New (old) Taurus 689. Whaddya think?

[mikem]

Hey,

I saw this Taurus 689 online, negotiated the price down to $325, including shipping, and bought it.

It looks like a first cousin to the S&W 586s and 686s.

I picked it up today and did all the "Buying a used revolver" tests on it and it passed them all with not even a hint of a problem.

This revolver is clean as a whistle. The bluing is perfect, no scratches, blemishes or holster wear.

Bore, muzzle, rifling are all great. There is a very, very slight cylinder ring, but it's dark and barely visible.

I think someone bought it, put a box or two through it and just put it away.

I wish I could have taken better photos, but the blue doesn't photograph well. I had to adjust the brightness WAY up to make the revolver more visible and it's still very dark in the photos

I compared the blue to a couple of S&Ws I have. I think it's at least as good, maybe better than the S&Ws I own, though some of you may not believe it.

The revolver was made in '92. Taurus made this revolver the right way.

I can't wait to get it to the range and put some rounds through it. That'll be the real test.

 

[shouldazagged]

I don't subscribe to the S&W purist "all Taurus guns are junk that no right-thinking person would ever buy" school of thought. There are too many people here, me included, who have had perfectly satisfactory experiences with Tauri. Same for Rossi--the only one I owned was 100% reliable, had a nice trigger, and showed fit and finish very close to S&W standards.

I'm pretty sure you will be pleased with that one. Their customer service is spotty, from what I hear; but if the gun is as well built as it seems to you, I doubt you'll need to test that.

 

[RobertJ.]

I like them. I had one just like that about 20 years ago that was one of the most accurate revolvers I've owned. I only sold it to help fund my purchase of a Fender amp.

I know there are guys with bad experiences with Taurus (and Rossi), but I'm not one of them.

 

[CajunBass]

I've had the same experience with Taurus revolvers from that and earlier time periods. I've no experience with their newer stuff so I can't comment on them.

Congratulations. Looks good. Enjoy.

 

[stansdds]

These are roughly analogous to the S&W K-frame revolvers, at least in terms of size. The Taurus lockwork bears little resemblance to the internals of the S&W K-frame. Taurus revolvers started out really rough looking, but by the 1980's they were pretty well finished pieces. Maybe not quite as nice as S&W, but close and a whole lot cheaper to buy.


When S&W introduced their L-frame with the full length underlug, Taurus upgraded their 357 adjustable sight revolvers with a barrel that also had a full length underlug plus a ventilated sight rib. I think the majority of these revolvers are good firearms, but, like any manufacturer, there are some real lemons out there. If yours is in good condition, no excess play in the cylinder lock up and the cylinder indexes properly, it's probably just fine. Only one way to be sure and that's a trip to the range with several different loads to see what it likes.

 

[gwpercle]

Very nice .
I own two Taurus revolvers and one semi-auto , perfectly happy with them all . Nothing has broken , accurate and the semi-auto feeds everything 100%.
You made a good deal . Time for a range trip !
Gary