S&W Clone

22lrfan · #1 01-12-2019, 07:14 PM

I picked this one up at one of my local hangouts a couple of weeks ago. When I saw it in the back of the cabinet I would have sworn it was a S&W. It had the five screws and the rear sight looked like a Smith. I had to Google it to find out exactly what it was...a Taurus Model 86 Target Master in .38 Spec. This one is from the mid-70's when S&W and Taurus were owned by the same company. He made me a deal that made it impossible to to leave it there.

22lrfan · #2 01-12-2019, 07:19 PM

Couldn't post but 5 pictures in the first thread so this is a continuation of it.

I got it home and tore it apart to give it a good cleaning. Some of the internals looked like a Smith but there were some big differences. It has a coil mainspring and the hammer block operates differently.

One interesting thing is the piece of metal behind the trigger. This is to adjust the overtravel. A screw behind the trigger locks it in place.

Roller Delayed · #3 01-12-2019, 07:46 PM

The same thing happened later when S&W and Rossi were co-owned. It seems like it was really good for the quality of Rossi and Taurus when it was going on. Neat gun.

TomkinsSP · #4 01-12-2019, 07:53 PM

IIRC when S&W retooled, the old machinery went to Brazil. I own two .38spl "Chiefs" (A 3" and a 4") devoid of any markings except serial numbers supposedly made by Rossi on the old S&W equipment.

TomkinsSP · #5 01-12-2019, 07:59 PM

For future reference you can just make 2d, 3d, 43d posts (to circumvent the 5 pic limit) on the original thread (also on my equipment making the literary post first and adding pictures as an edit is faster than doing it all at once). Ask me how I know ;-)

stansdds · #6 01-13-2019, 10:07 AM

I have a Taurus 96, which is the 22LR version. Mine has been good, reliable, not as nice of a trigger as a S&W K22, but it cost a whole lot less.

Thin Man · #7 01-13-2019, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stansdds

I have a Taurus 96, which is the 22LR version. Mine has been good, reliable, not as nice of a trigger as a S&W K22, but it cost a whole lot less.

I have that same gun!
It's been a great little .22, and is nearly a dead ringer for the Model 17.
And yes, mine cost a lot less than my Model 18 did, and they're both keepers!

Tom K · #8 01-13-2019, 10:54 PM

That's a heck of a price on that Model 86. For what it's worth, in addition to the Model 96 in .22LR they also made the Model 76 in .32 S&W Long (later in .32 H&R Magnum). The later vintages of all three looked more like their S&W counterparts - the older style Taurus had a flatter hammer, and a lot of them had ugly grooves in the cylinder flutes. However the rear sight on the later guns did look less like S&W's style.

Triplets in .22, .32 and .38

Dvus · #9 01-14-2019, 01:22 AM

Wonderful guns. If only Taurus' quality was still that good. I just picked up a 3" model 10 clone made just before they went to the new internals with the lock. Has a trigger that would make most of my Smiths blush shamefully.