Taurus Revolver-- Fail?

The Taurus View, a .38 revolver with a Lexan sideplate.

The odds of me ever shooting one are very long, indeed. So you can take my reaction to this gun with the appropriate amount of NaCl.

First off, Taurus shortened the barrel to 1", which is cutting it in half over normal snubbies. .38 Special rounds aren't speed demons to start with, especially from short barrels. From a 1" barrel, you'd be lucky to break 600fps and 100ft-lbs of muzzle energy. This is pure speculation, but I'd be somewhat astonished if most hollowpoints would open up at that low velocity/energy. For the amount of "oomph" you'll get out of this thing, you might as well get a little .32 ACP.

Second, by shortening the barrel to 1", Taurus had to shorten the extractor rod. A 2" snubbie won't pop the cases out all the way, a 1" snubbie might barely move the cases. Remember, the barrel length on a revolver is measured from the face of the cylinder. The cylinder rotates around a hollow axle on the crane that swings the cylinder out. The extractor rod moves through the hollow center of the crane and pushes on a star that lifts the cases from the chambers of the cylinder.

(Photo credit)

In a revolver with a 3" barrel or longer, the extractor rod has enough travel to do its job properly- You hold the revolver barrel-up, bang the extractor rod and the cases come out. If you smack the rod on a 2" snubbie, you usually can get the cases out if your chambers aren't too dirty.

As you can see here, barely a nub of the extractor rod pokes through the crane on the View.

For reloading, the extractor will move the cases about far enough for the shooter to pry them the rest of the way out with their fingernails.

Second, the grip of the revolver is canted in such a way that the gun is only fully usable by right-handed shooters.

Third, a 9oz .38 is not going to be any joy to shoot. And with a 10lb trigger pull, hitting anything at other than stabbing range is going to be an interesting trial of marksmanship.

Fourth, guns are durable objects. I have a few weapons that date back to the Great War, or earlier, and two rifles from WW2. A plastic sideplate doesn't seem durable.

And fifth, $600 MSRP? You can get a Ruger LCR or a J-frame Smith for less than that.

The Taurus View will probably prove that P.T. Barnum was right.