Forgotten gem - Taurus 96 (photos)

scriptguru

scriptguru

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
93   0   0
Location
Central Okanagan (BC)
Taurus 96 is a copy of Smity & Wesson 17 made in Brazil. As far as I know, by that time S&W and Taurus had been owned by the same organiztion, that's why Taurus could make copies of S&W. Some sources say that Taurus used the same equipment as S&W.

DSC02282.JPG


It's a 6 shot .22LR DA/SA revolver. This particular revolver was manufactured in the end of 70s or the begining of 80s - it was purchased by the first owner in 1981. Shot just 103 times (100 by the first owner and 3 by the second owner). There are very minor signs of rust on the surface, but you can find them only if you really search for them and look at different angles. Overall condition is excellent.

DSC02286.JPG

DSC02287.JPG


It is a big gun. It weights more than 1200 grams and the barrel is 6 inch long. But it is balanced so well that it feels surprisingly great and not heavy at all
DSC02290.JPG


Crown looks great, trigger feels great. The trigger and the trigger stop can be customized (but I am not going to change anything - it's great as it is).
DSC02291.JPG

DSC02293.JPG

DSC02294.JPG


It is a very, very beautiful firearm. I've never really wanted a revolver, but this one looks like a keeper. I love it!
DSC02292.JPG


It was quite dirty initially (old cosmoline or something like that), but I managed to clean it's outside. There is a problem that is funny and stupid at the same time - I cannot clean it inside because I cannot remove a grip. I just cannot - it's kind of glued to the frame with old cosmoline. I'll try to heat the gun and grip with a hair drier, it should soften the cosmoline, at least I hope so.

Couple more views:
DSC02288.JPG

DSC02285.JPG


It can be not quite clear from photos, but trigger and hammer are gold colored - it looks like titanium nitride. Concave areas on the cylinder have fancy grooves - this is the first time I see anything like that in a revolver.

By the way, does anybody know how much is it worth?

Here are some photos of the revolver of the same model, just if you want to see more details: http://www.collectorssource.com/handguns/taurus-model-96-revolver-22-rf.html

Now the biggest question I have - is there any semi-auto with the same perfect balance? This gun feels so great in hand!
 
Last edited:
Nice revolver, i had one and wish i kept it. For what it's worth, the Taurus is NOT a copy of a smith other then externally. The internal lock work is different. The gold color on the hammer and trigger is left from the heat treating process. It's not a coating, just what you get when you temper in the part to remove excess hardness and prevent chipping. The grooves in the flutes where rolled on, and where much cheaper to do then trying to polish them...it was essentially a cost cutting short cut. Still looked ok though. There are some that where polished later on in the production history.

Pricing would be 375-475, maybe a bit more if you find someone who really wants one, and it's a great deal. Taurus revolvers don't get any respect, most dismiss them as poor S&W clones, but they're not clones, and better then poor. In general, i prefer them to Ruger revolvers by a large margin. The finish is just nicer and they balance better. Nice piece !
 
Thanks for the info! I am complete noob in revolvers, but I appreciate nicely done things and this is definitely a one. Grooves in the flutes look really good, they kind of make the whole look more consistent with grooves on the top of the frame and the barrel.

I am really impressed with overall quality.
 
Last edited:
The rear sight of your Taurus and similar S&Ws sits on the end of a long curved spring, anchored into a groove in the top strap by a small screw. This small screw tends to get loose. Usually you notice the wobbly sight before it all falls off.

Yours looks loose. It is sticking up high than it should. On all my revolvers I backed the screw off and then tightened it with a dab of blue LokTite.

I have several Taurus revolvers. In function, they are similar to S&W, but not as reliable. One of them (a clone of a M66) is the most accurate 357 I own.
 
geologist said:
Does it have a flat main spring like a K frame or is it a coil main spring like a J frame?
Click to expand...
I can't remove the grip, so can't check the spring. Manual shows it as a coil spring, and images in Google show the same.

Ganderite said:
The rear sight of your Taurus and similar S&Ws sits on the end of a long curved spring, anchored into a groove in the top strap by a small screw. This small screw tends to get loose. Usually you notice the wobbly sight before it all falls off.

Yours looks loose. It is sticking up high than it should. On all my revolvers I backed the screw off and then tightened it with a dab of blue LokTite.

I have several Taurus revolvers. In function, they are similar to S&W, but not as reliable. One of them (a clone of a M66) is the most accurate 357 I own.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, I've read about that problem on other forums too. I just checked the sight and it is very firm, as well as all the screws in the gun. This is an old gun, initially covered with a cosmoline that dried up and now it holds everything together like glue :)

As for reliability issues - we'll see, but I am not really concerned about that because it is a range gun for punching paper, not a self-defence gun.
 
Well, DA trigger is pretty heavy and very long, but I believe it is the same in any rimfire DA revolver (or worse). It is adjustable, but it's always a compromise between reliability and comfort. SA trigger is excellent in this gun. Can't wait to shoot it! I bet it is a great shooter.

Finally managed to remove grips and clean them and frame under them. It was not easy. They were literally glued to the frame, and I wanted to make sure I don't damage them, so it was kind of a challenge. Finally, I've pried grips witch toothpicks from the frame, so I managed to remove them withoout damaging.

Then it took time to remove "packaging grease" that actually turned to something more like a glue from frame and grips (both inner and outer surfaces). I've used some very agressive liquid for stickers removal, and it took about an hour to remove all the "glue" from the grpis. Anyways, I am happy because now they look great and I can disassemble the revolver if I want (it's impossible without removing the grips).
 
Last edited:
So here is the ending of this story.

I brought the gun to the range, shot it and did not really like it - after good semi-auto it felt a bit awkward and was not accurate enough for me, and it was shooting a bit low.

Tried to sell it (silly me), but nobody wanted to buy it for high price (perhaps, people are cautious about buying Taurus), and it was too nice piece of hardware to sell it for cheap, so I decided to keep it.

Cleaned it even better - everything I could, including inside. Improved sights using white enamel (original sights are all black) by drawing thin lines in proper places. Now it looks just great, and it turned out that it is a great shooter. I figured out how to adjust sights so it would shoot exactly point of aim, and white enamel made aiming much easier, so it became a real tackdriver. At 5 yards it produces dime sized group (standing, off hands), and at 15 yards groups are about couple inches (I believe it can do much better, but iron sights are not easy to use at this distance when shooting at small targets).

Currently it is the nicest piece in my collection and I don't want to sell it anymore :)
 
No magic, just improved sights.

Black iron sights, very thick front sight - hard to aim, hard to shoot accurately. Very similar story happened to me with Marlin 60 - I filed rear sight a bit, put a white dot (white enamel again) on a front sight - and now it's pleasure to shoot it. Accuracy improvement wasn't so significant with Marlin because it's a rifle, sighting line is long, but still I've seen some improvement.

The other reason why it was a bit hard to shoot it is weight - it's around 1200 grams, so after shooting for a while it's getting hard to keep it steady. During my last shooting I found better way to hold it when I am loading it, so I was less tired and it contributed to accuracy as well.

As I said, I am not going to sell it, and writing it mostly to share my impression how slight improvement that you can do yourself can make your gun much more fun to shoot.
 
Brutus said:
I guess someone has to take care of Taurus products.
Not my cup-o-tea but at least it's a revolver.

Cheers........
Click to expand...

Haha, my opinion is opposite here - I'd like to buy other Taurus (PT99 maybe?) because I am satisfied with quality, but I don't want any revolvers anymore from any company - one is enough. Love my semis.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom