The Taurus Judge
The Taurus Judge redefined the defensive handgun, delivering the devastating payload of a .410 shotgun shell out of a hand-held platform. Now there are 3"-chambered and lightweight models in the Judge family—one that may represent the most versatile revolver design since the Civil War LeMat.
BY WILEY CLAPP, Field Editor
When we first looked at the Taurus Judge revolver (August 2007,
p. 50), it was the gun’s novelty value that drew our attention. After all, you don’t often see a revolver that fires .45 Colt and .410 shotgun shells interchangeably. That first article sparked a great deal of reader interest, as indicated by quite a lot of mail. When the story ran, there were not a lot of the guns on dealers’ shelves, and the available specimens sold briskly. In the intervening months, Taurus has worked to remedy the shortages and made its catalog’s promise of more model variations a reality. In the 2008 listing of models, there are eight different Judge revolvers. Half of them differ only by way of their blued steel construction, and I had none of those for evaluation. I was able to secure an original model, its lightweight counterpart and the newest gun in the line. I didn’t have the long-barreled (6 ½") field revolver. The newest Judge revolver is one with an extra-length cylinder that accepts the longer 3" .410-bore shotshells.
The latest development for Judge series revolvers comes in the form of Crimson Trace Corp.’s LG-375 LaserGrip, which also fits the Taurus Tracker line.
For those who aren’t aware of the Judge and the surprising interest American shooters have shown in it, let’s take a quick look at the basics. The Judge is a dimensional variation of Taurus’ compact-frame revolver, a medium-size wheelgun with a cylinder of such diameter that it accepts five rounds of .45 Colt. The difference between the Judge and other conventional revolvers is in the length of the cylinder, which is extended to an overall length of 2.69" (3.19" in the 3" variant). Naturally, the frame is also extended to provide a window long enough for either of these super cylinders. The extra length permits use of .410-bore shotgun shells in that long cylinder.