Engraved Taurus Judge: Guilty…or not? (Pictures)
The Taurus Judge can easily be described with a single word: awesome. It doesn’t matter if you’re a fan of Taurus or a lover of revolvers, because when it comes to the Judge it’s one of those guns with a serious cool factor. Even those who are not exactly fans of the Taurus Judge have to admit they’d like to sling a few rounds down-range with one, given the opportunity.
According to Taurus, the Judge is their best seller. The first model number of 4410 was changed to 4510, a designation meant to more accurately reflect its chambering. Of course, it’s the chambering that makes this such a fun gun to shoot; who doesn’t love firing .410s from a handgun (and, yes, .45 Colt)? Understandably, sometimes when the Judge comes up in conversation the debate finds its way around to the fact that this is a handgun that fires shotshells. The gun does not fit the parameters which would designate it a short-barreled shotgun under the NFA but it is illegal in California thanks to even stricter gun laws.
The Judge was originally created for self-defense but has seen a fair amount of use among some hunters as well. It’s great for taking out smaller pests such as snakes and raccoons and there are some hunters out there who have used it on squirrels and coyotes. One thing is for sure, it’s fun to shoot. If you’ve never shot one, I highly recommend it.
So, getting to the pictures: this particular Taurus Judge is owned by a friend and fellow hunter in Kentucky. It caught my eye due to its engravings and although it’s not impossible to find images of similarly engraved guns online, information is a bit limited. It’s typically described as a Taurus Judge Russian Roulette Special Edition. The cylinder is engraved with “guilty”, “not guilty”, and “spin again”. Every model I’ve found has been marked as “1 of 100” and so far each owner has acquired theirs secondhand so there’s a serious lack of information regarding the engravings themselves. Although I did shoot off a few emails looking for more in-depth details I thought I’d go ahead and share the pictures here. For one thing it’s a cool revolver and for another, you just never know when a TFB reader will have good information on a gun’s background.
Enough talking, on to the pictures!
TFB Staff, bringing you the latest gun news from around the world for a decade.
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Good Lord the opinions in here are a dime a dozen. Taurus and Hi-Points may not be the quality of MORE EXPENSIVE firearms, but Mr. Badguy won't know the difference when you shoot him with a $5000 dollar custom 1911 or a Chinese Hi-Point knockoff.
I myself, am currently trying to explain to my father that the usefulness of the Judge is limited to car and home defense as well as yard critters such as snakes and foxes. My dad is convinced, thanks to my uncle, that its like the Jesus Christ of guns.
At the end of the day, I'd rather have a Judge or even a Hi-Point in the car than a Smith & Wesson. You aren't in or around your vehicle all the time and its so easy to break in and steal. I'd rather lose a cheap gun than a more expensive gun.
Now, if we were facing a SHTF scenario, daily carry, or a shooting competition, then yes, give me the more expensive and hopefully, but not always more reliable option. Truth is, value is a factor, and if we looked at value as the only factor, many of these so called "junk" guns, smoke the competition.
Think of it this way, if you had $5000 to budget for your firearm home defense, does it make more sense to have two to four higher end weapon systems or buy everyone in the family a cheap pistol, shotgun, and semi-auto rifle and plenty of ammo. If you're arming an small army, a box of maybe 3-5 ARs or a box of like 50 Mosins. I don't know how accurate those comparisons are, but you get the point.
A Lambo is a fine, beautiful vehicle, but a Ford Mustang is a much more sensible and better value in a similar category.
A 3 inch barrel, 3 inch cylinder Judge is fun to shoot with 3 inch buckshot rounds . Each 3 inch round has 5 approximately .330 diameter balls that produce over 1200 feet per second velocity. That's like being hit with 5 - 32 caliber rounds with each trigger pull. The hole they make in 55 gallon barrels is huge and they sound like cannon fire. Fun? Definitely.