Taurus 85 Ultralite 38 Special (with special problems)

[Bluedot 40]

Hi Guys,
I bought the wife a Tarurus 85 Ultralite 38 Special at the Bigtown Gun Show a couple of weeks ago. She carries an M&P 40 sub-compact. She was wanting something a little lighterweight to carry in her purse when out shopping for long periods of time. The 40 gets a little heavy.
She was excited to go shoot it. We went the next day to the range.

Within the first cylinder load, it was locking up. I could move the cylinder forward with it in the closed position.
Once when it locked up, I could spin the cylinder by hand, with it in the closed position!!
Another time, I opened to eject the brass after shooting all 5 shots and a shard of copper from the copper jacket of the bullet fell out!!!
I suspect it has a timing problem?? I have never had any problem with any revolver before.

Needless to say, we did not fire anymore.
I called S.A.W. from whom we purchased the pistol. They told me to bring it to their shop and they would send it back to Taurus for repairs.

We are just wondering if anyone has experienced this sort of thing before, and if anyone knows about how long this might take?
The counterman at S.A.W. was not very friendly and would not give us any advise on this or how long to expect for return.

Thanks for any advise or insight!!

[JLaw]

Mornin' BlueDot 40,

Sorry to hear of the trouble with the Taurus. I'm no gunsmith so I'll not guess as to what's wrong, but what happened to your wife's 85 isn't right and doesn't sound safe. Good move by sending it back.

I've never had to use Taurus' warranty service before, the model 65 and 85 revolver I have of there's have been 100%, along with every other Taurus that my friends have. Make sure you take this with a grain of salt... I've heard some people complain of Taurus' warranty repair return times taking up to 4-6 weeks. With that said, this is all coming from the internet, so you never know what to believe.

One thing I've learned though is that phone calls are your friend. Make sure to keep in contact with Taurus when you send it in, while it's being worked on, and after the revolver is returned to you. Polite, inquisitive phone calls got me a long ways with my warranty repair through S&W.

Hope all goes well, please keep us updated on how Taurus handles this repair.

JLaw

[longtooth]

I have an 85 UL. Glad JLaw has given you the same recomendation on quality of Taurus. It is my deep conceal & I do like it. This is not a typical problem. Tell your wife I think she has chosen a good light carry option.

I have never had to send anything back to Taurus either. My SonInLaw did several yrs ago.
The turn around was pretty short but I dont remember exactly how long. I hate to see a new shooter have trouble w/ their choice of gun. Keep us posted on the time frame & customer service experience. M SILs was good.

[pedalman]

Were you using factory ammo or reloads?

I have one these revolvers, too. I experienced this problem with some old handloads that I was burning up with it. But it has never given me a problem with factory ammo.

[seamusTX]

Revolvers have a part called the hand that rotates the cylinder and holds it in place while you press the trigger.

If you open the cylinder and press the trigger, you should see it stick out of some recess. There's quite a range of designs of these things.

That's probably the source of the problem.

- Jim

[Bluedot 40]

Thanks seamusTX and pedalman.....We were shooting Winchester White Box 130 Grain Full Metal Jackets in the 38 Ultralite
The copper shard that I found upon opening the cylinder had to be from the full metal jacket....it was a complete circle.
That's what scared me into not firing it again!!!
I'm sure pedalman got it right on his conclusion....something has to be wrong in that area.

[CHLSteve]

I've owned and shot a Taurus 85 in stainless for the last 8+ years. It has been 100% reliable, just to add to what others have already stated. It sounds like you may have just gotten one that made it through QC too quickly.

[fadlan12]

Mine has been flawless, I only have 200 rounds through it but no problems.

[Skeptilius]

I have a new Taurus model 605 .357 snubby. It's heavier than your ultralite 38, but basically the same design. I had cylinder lock up a few times during the first 200 rds while breaking it in. After about 250rds that problem went away. Not sure if my problem was exactly the same as yours, but it did smooth out after the break-in period. I made sure the trigger mechanism was well lubricated and I noticed that the trigger pull got smoother also. My advice, keep shooting the gun and see if things don't get better. If the problem persist, well then, you definitely should send it back to Taurus.

BTW, I sent another gun back to Taurus recently with a magazine release problem. I talked to someone in customer service at Taurus and they said the turn around time was running about 5 or 6 weeks.

[Bluedot 40]

Hi guys,
I thought I better give an up-date on the Taurus 38 UL. We did send it back to the factory through S.A.W. It took exactly 9 weeks from the day we dropped it off, until the day we got it back from S.A.W.
The good thing is that we took it to the range the next day and my wife shot about a 100 rounds through it. It performed flawlessly!! She is very happy with it and confidence in it has been restored.

[JLaw]

That's good to hear the problem is resolved, too bad it took so long though.

But it's fixed!

JLaw

[KD5NRH]

I thought I better give an up-date on the Taurus 38 UL. We did send it back to the factory through S.A.W. It took exactly 9 weeks from the day we dropped it off, until the day we got it back from S.A.W.

Did they say what the problem was? My 605 has acted like that a couple of times when the cylinder catch screw was almost completely backed out, (it lets the internals shift a bit and play heck with all sorts of tolerances) so maybe yours was a bit short or crossthreaded from the factory.

A bit of Loctite has mine performing fine through hundreds of hot loads.