Opuscula Taurus 692 RevisitedAfter some use

 

I HAVE A TAURUS MODEL 692 revolver.

The gun is made in Brasil^cq for the Miami-based company.

The Model 692 replaced a Taurus 605 .38 Special/.357 Magnum revolver.

What’s good

The 692 is an interesting multiple-ammunition seven-shooter.

There is a caveat here. Taurus properly recommends loading only six cartridges and leaving the hammer/firing pin on an empty chamber. If the gun falls and the internal safety fails — as has been known to happen — the firing pin will fall on the empty chamber. This explains why in “real” horse operas, the shooter has to reload after only five shots.

The 692 fires .38 Special (including “+P”) and .357 Magnum in its standard mode.

Swapping out the cylinder — a very easy and relatively quick procedure — turns it into a 9mm (including “+P”) revolver.

The only problem with using the less expensive but equally potent 9mm ammunition is that the 9mm cartridges must be fitted into what Taurus calls “stellar” clips, a/k/a “moon” or “star” clips (right). This can be done manually, with a little patience, or with a special tool, some of which will damage the budget.

Likewise, removing spent casings from clips can be done manually — a pair of needle nose piles to grab and turn the casing works fine — or with a special tool. A top of the line loader/unloader can cost about US$100.

My 692 came with five “stellar” clips; I added another five.

Two benefits of the clips are (1) they can be pre-loaded and emptied away from the range, saving costly range time, and (2) loading/unloading using the clips is much faster than loading individual cartridges. When I head to the $15-an-hour range, I have 49 rounds (7*7) in clips ready to load and fire.

The extra clips allow me to load another 21 (7*3) rounds of a different 9mm load.

Recoil and accuracy

Although the 692 has a 3-inch ported barrel, 9mm FMJ ammunition still gave a noticeable recoil.

The 692’s soft grip made the recoil tolerable. Firing .357 Magnums, which hurt when fired from the 2-inch barrel 605, also were tolerable.

This was my introduction to 9mm. I have fired .38s from the 605 and from an over-and-under Derringer with no noticeable recoil.

My target acquisition WAS better; I attribute that partially to the longer barrel.

The 692 has an adjustable (up/down, left/right) rear sight that, now adjusted, should improve my accuracy.

My son the LEO has Springfield Armory .40 and .45 semi-autos with less recoil than the 692 firing 9mm or .357 Magnum. Gun design might have something to do with felt recoil.

What’s not so good

Nearly 100% of my range shooting is single action (SA); I manually pull back the hammer then squeeze the trigger.

A good thing since the trigger pull on double action (DA) is so hard that the barrel moves off target. (Double action means the gun — not the shooter — performs the double action of cocking and dropping the hammer when the trigger is pulled.)

How many pounds pull? To be determined. Can a lighter spring be installed? Certainly, by a trained gunsmith.

The old 605’s trigger pull was fine for both single and double action.

The bluing — actually black matte — is only “pretty good."

After about 100 rounds, the finish has come off part of the trigger and beneath the cylinder. (Image below)

The 605 also had finish problems, but I bought it used. The 692 was new, fresh out of the box.

 

 

Is it Liberty or is it Taurus

I don’t know about other revolvers or semi-automatics, but with Taurus wheel guns, Liberty .357 Magnums get stuck in the chambers.

I fired five rounds of Liberty .357s from the 605 and had to wait at least 10 minutes before I was able to eject the cases.

I fired seven rounds of Liberty .357s from a cold 692. The shells ejected properly.

Then I changed cylinders and fired 49 rounds of 9mm.

The .38/.357 cylinder was installed and I fired perhaps 14 rounds of FMJ .357s.

With three rounds left, I filled out the cylinder with four Liberty .357s.

The fired FMJ rounds ejected cleanly. The Liberty casings were tightly stuck in their chambers.

After more than a half-hour I was able, with the aid of a Phillips head screwdriver and a make-shift hammer, to drive the Liberty cases from the cylinder.

I don’t know if the material Taurus uses to make its wheel guns or the material Liberty uses for its cartridges is at fault, but for at least two different Taurus revolvers, Liberty is not suitable.

I have complained to both Liberty, another Florida firm, and Taurus. No response from either company.

Pity; the Liberty 50 grain .357s have almost zero recoil and the bullets have excellent expansion.

Clean-up

One major advantage of a wheel gun is ease and speed of clean-up.

Unlike a semi-automatic that has to be field stripped, the revolver remains fully assembled. A rod, brush, some swabs, and a liberal application of Ballistol Cleaner/Lubricant/Protection oil is all that’s needed.

While semi-autos normally have the advantage of more cartridges in the weapon — 10 or more rounds in the gun’s magazine — magazines are known to fail.

The wheel gun, on the other hand, holds less ammunition, but with speed loaders or clips, the disadvantage is reduced.

The final advantage I appreciate is the fact that the revolver doesn’t eject hot cases into the air where who knows where, or who, they will strike. I can, and do, easily collect my brass for reloaders.

There IS much to be said for semi-autos, but for this scrivener, revolvers are better.

---

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Taurus 692 revisited

Opuscula Test in controlled Environment is not The same as ‘real world’

Taurus revolvers and Liberty CD ammo: Incompatible?

I OWN A TAURUS Model 605 wheel gun. It’s made to fire .38 Special and .357 ammunition.

Firing 20 rounds of “range” ammunition is OK; but when that amount is exceeded, as it often is at a firing range, “bad things” happen.

Likewise, trying to fire more than five rounds of Liberty Civil Defense .357 ammunition requires an exercise in patience.

A FEW WORDS about the Liberty Civil Defense ammunition.

Get the lead out

From an “environmental” point of view, the ammunition is “friendly” in that is lead free. From a self-defense point of view, the ammunition is pretty good; it’s “a deep cavity projectile” (a/k/a “hollow point”) and fragments inside the target. From a shooter’s point of view, the .357 claims “reduced recoil.” Compared to American Eagle’s .357 that’s 100% accurate; shooters' hands quickly feel the difference.

According to Liberty’s web site¹, all Civil Defense ammunition is “copper, monolithic, hollow point, fragmenting, (for) personal defense.”

My experience with the Liberty .357 product in the Taurus 605 has been “fire five rounds and wait.”

While I never intend to get into a gun fight, having to wait approximately 5 minutes between reloads even at a firing range — most of which charge by the hour — can be, at best, frustrating. It seems that the Liberty copper, monolithic etc. cases swell and cannot be removed (ejected/extracted) from the Taurus until the cases cool and return to their original diameter.

This did NOT happen with the Federal “range” ammunition; fire five rounds, tip up the revolver, the cases fall out. No need for the extractor rod.

A Taurus problem or a Liberty problem?

My experience with Liberty the company has been even worse than with Taurus..

I complained both to Liberty and Taurus. Taurus eventually responded — more on that soon — but even after web mail AND snail mail, Liberty still ignores the customer.

I posted the issue to a gun owners’ web site; the response from fellow shooter — NOT Liberty — was that perhaps Liberty was packing a bit more powder than the Taurus’ tolerances can handle. Another shooter on the Smith and Wesson user web site reported no complaints using the Liberty .357s, but that shooter was firing a Smith & Wesson revolver.

What I told Taurus

When I FINALLY got Taurus’ attention, I explained that I had two (2) problems with the 605.

Problem 1: The Liberty issue; cartridges go in but won’t come out.

Problem 2: The cylinder gets out of alignment when more than (about) 50 rounds of ammunition are fired. The barrel of the weapon also gets more than “warm” to the touch. (The temperature is not a concern by itself.)

Mind, with the 605, the shooter loads five rounds, fires five rounds, dumps the spent cartridges, and loads another five rounds. I don’t use a speed loader² and I save my brass, so it’s not a quick process and there is some “cool down” time between “salvos.”

I explained to Taurus that I fired about 30 rounds of Federal .38 Special 158 grain LRN (target) ammunition and then fired American Eagle .357 158 grain jacked soft point ammunition. I managed to fire perhaps 20 rounds before the cylinder misalignment occurred. (I’d rather fire 100 rounds of Liberty’s .357 than 10 rounds of the American Eagle — the recoil is painful.)

What Taurus did

To its credit, Taurus paid shipping both ways. Then it kept the gun somewhat longer than the estimated six weeks — I didn’t complain; we had an unwanted guest named Irma that disrupted everything.

In the end, I got a call from Taurus telling me the gun was fine. When the gun was returned, I read that Taurus had fired 20 (only 20) rounds of .357 range ammunition and that nothing was amiss.

Of course nothing was amiss. Taurus could not or would not replicate the conditions under which I reported the failures.

I offered to hand carry five rounds of Liberty Civil Defense .357 to their gate. “We can’t accept that.” Well, how about calling Liberty — the company is less than 200 miles north of the Taurus facility — and asking Liberty to send a box (of 20) cartridges … Liberty probably would have sent the goods gratis. Nope; not an approved vendor.

Basically, Taurus “tested” the 605 in ITS environment, not the shooter’s. If I know in advance that a product will fail if it is pushed past a certain point or will fail if an unusual product is used — yet not a prohibited product, and the Liberty is NOT “prohibited” on any Taurus literature I have seen — I will make certain to stop testing before reaching the failure point or will refuse to test in the customer’s environment.

Taurus is satisfied it met its “lifetime” warranty agreement, albeit it did nothing to resolve either problem.

Liberty remains silent.

And the customer fumes.

Since I cannot get a response from Liberty, I am forced to buy a competition’s product. How not to increase market share.
I would LIKE to fire a box of Liberty CD .38 Special ammunition, but I am loath to spend the money and wait a week, or three, for the ammunition to arrive and then face the very good chance that the .38 Special cases will stick in the 605’s chambers as did the .357s.

Cartridges vs. bullets vs. shells vs. cases ³

---

 1.  Liberty information: http://tinyurl.com/y93hb5oa

 2.  Speed loaders: http://tinyurl.com/ybqkxcvb

 3.  Ammunition definitions: http://tinyurl.com/y95xpdo3

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Comments on Taurus test