Facepalm
A piece on five great defense weapons from Town Hall lists the Taurus Judge. Please stop telling people that a .410 from a short barrel is good for defense. It won’t penetrate a two liter bottle. No, I don’t want to get shot by one. But that’s not enough penetration.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:00 am
Also suggests a J-frame for the ladies. The trigger alone turns my girl away from it, and I know she would hate the recoil if she did try it. My CZ-82 on the other hand…
November 30th, 2011 at 11:01 am
It’s worse that just listing the Judge. Their description of the Judge’s advantages: The rifling on the barrel really allows the 410 pattern to open up nicely within the span of just a few feet.
Rifling allows shot to open up?
Ok then.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:21 am
I don’t want to be hit with a rolled up newspaper, either. That doesn’t make newspaper an effective defensive weapon, though.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:25 am
@ Fred: I agree that a J frame is not for a novice shooter, especially one with weak hands, but that doesn’t mean that a lady can’t use a J frame as an effective carry gun. A friend of mine used to keep a J frame in the console of his car. One day, his wife was leaving WalMart, when a goblin broke the side window in the car, reached in, and began banging her head on the B post. He managed to reach the revolver, and emptied it into him. She got 4 torso hits out of 5 shots. He ran and was found unresponsive in some nearby bushes by the cops.
I also agree that the trigger is crap. I had the trigger reworked in mine.
November 30th, 2011 at 12:07 pm
The Judge will is a bad choice for a car gun. If you need to penetrate a car door, or vision block, or engine block for that matter, you will come up short.
You will probably be better off with a .500 S&W.
November 30th, 2011 at 3:11 pm
The judge is good for one thing and one thing only and that’s snakes if you want something with more punch than a .22…
November 30th, 2011 at 3:52 pm
I can see uses for the Judge.
Where I live I’m much more likely to be snake bit or attacked by a dog than a person. .410 out of the Judge would work wonders on both.
Also, it seems to me that .45 Colt would be an effective defense round. The Judge also shoots that, which hardly anyone mentions when talking about using it for self defense.
Yes, there are cheaper, better, more useful, more practical and more everything choices than the Judge–but it’s a TOOL. Not everything can be fixed with a hammer, sometimes you need a screwdriver.
November 30th, 2011 at 5:18 pm
I disagree on the Judge. If you use the newer ammunition designed for use in the revolvers, like the Winchester PDX1 and Federal 000 buck, it can be very effective for ranges under 20 yards.
My own tests of the 000 buck for penetration at 7 yards showed complete penetration through three- 1 gallon water filled jugs, with three of the four pellets fully penetrating four jugs. It also kept all pellets in under a six inch centered group out to about 15 yards.
My gun is the Polymer Public Defender.
November 30th, 2011 at 9:36 pm
Besides the heavy trigger, the sights on J frame style guns are very hard to see. For an inexperienced shooter at anything much past “get off me” distances, hits are problematic.