumped into cheaper guns. Then you have someone who doesn't know how to care for a gun, what to expect from it, or what it's limitations are treating it like it's something from a movie. It becomes a stew pot of fail. They inevitably fill it up with pocket lint, feed it brand-x hollow points that it doesn't like, let it rust inside, etc and then blame the company because it's not an H&K or Glock that would have had the same problems under the same circumstances.

What I'm trying to say is that Taurus rightfully has a reputation of being a budget, or second rate gun company, but they're not the complete junk some people want to throw them in with.

I have owned a 66 in 357 and a Raging Bull in 44 and both of them shot very very well without any problems. When I bought them I wasn't expecting them to be FA's. they are what they are and even Ruger builds some junk from time to time.

I have a PT111 that both the wife & I enjoy shooting now and then. I believe for it's price it's an ok gun, but then again you get what you pay for.


Like rlb stated it's not a FA, but it will do when you need to make some noise, burn some lead, and have some fun:)

I think the issue I had with their site was that the mods of the site out right ignore problems. Sure some people cause the fail, but sometimes its the gun.

All companies have issues sometimes, but some make it a point to correct the problem, not just shift it around a bunch and then pretend it didnt happen.

I have nothing against Taurus, i just avoid them. But when I go to a site and read around a forum and see what comes off as a pretty silly cover it makes me chuckle.

I read aruond their forum, looked over posts from a few months back, current ones, gave it a decent browsing, and the feeling i got was the site is a bit of a sham.

If I had read that yes Taurus makes some lemons, they make some good guns, they are cheaper and you get what you pay for, I wouldnt have mentioned it.

Thats just not the attitude I took away from what I was reading though, and if it matters, I also visted that site about 2 months ago to do a little research on the raging bull, and both times the feeling is the same.

I suppose thats bound to happen on any forum dedicated to a certain company, still, I found it a bit funny how a lot of the people on that site just wanted to deny Taurus products have a few more issues than other gun makers.

Sorry to hear it went that way, but I feared it would. I think you will be happy with your replacement. Good shootin'

sorry to hear the bad experience with taurus. The 480 ruger should be a much better upgrade.

Im still sick i went a taurus over a srh ruger. Now ya got bfrs in that price range. Two vastly superior firearms

I think thats a big issue these days with Taurus, at least where Im at you can get a SRH or BFR for maybe 100 dollars more, sometimes its not even that much of a difference

If Taurus wants to make discount guns thats fine, but they should sell them at a more discounted price. Going almost even money against better products seems like a bad idea to me

Probably for the better. Sorry you had to go through this.

I've now added a CZ 550 safari in 416 Rigby. Good deal... great rifle.

I have three Taurus Raging Bulls 2/454 and 1/480 Ruger. All are well fitted accurate and capable perfomers. Nothing else required.

you got the exception to the rule then, of course whether or not they stay that way or not may become another issue all together.

I've owned 5 of their automatics and 2 of their revolvers and not one skipped a beat. Still have a 1911 that eats whatever I feed it. I think the bad ones seem to stick out more than the good ones.

That's the case with anything......

just read through this post from the start, as far as that goes there should be about another dozen posts on this same subject.

They do seem to have a higher rate of problems than other gun manufacturers.

That, coupled with a lower level of service in dealing with those problems is not a good thing.

Indeed.

I'm knocking on wood right now. My, excuse me, my sons, raging bull 480 has been a great gun with zero problems.

I wish I had the luck that some of you seem to have had. I had too many issues and sending it back once and having it come back worse was enough to super piss me off! I'm not sworn off taurus I just think that looking at one first is better than buying one online sight unseen. And that, would be my advise to anyone looking at a Taurus. Only buy one you can see and handle. Know what you are looking at and you could get a gem. Buy sight unseen you may have bought a grenade with either it or you having a short fuse.

The one thing that seems to be consistent with Taurus guns is that they are very inconsitent. I hated to see you have such bad luck with one but it isn't the first time I have heard of people having bad luck with Taurus guns. That said I have a 441T (T as the early designation for Target, not titanium) that is one of thebest handguns I have ever shot. It is smooth as silk and after 20 years+ of shooting deer and hogs it is still ready to go. I guess if I knew I could get another Taurus that good I would buy one but............

I was at the kittery trading post here in Maine yesterday and while I was there they had a Taurus raging bull in blue with a 6" barrel. Missing the one that I hated...er...had... I asked to look at it. I thought, "well, maybe...", and then I grabbed the cylinder and pulled it to the rear towards the blast plate and the cylinder moved nearly .030 and exposed a cylinder gap or well over .040. I think I could read through it. It had end shake worse than the new one I had.Plus, the cylinder was out of time as well. It was saddening as I was thinking that I would buy it if it were good to go. I handed it back to the gentleman and politely said, "thanks".
I bought a rather rare Kimber target match, SSN#281 of 1000 ever made instead. Not a Kimber fan but this one is "series 70" (I know that only Colt can have a series 70 but might be easier for those uninitiated to look up) and its mint. It shoots smoother than any gun other than my Baer.
I really wish that Taurus could get it right at least 95% of the time. It seems that any that I see or touch are less than quality. Relex, it sounds like you have a good one there! It would seem that they do exist indeed. Someday I might get my hands on one since I liked how the one that I had actually shot. It was very comfy for such a snappy round.