Hi Robert,
I haven’t forgotten about writing something for TTAG. I planned (I did mean past tense here…) on a review of the Taurus 651 stainless 5-shot .357. I started to outline what I wanted to do; it was going to be a review on a cheap and cheerful revolver. Something along those lines, with a smattering of snark for all the Taurus haters out there. It would be a positive review and an honest read. I think I’ve said before: I owned one of these little revolvers several years ago. It was one of the first guns I ever bought and it served me well. They aren’t bad little guns—especially for the price (MSRP $480). And then I went and actually bought the damn thing . . .
That’s when the problems began. I just printed off the shipping label to prepare my 651 for its THIRD trip back to Taurus in as many weeks. The gun has an issue where there is an excessively long trigger pull between the time the cylinder stops rotating/locks and the hammer releases/falls to strike the firing pin. It’s like two distinct trigger pulls. Two loud clicks. It sucks.
I have never had a revolver do this. I’ve been on the phone with Taurus multiple times trying to explain what’s going on. They get the gun back, do whatever it is they do and send the damn thing back in the same exact condition it left in. Which is broken.
I can not in good faith write a review on this gun at this point. I would not recommend purchasing this gun to anyone. And the world doesn’t need another Taurus-bashing screed. If I write the review and include the three (at this point) trips back to the factory for repair then what will that accomplish?
Any suggestions on this?
J