Taurus® Defender 856 38 SPECIAL +P

[Chuck Whitlock]

This gently used 856 was found on consignment at the local pusher for 2.5 Benjamins.....box, papers, everything. It somehow found its way under the tree.

Attachment 113027

I'm planning to get the orange front sight from Taurus.

My small hands don't usually play well with covered backstraps, and I was planning on picking up the Hogue rubber grip. That said, the factory one feels pretty good whilst coon-fingering the thing today. Time will tell.

It fits well in a DeSantis Superfly and some Mika's holsters that I had gotten for my LCR. It also works well in my Null SMK for my SP-101. Don't have pics of that handy just yet.

Got the front sight and Hogue grip in from Taurus. The Hogue feels great, but wound up making the muzzle point higher for me. So the factory rubber went back on.

[lee n. field]

Got the front sight and Hogue grip in from Taurus. The Hogue feels great, but wound up making the muzzle point higher for me. So the factory rubber went back on.

Hands differ. That Hogue never felt right for me. It's the finger grooves. I took sandpaper to them, and it's usable. (But, I have grips I like better.)

[SCCY Marshal]

My 856 finally had a stoppage, today. While a snub-curious GLOCK fanboy of a friend was shooting it to compare to a S&W model 36, some schmutz bound the firing pin in the forward position; binding up the cylinder. I grabbed it and palmed the cylinder open hard enough to make him cringe. Noting the firing pin gouge in a case rim, I looked at the pin, thumbed the cylinder latch to the closed position, and watched the pin through a couple dryfires. Whatever speck had jammed it forward was jarred free and the gun went through the rest of the day without issue.

Digressing to snubs being "hard to shoot", my buddy out-shot his G19 with both snubs in a series of 7 yard B-8 bullseye competitions and some 4 yard dot transition runs.

He also ran through Claude Werner's 20-shot Snub Nose Revolver Sustainment Exercise with the model 36 and did quite well. During the exercise, he made repeated comment on liking the exposed back of a bobbed hammer to pin with his thumb and later applied the same sentiment to the 856.

Native temperature in the teens with sustained wind chill single digits below zero and periodic gusts strong enough to throw notebooks and knock over a well-weighted target stand. Ammunition a mix of service power Unique handloads and some factory reload 148 grain wadcutters. Stock grip on the 856 and a wooden Sile on the Chief's Special.

[lee n. field]

My 856 finally had a stoppage, today. While a snub-curious GLOCK fanboy of a friend was shooting it to compare to a S&W model 36, some schmutz bound the firing pin in the forward position; binding up the cylinder. I grabbed it and palmed the cylinder open hard enough to make him cringe. Noting the firing pin gouge in a case rim, I looked at the pin, thumbed the cylinder latch to the closed position, and watched the pin through a couple dryfires. Whatever speck had jammed it forward was jarred free and the gun went through the rest of the day without issue.

I had something like that happen with one of mine. Something, prob what I was using to chean the gun, got in through the hole and gunked up the channel. I ended up pulling the sideplate, removing the firing pin, and q-tip-ing out the firing pin channel. Been fine since.