A comparison of two turds
Not a secret I’m no fan of the Taurus Judge and I don’t get its appeal. But apparently they’re selling like mad, so I could be wrong. Friend of mine bought one and I had to shake my head. Apparently, Magnum Research got into the game with the BFR. It’s a bigger, more expensive Judge. American Rifleman compares the two. You know what numbers always missing when gun writers talk about The Judge? Anything mentioning penetration of .410 shells out of little, bitty barrels. You can, however, use some of the specialty ammo and, from what I hear, it’s decently effective.
December 8th, 2010 at 11:11 am
The only effective specialty ammo I’m aware of is .45 Colt. I’m not aware of any better results out of exotic or gimmicky .410 stuff.
December 8th, 2010 at 11:17 am
The BFR has been around since 1999, long before the Judge. ๐
December 8th, 2010 at 11:19 am
I did not know that. Their marketing department must suck.
December 8th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
If I had need of a snake gun I might pick up a Judge for use with birdshot. Other than that I don’t see much use.
December 8th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
A comparison of two turds
When I first saw the title, I thought it was going to be a post about politicians…
December 8th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
The Box o’ Truth does excellant testing of the Judge shooting various rounds at the site linked below. He does look at penetration.
http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot41.htm
December 8th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
No, it just spends all its time selling Deagles to propmasters… ๐
December 8th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
The Judge isn’t meant as a manstopper, though; it’s suppressing fire. Look at the two main popular ideas for its use: by judges and against carjackers. A judge is going to be surrounded by deputies most of the time while in court. A carjacker has to deal with you being able to drive off if he pauses for a moment.
December 8th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
And the 410 “multi-slug plus BBs” ammo that the Judge has spawned seems an interesting varmint load for the old single shot Rossi 410 I have never found a use for before now.
December 8th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
At the last Friends of NRA dinner I attended (in 2003) a BFR chambered in .45-70 was among the swag-stuff up for raffle. I guess that means you could share ammo with your Trapdoor Springfield when playing Buffalo Hunter.
I didn’t buy any tickets.
They say it stands for “Biggest Finest Revolver” but they say that with a smirk. If you shoot a “Judge” it needs to be with sabots/slugs I think, not buckshot.
December 8th, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Wolfwood,
Yeah, because Judge Cletus needs to lay down some suppressive fire in the courtroom…
I must have missed the judicial angle in the marketing campaign. ๐
December 8th, 2010 at 5:55 pm
“Tam Says:
The BFR has been around since 1999, long before the Judge.”
Beat me to it, but then there was also the Thunder 5 which was produced from 1992-1998.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIL_Thunder_5?wasRedirected=true
December 8th, 2010 at 6:22 pm
The Chunder Five lasted six years too long. ๐
December 8th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
I’ve never really understood the Judge. I mean for a HD weapon I can see lots better ones. For a CCW weapon I can see THOUSANDS of better ones. As a car gun I can see many others that will do the same job.
I’d rather just pack a Glock or Smith J .38 and use it as the HD gun/CCW gun/car gun/etc… and have something that does most things well.
The Judge is just to big for what power and firepower it has. Might as well get a N frame .44 or .45.
December 8th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
I must have missed the judicial angle in the marketing campaign.
You missed the judicial angle for the Judge, the Circuit Judge, and the Public Defender? I’m going to chalk that up to being overworked and your recent injury.
In addition to the name, don’t you remember Taurus bragging that they gave their gun that name because they’d received reports of actual judges carrying them for self-defense while in the courtroom?
For that matter, the judge before whom I usually practice has been going on and on lately about how he’d like to get a Judge to carry while he’s in court.