The Taurus Judge is a revolver that can fire both .45 Long Colt cartridges and .410 gauge shotshells. This fine trick makes it a wonderfully versatile gun, perfect for certain jobs, but not for self-defense.
In one ad, Taurus shows two silhouette targets side-by-side. One has been punctured with six neat .45 holes. The other has a great gaping hole blasted into it by six .410 birdshot shells. “You Choose,” the ad suggests. And every time, I would grit my teeth and roll my eyes, until finally I couldn’t stand it anymore.
Birdshot is for birds. And maybe snakes. But not for larger predators like people. Oh, it’ll blow the hell out of a paper target, but birdshot has never penetrated particularly well on people, even when fired from a shotgun’s full-length barrel. Coming out of a tiny revolver barrel, the velocity, and therefore penetration, is dramatically reduced. The Box O’ Truth estimated that .410 birdshot penetration in flesh would be less than 2″. When fired into a plastic 2-liter cola bottle full of water, most of the shot didn’t even penetrate the back-side of the bottle. And when it comes to stopping an attack, penetration of the projectile to damage vital organs is key. Not that I’m volunteering to get shot by a Judge, but if someone was trying to kill me, I’d like a little more certainty. You shoot someone with 2″ of penetration, and maybe they will decide to stop attacking you. You get enough penetration to damage a major blood vessel or organ, and they will eventually stop whether they want to or not.
What about buckshot? You can get .410 shells loaded with 3 #00 balls. The Box O’ Truth found that these rounds would penetrate about 4.5″ in flesh, well short of the FBI’s desired 12″. Additionally, the rounds were squashed flat from pressing against each other in the barrel, which is not conducive to accuracy.
In fact, the only round that penetrated sufficiently from the Judge to be useful for defense was the .45 Long Colt. No surprise. There’s a reason that birdshot is shot (at birds) out of shotguns, buckshot out of shotguns, and bullets out of revolvers and pistols.
Buy a Judge if you want to, but don’t be fooled by Taurus’s marketing. .410 birdshot may blow the hell out of a piece of paper, but it’s not appropriate for self-defense.
#1 by Thomas at August 17th, 2011
Yes the Taurus Judge can be a fun gun to shoot and is a great trail gun, if used with correct ammo ! #6 and smaller shot is good only for snakes, #4 for larger animals, say stopping an attack by a pack of dogs, buckshot and .45Colt against human or dangerous animals ! I found a little trick to improve penetration, if all one has are .410 ammo in #6 or smaller shot, cut off the top of the shell and pour out the shot and replace it with it with .177 air-gun pellets or the shot bullets from .22′s ! Penetration is the same as buckshot, accuracy is not that great but great for close range self-defence ! Also why didn’t Taurus do the same as Smith and Wesson fix the cylinders on the Judge so that .45ACP could also be shot rather than just .410 and the costly and hard to find .45 Colt ?
#2 by Joshua Bardwell at August 17th, 2011
I agree. The Judge is a fine gun for shooting snakes, rabbits, squirrels, and even fowl. My only problem with it is that it’s so heavily marketed towards self-defense, and specifically with shot loads. Shot loads from this little revolver make big holes in paper targets, and that’s about it.
#3 by Thomas at August 18th, 2011
The Judge is a short range defence weapon, used primarily for very short range defence inside one’s home (against home invaders) , while driving against carjacking or as a trail gun ! As I said #6 and smaller .410 shot is nearly worthless against anything except snakes or killing rats, small mice ! If you own the Judge buy a box of Winchester PDX1 Defender .410 ammo, the best self-defence load to buy for your Judge ! The Judge shoots the .45 Colt an excellent self-defence cartridge, but unfortunately hard to find and when it is located the ammo is rather expensive, it ‘s a shame Taurus did not alter the Judge cylinder to accept the .45ACP, as .45ACP ammo can be purchased even at Walmart , and at half the cost of .45 Colt ammo !
#4 by Thomas at August 23rd, 2011
As I stated the Taurus Judge is a great trail gun to carry while hiking, but one of the best pocket weapons to carry on the street is the Taurus model 85, a small and very reliable .38 special revolver ! I had the good forune to be able to pick one up this past weekend and got to try it out today, very smooth trigger pull and I was amazed at how accurate it is, no buttons or levers to fool with like most automatics, and I feel the best dollar value in a small self-defence revolver a person can buy today ! Put it behind your wallel and a person has reliable protection while walking, driving or in their homes !