(Photo courtesy of J. Scott Rupp)
January 28, 2025
By J. Scott Rupp
I don’t think I have to tell anyone reading this magazine how much fun it is to shoot a single-action revolver patterned on the famous Colt Single Action Army. The list of companies producing these guns just grew by one with the introduction of Taurus’s new Deputy .
It’s available in .357 Magnum and .45 Colt and in 4.75- and 5.5-inch barrel lengths. My sample was the 5.5-inch .357.
The Deputies are six-shot revolvers that incorporate a transfer-bar safety so they can be carried with all chambers loaded. Currently they’re offered with a black satin finish and black plastic grips, which are set off by brass escutcheons. Sights are your standard blade front and gutter rear milled into the topstrap.
The guns have that wonderful four-click sound when cocking, like on the original Colt. The timing on this sample was a little off, as evidenced by drag marks on the fluted cylinder.
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Beta Testing (Accuracy results provided by the author) When I first received this gun, an early production sample, it was binding on an unloaded cylinder. I sent it back to Taurus, which turned around the repair quickly.
It still wasn’t quite perfect when I got it back. When empty it cycled just fine, but with a few ammo brands it would still bind a little on certain chambers—indicating the cylinder machining was still off by a tiny bit. But it was dependent on cartridge-rim thickness tolerances because some ammo—like Remington Performance Wheelgun—functioned flawlessly.
The trigger is great, breaking at two pounds, 13 ounces on average with zero creep. For some reason I found the sights on this one easier to shoot than similar setups, and I thought the accuracy at 25 yards was solid. Both loads printed three to four inches right and a touch low at that distance, but at a more practical distance—10 yards—the point-of-impact difference wasn’t enough to matter.
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As expected, the Deputy is nicely balanced, and the checkered black plastic grips, while plain, felt good in my hands. It was a joy to shoot with .38 Specials and quite controllable with .357 Magnums.
Despite the Hiccup The binding issue with this particular sample aside, I think Taurus has done a solid job with the Deputy. It’s priced on the lower end of single-action revolvers, and I look forward to seeing what the company does next with this line.
Taurus Deputy Specs Type: single-action centerfire revolverCaliber: 357 Magnum (tested), .45 ColtCapacity: 6Barrel: 4.75, 5.5 in. (tested)OAL: 11.5 in.Weight: 41.6 oz.Construction: satin black steelGrips: checkered black plasticTrigger: 2 lb., 13 oz. pull (measured)Sights: fixed gutter rear, blade frontSafety: transfer barMSRP: $607Manufacturer: Taurus, TaurusUSA.com