THE TAURUS TITANIUM 445ti .44 SPECIAL SNUBNOSE REVOLVER

I have an intriguing opportunity with a friend who has a revolver he wants to trade me. The above titled Taurus titanium 445ti, circa about 2003-4, a short run of an almost all titanium series of guns in .41 magnum, .44 special, .44 long colt and possibly .45 acp.

They sport 2" barrels, ported three times on either side of the front sight. Just a hair over 19 ounces empty, and holds five rounds. Finished in some kind of funky titanium blue finish, called Spectrum Blue, not funky because it's bad, just different. Won't matter in a holster concealed, and although the gun has some holster wear on it, it has little wear on the moving parts or the bore and I surmise it was not shot much.

Here's a link to the discontinued product page at Taurus for it, with the specs copied below on the page. http://www.taurususa.com/product-details.cfm?id=220&category=Revolver

Model: 445TB2C

Finish: Blue

Status: Discontinued

Caliber: .44 SPL

Grips: Ribber

UPC: 7-25327-34011-9

Capacity: 5

Weight: 19.8 oz

Rate of Twist: 1:18.75"

Barrel Length: 2"

Construction: Titanium

Height: 5.10"

Porting: YES

Frame: Compact

Width: 1.531"

Action: DA/SA

Front Sight: Fixed

Grooves: 5

Safety: Transfer Bar

Trigger Type: Smooth

Order #: 2-445021TBC

It has my three favorite features on a snubnose combat revolver: A wide and vertically serrated trigger; a wide and checkered hammer and a shrouded ejector rod. Make that four favorite features, when you include the stock rubber recoil reducing grips.

It's fit with the excellent "ribber" grips Taurus has become famous for. However they work, they lesson "felt recoil" considerably on big bore and magnum guns. They are a bit different than the traditional rubber grip but they are extremely comfortable and just a great grip. This particular pistol comes with the longer ribber grip, which I prefer to the shorter one.

Far more important than any of the above is the action of the gun, and both SA and DA in the gun are very well done, almost to the point of thinking there might have been a trigger smoothing job on the DA pull, because it's firm and smooth and predictable. The SA breaks smooth, glass smooth is not an exaggeration and again, it's predicatable.

Of course, my friend Max, who likes his carry wheelguns (generally) all metal laughed and asked when I was going to get some metal in a gun. True to a point, I do have a lot of metal guns, plenty heavy, and prefer to carry something lighter as long as I can shoot it well.

Hence I look forward to shooting the Model 445ti. I'll shoot some Silvertips since that seems to be the concensus ammo of friends of mine and the well known gun writers and defensive shooters of the past 60 years who carried or carry the .44 Special daily recommend similar ballistic ammo. And I've never had a problem with Silvertip Ammo performing perfectly.

I've owned several mag-na-ported guns before, and although this one is not done by Mag-na-port, it's the same deal. Recoil reduction via faster gas release means better accuracy (theoretically) and easier shooting. I can attest that a .44 mag that has been ported is much easier on the wrist shooting magnum loads than one that is unported.

I've shot big bore snubbies at night before, and I'm not sure the blinding light effect is much worst on a ported gun of this size and nature than an unported one. I mean, it's a 2" barrel. You are going to have a flamethrowing light saber coming out of the end of that gun when fired in the dark, ported or not.

This five shot .44 supposedly fits K frame holsters well. We'll see when I get it. I already have several k frame holsters that I suspect will fit it well, and I've got in mind a fellow to make me a custom off-cylinder belt clip IWB holster for this beast. I've held this gun and dry fired it but never shot it.

I have always thought that the Charter Arms Bulldog was an excellent concept in big bore snubbie, and over the last 30 years tried on many occasions to buy one, but never found one with a DA trigger I thought was worth a flip. I actually bought a .38 Stainless Undercover back in 1981 and it rusted. Within a week of purchase. I exchanged it and the second one rusted. I returned it and got a Colt. I never seriously considered buying a Charter Arms firearm again, new or used, despite the fact that many I know have had good luck with them.

So to me, this 445ti would be a big Taurus Revolver upgrade (since I'm a 2nd generation Taurus revolver owner going back nearly 40 years to my childhood when my dad began buying, among other guns, Taurus revolvers) from most of the nice but generally basic Taurus revolvers we've owned. I know they make some fancy ones now and have shot some of them, and Taurus makes a great gun.

So any of these calibers are great, don't get me wrong. It'll be interesting to shoot this gun and see how it does on paper and in the hand. I've shot the .41 Magnum version, with magnum ammo, so it can't be worse than that. It will no doubt be stout recoil, but I'm pretty sure I've shot worse.