Anybody have a Taurus Circuit Judge?

   / Anybody have a Taurus Circuit Judge? #11  
With all due respect. Not picking a fight but if this is what is classified as a revolving carbine they still make-um.

Rossi USA

Seen-em also down here at WM

Boone

No fight. :)What I meant was they stopped making them 100 yrs ago. These Co ressurected the design. I would guess because of Cowboy Action Shooting. Kinda like double shotguns with external hammers, and cap and ball revolvers. They make them now but I doubt they have been in continous production. I would guess that Rossi hasen't been making revolving carbines very long. Remington produced them in the 1860s. They stopped production because they weren't popular, because of the reasons I mentioned in my other post.
I could be wrong, I am often. Ask my wife.

Bill
 
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   / Anybody have a Taurus Circuit Judge?
  • Thread Starter
#13  
I think from what I've read on other sites that there is a shield around the cylinder/barrel area that prevents the blow-by (or whatever it is properly termed) between the cylinder and the barrel from hitting the shooter's arms, so I think it is intended to fired as a normal carbine would. Again, I would appreciatte confirmation on this from anyone how has actually shot one. A lot of the online reviews mention this, so I think it's solid information.

Thanks again.
 
   / Anybody have a Taurus Circuit Judge? #14  
Yep, I don't know when they stopped making them, nor do I know when they started again. And I'll admit to not thinking about the possibility of blow by between the cylinder and barrrel. Of course that's never bothered me with my handgun revolvers, but it is interesting to see one shot during the hours of darkness. Quite a light show.

Revolving rifles were originally black powder, cap and ball, just like the revolving pistol. The blow-by had a habit of setting off the adjacent cylinders and the hapless shooter likely as not, shot off his own arm. Needless to say, they were not popular. I understand that you could cover the end of the individual champers with grease or wax or some such, but still not 100% effective and a bit time consuming. I haven't heard of a modern cartridge firing rifle having this defect, and I suspect that they are perfectly safe, but for the novelty involved, give me a lever action.
 
   / Anybody have a Taurus Circuit Judge?
  • Thread Starter
#15  
I ended up picking up one this weekend and have to say that both the boy and I are very happy with it. We didn't get a lot of time to shoot it, but we went through a couple of boxes of .410's and killed several clay pigeons. The only negative about it is that the ejector wouldn't push out the .410 hulls, but I have read that that situation is somewhat dependent on the brand of ammunition that is used. We used some cheap (relatively) Centurion loads, so I wasn't too wound up about that.

We fired off a box .45 lc as well and I was pretty pleased with the accuracy. We only got out to about 25-30 yard, but we could hit clay pigeons laying on a dirt pile with pretty good success. We didn't have any problems getting the brass out of the cylinder with them.

It did come with two different chokes - or one choke and one thread protector. The barrel is rifled, so to shoot .410 shotshells, you put in the straight-rifled choke, which I guess maybe takes the "spin" off of the shot and keeps a tighter patter. For slugs or .45 round, you put in the thread protector which I guess keeps the "spin" going. From what I understand, it doesn't hurt to shoot either round with either choke, but you accuracy or patterns may suffer.


There are blast shields on either side of the cylinder. I shoot right-handed and the boy shoots left-handed, and neither one of use felt any kind of gas/overshot/etc. from the gap between the cylinder and barrel.

Overall, I'm very pleased with it so far. If I have any issues, I'll update the thread for future use.

Good luck and take care.
 
   / Anybody have a Taurus Circuit Judge?
  • Thread Starter
#17  
We tried shooting some different .410 shells (buckshot) yesterday. They are also Centurion shells, and I had no problem ejecting the empty hulls. So I guess the ejection of shells will be dependent upon the brand and style of ammo used. I've got several different brands, so I'm just going to see which ones work best in the CJ and use the others in our pump shotgun.
 
   / Anybody have a Taurus Circuit Judge? #18  
We have fairly large poisonous snakes, bear, and other in our area. I know the Taurus will not impede a bear, but it can annoy. I had been carrying a S&W 3.57, but wanted something smaller plus which I would not have to carefully aim. If I know bear are in the area, I carry both.

I brought the Taurus Judge 410/45 and only fire Winchester rounds. The pistol is very accurate, but not past 20-25 feet. The 410 has a 4 " or so ring of fire that blasts from the barrel and is powerful for a wrist such as my niece's.

I really like it was it is easy carry and does what I want it to do. The Winchesters eject very well. The Taurus is a good buy. S&W owned them for a while, before the former Brazilian owners brought Taurus back. Jim
 
   / Anybody have a Taurus Circuit Judge? #19  
the circuit judge has a gas deflector....

There is a reason that they stopped making revolving carbines 100 yrs ago. When the bullet makes the jump from the cylinder to the forcing cone, escaping gas under high pressure comes out of that gap. I don't know if Tarus has some sort of shield or gas seal now, but if they don't I would pass.
I witnessed a pistol shooter in the creedmore position shooting a revolver. That placed the cylinder right next to his rt calf. He usually wore a heavy leather guard. That day he forgot it. When he fired, the flame cut through his jeans and left what looked like a bad scratch in his leg. The jeans looked like you cut them with a razor blade.
With a carbine your wrist and forearm are going to be right under the cylinder.
You may want to check that out.

Bill
 
   / Anybody have a Taurus Circuit Judge? #20  
From what I understand, it doesn't hurt to shoot either round with either choke, but you accuracy or patterns may suffer.

.

that's correct.. when I got mine i called them to specifically ask about that as I wanted to mix load 410 and 45lc when in the woods.. same answer.. shoots with either.. accuracy may suffer at range with the wrong one in for the wrong load..e tc. short range.. fine..e tc..
 
 
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