Taurus 850 Revolver: A Great Inside the Waistband Option

The new Taurus 850 delivers a five-shot, double-action-only snubnose .38 Special revolver.

October 28, 2025 By J. Scott Rupp

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You can’t beat the basics, and that’s exactly what the new Taurus 850 delivers: a five-shot, double-action-only snubnose .38 Special revolver. It’s available in black or stainless and with a two- or three-inch barrel. Suggested retail price is only $425, and you know you’re going to be able to score it for less, probably under $400, at your local gunshop.

This is an all-steel gun with, in the case of this sample, a corrosion-resistant matte-black finish. The test gun sported the shorter two-inch barrel, producing an overall length of about 7.7 inches and a weight of 22.75 ounces. The 850 is 1.3 inches wide at the cylinder, and height is 4.6 inches.

Sights are dead simple: a gutter milled into the topstrap paired with a serrated black blade front. The front sight is pinned, which allows you to change it if you want to. And you might, which I’ll get into later.

The ejector shroud runs the length of the barrel, which is a two-piece affair. The serial number is on the right side of the barrel and repeated on the frame under the cylinder, with “Taurus Int’l Mfg. Bainbridge, GA” behind that. The Taurus bull logo is on the right side behind the cylinder shield.

Hard Use

revolver with cylinder open — A five-shot revolver, the 850 is rated for +P ammo and proved to be capable of good accuracy—thanks in part to the good double-action-only trigger. (Photo courtesy of J. Scott Rupp)

This particular sample has been used hard between my range testing and on the set of “Handguns” TV, and the finish shows scratches fairly easily. That doesn’t bother me on an all-business gun like this. The cylinder is likewise marked from a slight mistiming, but not to an unusual level.

Since it’s a double-action-only revolver, there’s no hammer spur, removing a potential draw-snagging projection. With a gun that’s so inexpensive you might be expecting a super-heavy, big-stacking trigger pull. Nope. The 850’s pull weight was right at 10 pounds on average, with minimal stacking. The finger lever is relatively wide—not quite target width but wide enough to provide extra leverage, which makes the pull seem easier.

Taurus knows how to make a grip, and the rubber wraparound on the 850 is a good one. The composition of the rubber helps soak up the recoil, and the two different texturing patterns anchor the gun well. The sides have relatively fine checkering while the backstrap is more aggressive, with rows of small rectangles. Two finger grooves grace the frontstrap, and there’s a shelf for your thumb that’s on both sides and therefore works for righties and lefties.

The 15-yard accuracy results are shown in the accompanying table, and they’re solid for a double-action-only gun with rudimentary sights. However, remember earlier when I mentioned changing the front sight might be in the cards? That’s because, at this distance, the 850’s point of impact was low to the tune of four to five inches with the tested loads.

Index Card Drill

The gutter-style rear sight won’t snag on the draw, and the front sight is pinned. The wide trigger helps an already-decent pull. (Photo courtesy of J. Scott Rupp)

However, when working with the gun for the 3x5 index card drill I demonstrated on the TV show—which starts at three yards and works back—I experimented with various loads to find one that shot to point of aim. I found it in Hornady’s American Gunner 125-grain load, so depending on your needs and expectations in terms of ammo, you might find the right load and not have to change the front sight.

Speaking of loads, I did have three light primer strikes—two with the Black Hills HoneyBadger and one with Hornady Critical Defense. With this type of malfunction you never know if it’s the fault of the ammunition or the gun’s mechanics.

accuracy results chart — (Accuracy results provided by the author)

But that’s three light strikes out of probably 300 rounds I put through the 850, and it’s also the beauty of a double-action revolver. A round doesn’t fire for some reason? Just pull the trigger again.

The 850 is rated for +P ammo, although Taurus does caution that extensive use of it could shorten service life. However, unlike the maxim preaching “Don’t train just with .38s and then load .357s for defense” in .357 Magnum revolvers, I think practicing with .38s and carrying .38 +P is a sensible approach. Just be sure you know what, if any, point-of-aim disparity exists between the two.

Like I said, you can’t beat the basics, and the snubnose revolver never goes out of style. For a defensive gun you might find this one a bit on the heavy side for pocket carry, but as an inside-the-waistband gun the 850 would an excellent—and affordable—concealed-carry choice.