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The Taurus Judge got a lot of attention from the firearms community when it was first released several years ago. It was a handgun that could shoot either the 45-long colt or 410 shotgun shells.

Dec 13, 2009 It should be marked either 3' or 2.5' on the barrel, all of them I've seen are 3' chambers. The choke stays in for the.410 and comes out for the.45 Long Colt. You can't shoot a 45, 44-40, 44 magnum or 41 magnum out of a 410. Don't do it unless you are wanting to chance losing something. There are 45's that will shoot 410's that is an animal of a different color. If you want to shoot a slug out of a 410, buy a 410 shell with a slug. The 32ACP, 38 Special, 45 ACP and 45 Long Colt are surprisingly quiet in the longer barrels. The extra length is particularly useful in calibers such as the 45-70. The use of the 45-70 inserts makes an effective double rifle or combination gun at a very reasonable price. All of our inserts can be removed in seconds to reconvert to a double shotgun. The.410 gauge shotgun (same caliber as the.45 Long Colt) was the alternate round (.22 &.410) in the US Air Force's survival rifle for downed pilots. As a matter of fact, Taurus manufacturing's newest revolver (the 'Judge') is stoked with.45 Long Colt &.410 gauge. Choose your ammunition wisely.

Its ability to use different types of ammunition is one reason it is popular as a backpacking gun. The 4/10 is a good choice for snakes and other varmints.

Taurus released the magnum

Shortly after the release of the original Judge, Taurus released the Judge Magnum. The Judge Magnum will shoot the 2 1/2 as well as 3-inch shells.

I bought my Judge Magnum as soon as they came on the market. It is a lot of fun to shoot. The only issues that I’ve had with it is the fire control mechanism locking up. I sent it to Taurus for repair and after a few weeks they returned my gun in perfect working condition.

The recoil of the Judge Magnum is very controllable for the experienced shooter. However, some of the magnum loads have more recoil than others.

Since the introduction of the Judge, several ammo manufacturers have made specialty shells specifically for the Judge. If you keep a Judge for self defense you will want to spend some time studying these different types of ammunition to see which one works best.

Taurus Judge ammo to avoid

Can You Shoot 410 Out Of 45 Long Colt Barrel Liner

The pattern of bird shot spreads so wide it becomes ineffective. The Taurus Judge performs much differently than regular 410 shotguns. The barrel is rifled which causes the pattern spread to be much wider than the smooth bore barrel in most shotguns.

To overcome this problem, you will want to choose either the 45-long colt or 410 shells specifically made for the Taurus Judge.

Taurus .410 3-inch/.45 LC Caliber Revolver: Judge or Joke?

By Randy Wakeman

Perhaps you have seen the ads touting the Taurus Judge asthe “ultimate” automobile gun and self-defense weapon? Well, there have beenmore requests for a candid Judge review lately than for most revolvers, so here we go.

The tested article is the three inch stainless steel“magnum” version of the Taurus 5 shot .45 Colt revolver which offers thenovelty of being able to chamber and shoot three inch unfolded length .410 boreshotshells as well. The revolver itself is far from a flyweight: it weighs inat approximately 2.7 pounds. The cylinder, as you might imagine, is garishlylong. In this case, the cylinder of this wheelgun is actually a bit longer thanits three inch barrel.

The inherent problem with this approach is two-fold. We havea horribly heavy cylinder to begin with, with grossly excessive freebore. We initiallytested some Winchester 255 grain .45 Colt ammo (X45CP2) that is rated at 860fps out of the muzzle by Olin with a 5.5 inch barrel. The combination of thelong cylinder and the short barrel made for some drastic velocity lossexceeding 30% from the Winchester specification. Our Judge shot this ammo atbelow 600 fps, making an already low-powered handgun round even more so.

Can You Shoot 410 Out Of 45 Long Colt Barrel 357

There are acceptable 45 Colt self-defense roundsavailable, to be sure. For example, the 225 grain Corbon DPX ammo produced1100 fps and penetrated 15 inches into 10% ballistic gelatin after going through four layers of denim when fired froma conventional .45 Colt revolvers with a standard length cylinder and a 4 inch barrel. When you have a revolver as long, bulky, and heavy as the Judge it doesn’t make much sense to settle for underpowered, gimpy ballistics. It isa compromise no one needs if the issue is serious self-defense. As you mightimagine, though, with such very anemic velocities the heavy Judge is a verysoft shooter with the tested 255 Winchester loads.

Can You Shoot 410 Out Of 45 Long Colt Barrel Ammo

There have been other .410 shotshell revolvers in timespast, such as the “Thunder Five.” What allows the use of shotshells in arevolver today is typically the presence of a rifled barrel. Twist rifling in abarrel destroys shotshell patterns. I had no idea how badly untilshooting the Judge at a patterning board at just 10 feet with 3 inch WinchesterAA #7-1/2 shotshells, a 15/16 oz. payload. At this range, just over threeyards, despite the comparatively tiny birdshot, the pattern was alreadyunacceptably large and chaotic.

Can You Shoot 410 Out Of 45 Long Colt Barrel Shotgun

You might think that #7-1/2 shot would be good forsomething. After all, 15/16 oz. of #7-1/2 shot equates to roughly 325 pellets.I pasted an 8 inch circular Shoot N*C target to a piece of 22 in. x 28in. posterboard and fired at a laser verified 25 yards. Only 8 out of those 325pellets managed to make it to the paper. Only three pellets touched the eightinch Shoot N*C disc. Worse yet, the three pellets that actually hit the ShootN*C target didn’t even penetrate through it. Two bounced off of it leaving justscuff marks and one was left sticking to it. To phrase this a bit moredifferently, you could empty your Judge with 3 inch magnum .410 shotshells at apatient dove sitting in a tree at 25 yards, if you were able to find a dove ofthat radically diminished capacity. Your chances of hitting that dove would beremote, and even if you did the likelihood of dropping it would be slim. Itdoesn’t take much to kill a dove, but the Judge produces far less than what isneeded. Any number of air rifles would be far more effective than the Judge for dropping groundsquirrels, rabbits, or small pests at 25 yards. Inthe future, I will chronograph shotshells and add the results to the end ofthis review. I was hesitant to do so with my best gear, as the pattern opens sofast and erratically I didn’t want to destroy my skyscreens by shooting though them with this little gem. Suffice to saythat the Judge proved to be ineffectual against the “imminent threat” of paper.

Leave it to Chuck Hawks to give me the “opportunity” to review a product such as this. I don’t really know howto thank him. The Judge is a sad commentary on a triumph of marketing over common sense.

What the Judge really is more gimmick and conversation piecethan a reasonable self-defense revolver. It is both nose-heavy, heavy ingeneral, bulky, poor-handling and generally unsightly. The “feature” of beingable to fire .410 shotshells with poor patterning and ridiculously low velocityis no feature worth having that I can see. Though some of the ads for the Judgeportray its use as shooting out of the passenger side of a car window withshotshells, some might be more concerned about peppering themselves with theshot that didn’t make it through the car’s window.

Can You Shoot 410 Out Of 45 Long Colt Barrel Pistol

The Taurus promo video shows that the Judge is an effectiveweapon against close-range fruit. If you are one of the rare individualscontinually harassed by inanimate, close-range melons, perhaps the Judge mightbe of interest to you. For all other applications, you could do a lot better.As for the story that judges in courtrooms choose to arm themselves with .410revolvers, that seems more than a bit fruity.

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