Apple a Day
New member
I bought a blued Taurus Model 94 .22 LR/L/Short 4" barrel last week at the Richmond Va. gun show for $229. I had been looking for a .22 revolver with adjustable sights as a range gun/plinker. Pickings were scarce for that category and the price was good so I decided to get one. There were two on the table and I checked both of them. The one I chose had a tighter lockup and seemed smoother.
Finish: nothing to write home about. Not fugly but not exactly pretty. It's a plinker not a barbeque gun so I really don't care. I own a model 66 and a model 85 from Taurus, both of which look nicer.
Ergonomics:It's a slim gun, which was unusual to my big paws but not unpleasant. Recoil is negligible. The trigger in single action is pretty good. In double action it's like trying to pick up a gorilla by his nostril... heavy. I am going to email Taurus and ask if there's a way to rig up an adjustable mainspring for it. If anyone has tried to clip a little off the mainspring and had success with it then, please, post directions. If not then I'll just continue using it in SA. The rubber grips were fair. I may look for some chunkier ones made of wood. The ejector was stiff and it took a little bit of force to eject the empties.
Accuracy: All shots were offhand and unsupported (no bench or sandbags so keep in mind that as a marksman I suck) I started out by taking a pen and making several baseball-sized circles on a bullseye target to have plenty of chances to sight the thing in. I popped through a couple of cylinders just to warm it up and check for reliability... more on that in a minute. Then I ran the target out to 21 feet and started firing 3,4, or 5 round groups and adjusting the sights. Holding a single point of aim the rounds clustered within an inch or so. After a few adjustments I could put them all in the circle with no problem. I think it will take some more adjusting to the sights to wring out the best accuracy and there were ammo issues... See below. I will also paint the front and rear sights different, bright colors to make them more visible.
Reliability: There were no mechanical issues but ammo made a difference. I started off shooting 50 rounds of the cheap Remington copper washed hypervelocity HP and it ran nicely. Then I broke out 100 rounds of the cheap uncoated lead Winchester X-somethingorother and by the time I got through about 75 strange things started to happen. the groups opened up appreciably and rounds started keyholing on the target. With the accuracy I figured I was getting fatigued (I'd fired some Makarov ammo before I started with the Taurus ) but the keyholing set of warning lights.
So, I broke out a pack of Remington and immediately the groups tightened and the keyholing stopped.
I figure the uncoated lead rounds smeared the barrel badly enough that subsequent rounds didn't engage the rifling and I was firing a .22 musket for a few minutes. The goopy lead rounds were swerving downrange like a Kennedy after a party weekend. Shooting the Remington cleared it back out. Not the brightest thing I've ever done, I admit. I've heard that you shouldn't mix jacketed and non-jacketed rounds without cleaning in between but with the "copper washed" roudns I didn't think there's be that much of a difference. You learn something every day. The Winchester rounds were soft enough that I'd also stopped shooting them in my Ruger MkII because they kept getting mangled as they fed from the magazine into the chamber, jamming halfway or not seating completely. You could see the crease on the lead nose where they'd hit the top of the chamber and deformed.
Comments: No more cheap Winchester lead .22 rounds for me. So, about 175 rounds and the only problem I had was ammo related. I got so involved with the ammo I don't feel I really got the sights down pat so I look forward to shooting it some more. Take my report for what it's worth.
Finish: nothing to write home about. Not fugly but not exactly pretty. It's a plinker not a barbeque gun so I really don't care. I own a model 66 and a model 85 from Taurus, both of which look nicer.
Ergonomics:It's a slim gun, which was unusual to my big paws but not unpleasant. Recoil is negligible. The trigger in single action is pretty good. In double action it's like trying to pick up a gorilla by his nostril... heavy. I am going to email Taurus and ask if there's a way to rig up an adjustable mainspring for it. If anyone has tried to clip a little off the mainspring and had success with it then, please, post directions. If not then I'll just continue using it in SA. The rubber grips were fair. I may look for some chunkier ones made of wood. The ejector was stiff and it took a little bit of force to eject the empties.
Accuracy: All shots were offhand and unsupported (no bench or sandbags so keep in mind that as a marksman I suck) I started out by taking a pen and making several baseball-sized circles on a bullseye target to have plenty of chances to sight the thing in. I popped through a couple of cylinders just to warm it up and check for reliability... more on that in a minute. Then I ran the target out to 21 feet and started firing 3,4, or 5 round groups and adjusting the sights. Holding a single point of aim the rounds clustered within an inch or so. After a few adjustments I could put them all in the circle with no problem. I think it will take some more adjusting to the sights to wring out the best accuracy and there were ammo issues... See below. I will also paint the front and rear sights different, bright colors to make them more visible.
Reliability: There were no mechanical issues but ammo made a difference. I started off shooting 50 rounds of the cheap Remington copper washed hypervelocity HP and it ran nicely. Then I broke out 100 rounds of the cheap uncoated lead Winchester X-somethingorother and by the time I got through about 75 strange things started to happen. the groups opened up appreciably and rounds started keyholing on the target. With the accuracy I figured I was getting fatigued (I'd fired some Makarov ammo before I started with the Taurus ) but the keyholing set of warning lights.
So, I broke out a pack of Remington and immediately the groups tightened and the keyholing stopped.
I figure the uncoated lead rounds smeared the barrel badly enough that subsequent rounds didn't engage the rifling and I was firing a .22 musket for a few minutes. The goopy lead rounds were swerving downrange like a Kennedy after a party weekend. Shooting the Remington cleared it back out. Not the brightest thing I've ever done, I admit. I've heard that you shouldn't mix jacketed and non-jacketed rounds without cleaning in between but with the "copper washed" roudns I didn't think there's be that much of a difference. You learn something every day. The Winchester rounds were soft enough that I'd also stopped shooting them in my Ruger MkII because they kept getting mangled as they fed from the magazine into the chamber, jamming halfway or not seating completely. You could see the crease on the lead nose where they'd hit the top of the chamber and deformed.
Comments: No more cheap Winchester lead .22 rounds for me. So, about 175 rounds and the only problem I had was ammo related. I got so involved with the ammo I don't feel I really got the sights down pat so I look forward to shooting it some more. Take my report for what it's worth.