I picked up the Taurus and have been tinkering with it in preparation of a range day once warmer weather returns.
Here are my observations so far.
Gun is a nice matte black oxide finish. There is just something about a black revolver in a sea of SS that calls to me.
The grip is different than the PSA website pic, but feels good. Solid, like a Pachmayr, but not squishy.
The front sight is a ramp with a fluorescent red insert in the top half. The bottom half is serrated.
The rear sight is a nice target type adjustable. It has a little wiggle to it, but I think the spring loading is intended to make it return to the same place. We'll see.
Since @Racer88 mentioned the S&W 617, I looked it up.
Both the Smith and the Taurus weigh the same, 40 oz. Kinda beefy for a 22, but like I mentioned before, this would have been an ideal candidate for a Ti frame and barrel shroud. But, since Taurus quit making Ti guns 20 years ago, that's moot.
The Smith is 10 shot and the Taurus is 9 shot.
The Taurus is about $200 less than the Smith and you get the extra 22 Mag cylinder.
Now the fly in the ointment #1.
The trigger pull in both single and double action was much too heavy and not exactly gritty, but not smooth either. Manufacturers don't put nice triggers on the ordinary guns anymore, so I was not expecting smooth as glass, but it was far from what I consider acceptable. So, off with the side plate to see what is going on inside.
The first thing I noticed was that there was not even a hint of lubrication on the lock work. Bone dry. This combined with the bead blasting the metal received for the matte finish explained the roughness. Break out the stones and remove the finish from the contact surfaces and a light polish. Then lube it with some moly grease. Reassemble and see what we've got.
The trigger pull was much better, still a little creep in the SA, and noticeable stacking in DA. I commenced to dry firing it and let break in do its thing before any further surgery. After several days of dry firing while sitting here reading the daily propaganda and forums, things improved quite a bit. The SA creep finally disappeared, and the DA stacking was much less. The actual pull weight was still more than I like, so a search for a spring kit commenced. It seems Wolff does not list a spring kit for the 992.
Web forum consensus was that a RF needs a harder hit than CF and rather than endure the complaints, Wolff just chose not to list a kit for it. I took a chance and ordered a "Shooter's Pack" for a Model 66 seeing that Taurus uses the same springs in all the large frame revolvers. The kit arrived and had two different weight trigger return springs and three different weight hammer springs. I installed the lightest of these. Have not fired it yet so not sure if I'll get light strikes or not, that will have to wait until range day.
But the trigger pull in both DA and SA is very nice now. I'm keeping my fingers crossed these springs will light the ammo.
Fly in the ointment #2.
During the dry firing, I noticed that the firing pin failed to retract. This manifested itself by not allowing the cylinder to swing out if the pin was still in the fired position. It's spring loaded, so it's supposed to, but it wasn't. Back apart to investigate.
The firing pin spring is very small and has very little tension. Doesn't take much to keep it from doing its job.
Long story shorter, I cleaned it, I lubed it, I would've shaken the bag of monkey bones over it and uttered incantations if I knew any. After many times apart and back together, (It would work fine using finger pressure. Dry firing would make it hang up.) I deduced the hole had just enough roughness in the sides, or there was a tiny burr to cause the spring to jam up in the compressed position and this took an actual hit from the hammer to happen.
Fortunately, I had a very small Dremel bit that would fit in the hole. I chucked it up in my battery drill and using very slow speed, I lightly went around the ID of the hole. That did the trick. No more issues.
Oh, and for @Racer88, the serial numbers on the black version are very subdued compared to the SS version. You have to turn the gun a bit to reflect the light to make them easy to see. But yeah, I do wish they would have done it old school and put the last 3 digits on the inside surface of the crane so as not to be visible when assembled.
Here are my observations so far.
Gun is a nice matte black oxide finish. There is just something about a black revolver in a sea of SS that calls to me.
The grip is different than the PSA website pic, but feels good. Solid, like a Pachmayr, but not squishy.
The front sight is a ramp with a fluorescent red insert in the top half. The bottom half is serrated.
The rear sight is a nice target type adjustable. It has a little wiggle to it, but I think the spring loading is intended to make it return to the same place. We'll see.
Since @Racer88 mentioned the S&W 617, I looked it up.
Both the Smith and the Taurus weigh the same, 40 oz. Kinda beefy for a 22, but like I mentioned before, this would have been an ideal candidate for a Ti frame and barrel shroud. But, since Taurus quit making Ti guns 20 years ago, that's moot.
The Smith is 10 shot and the Taurus is 9 shot.
The Taurus is about $200 less than the Smith and you get the extra 22 Mag cylinder.
Now the fly in the ointment #1.
The trigger pull in both single and double action was much too heavy and not exactly gritty, but not smooth either. Manufacturers don't put nice triggers on the ordinary guns anymore, so I was not expecting smooth as glass, but it was far from what I consider acceptable. So, off with the side plate to see what is going on inside.
The first thing I noticed was that there was not even a hint of lubrication on the lock work. Bone dry. This combined with the bead blasting the metal received for the matte finish explained the roughness. Break out the stones and remove the finish from the contact surfaces and a light polish. Then lube it with some moly grease. Reassemble and see what we've got.
The trigger pull was much better, still a little creep in the SA, and noticeable stacking in DA. I commenced to dry firing it and let break in do its thing before any further surgery. After several days of dry firing while sitting here reading the daily propaganda and forums, things improved quite a bit. The SA creep finally disappeared, and the DA stacking was much less. The actual pull weight was still more than I like, so a search for a spring kit commenced. It seems Wolff does not list a spring kit for the 992.
Web forum consensus was that a RF needs a harder hit than CF and rather than endure the complaints, Wolff just chose not to list a kit for it. I took a chance and ordered a "Shooter's Pack" for a Model 66 seeing that Taurus uses the same springs in all the large frame revolvers. The kit arrived and had two different weight trigger return springs and three different weight hammer springs. I installed the lightest of these. Have not fired it yet so not sure if I'll get light strikes or not, that will have to wait until range day.
But the trigger pull in both DA and SA is very nice now. I'm keeping my fingers crossed these springs will light the ammo.
Fly in the ointment #2.
During the dry firing, I noticed that the firing pin failed to retract. This manifested itself by not allowing the cylinder to swing out if the pin was still in the fired position. It's spring loaded, so it's supposed to, but it wasn't. Back apart to investigate.
The firing pin spring is very small and has very little tension. Doesn't take much to keep it from doing its job.
Long story shorter, I cleaned it, I lubed it, I would've shaken the bag of monkey bones over it and uttered incantations if I knew any. After many times apart and back together, (It would work fine using finger pressure. Dry firing would make it hang up.) I deduced the hole had just enough roughness in the sides, or there was a tiny burr to cause the spring to jam up in the compressed position and this took an actual hit from the hammer to happen.
Fortunately, I had a very small Dremel bit that would fit in the hole. I chucked it up in my battery drill and using very slow speed, I lightly went around the ID of the hole. That did the trick. No more issues.
Oh, and for @Racer88, the serial numbers on the black version are very subdued compared to the SS version. You have to turn the gun a bit to reflect the light to make them easy to see. But yeah, I do wish they would have done it old school and put the last 3 digits on the inside surface of the crane so as not to be visible when assembled.
