I picked up one of these yesterday after a long search for a lightweight trail gun. The price is impossible to beat. My main choices were the S&W 329PD, the Ruger Redhawk 4" and this was a fall back if the other two really didn't pan out. Both the Taurus 44TI and Smith 329PD are very bulky guns, despite being very light. The Ruger is large, but its ridiculously strong by comparison, truly a gun that would have no problem digesting every .44 Mag out there, unlike the TI guns.

I picked between three guns at the shop, this one had the best trigger, and it was very gritty in DA, but tolerable in SA. I paid $419 for mine, about $100 less than the TI Taurus, and about half of what the Smith 329PD runs. I cleaned the gun thoroughly, including all the metal grit from inside the action. I believe all Taurus guns need a serious internal cleaning before carrying. I was pretty skeptical of the gun to begin with, and a few hours after getting home, I was having a little regret. The gritty trigger did not improve even after cleaning, I am not a gunsmith, so filing and grinding is not an option for me. I don't mind following instructions and putting in replacement parts though. I dry fired the gun several times, and then read in the manual that it wasn't good for that gun. I didn't know any other way to smooth things up, and it functioned okay today after approximately 200 dry firings.

On to the range. We got a lot of snow last week and today it got up to 50 degrees, so I went out. I took my .357 GP100 and new Ruger Charger to get warmed up, I wanted to be able to gauge the recoil accurately.

I started with some handload 240 grain Speer JHPs over 21 grains of 2400, max load that I use in my Ruger Deerfield carbine. These printed 1.5" at 10 yards offhand. I then went to some Nosler 300 Grain JHPs over a max load of H110. These functioned flawlessly with easy extraction and printed about 2.5", but that may have been me. I fired about 50 rounds total. The recoil is fine for about 20 rounds, thats my current threshold. I picked up some Hogue Monogrips today, along with a Bianchi Accumold for an L frame Smith. I may get out to the range tomorrow, but I don't know yet.

I did load some 200 grain Speer Gold Dots at 1100 FPS and some 210 grain gold dots at 1400 FPS and will test those in the future.

Don't kid yourself, this gun is compensated, it is very loud, it has a lot of recoil, and is not for the novice shooter. It is an excellent trail gun that offers acceptable accuracy and is pretty light weight. I will have to order some speed loaders from HKS, none of the local stores carry them, but Midway does. This gun will be a lot more tolerable with the 200 grain Gold Dots, these are intended for .44 Special, but are about 300-400 FPS faster than .44 Special factory loads.


http://www.taurususa.com/products/product-details.cfm?id=226&category=Revolver

I will have to order some speed loaders from HKS, none of the local stores carry them, but Midway does.

I have one of these pistols, but in SS, and have looked for speed loaders in the past. You wouldn't happen to know the part number for midway for the loaders would you? I want to get a couple myself. Thanks.

The Tracker uses the same five shot speed loader as the charter arms 44 bulldog. If you see a speadloader that states 5 shoot 44 it will probably fit the Tracker. There isn't a lot of 5 shot 44s on the market. I use the HKS CA44 model. Brownells has the Hogue grips on sale now for about 8 bucks if I remember right.

The speedloader is the same for the S&W 696 .44 special.

Thats a good deal on the Hogues, I just spent $22 for them at a local store.

I use the HKS CA44 speed loaders for my Charter Arms Bulldog and Taurus 441 .44 Specials. These also work in a friends Taurus Tracker .44 Mag.

My friend who has the Tarcker uses mag cases but down loads them so they are between the Specials and low end Mags using Unique powder and 240gr jacketed or hard cast bullets. His Tracker is very accurate at 25 and 50 yards using open sights shooting off bags at the bench. I am not a fan of ported pistols but it does help a good bit with muzzle climb during recoil. I may end up with a Tracker later on because the S&W's and Ruger Redhawks are priced out of my reach at this time.

Thanks for the info!

Thanks for the report. I was thinking of getting a 44 Tracker and using it as a heavy duty 44 Special. The Keith load should do about 1000 fps.

I have a tracker ss in 44 and love it. I typically shoot 210 gold dots at 1300 ft/sec for a rather stout but comfortable load. I am surprised you took a new untried light frame revolver for caliber and started out with what is max in the speer 14 manual. I know the older manuals listed much higher loads but in my opinion it is foolish to start out at max with a new gun regardless of how it shot in the carbine. Ps I have the old carbine also.

I actually read other reviews of the firearm being tested new out of the box with 300 gr jacketed bullets at top velocity, but I agree, not what I would normally do. On the other hand, these are at the same velocity as factory loads, so pressure should be very close.

Midway has the HKS CA44 5 shot 44 speedloaders on sale for $6.99.