The Taurus Judge is an unusual handgun. It’s a five-shot revolver designed to shoot the venerable .45 Colt — or .410 shotgun shells.
Wait, doesn’t that make it an illegal, short-barreled shotgun?
The Judge does not qualify as a “short-barreled shotgun” under the National Firearms Act of 1934 as its rifled barrel makes it a regular handgun.
Interesting loop-hole, but is there any point to shooting a tiny, tiny shotgun shell from a pistol? The .410 throws too little lead to be considered a “real” shell for bird hunting or clay shooting — unless you’re a true expert looking for a challenge — and buck shot, if you can find it, means just three pellets in the whole 000 (“triple ought”) shell.
Well, some helpful gun nuts shot the Judge at the old Box O’ Truth, and they found out what it could do — first, with bird shot, at a plastic bottle, not the box:
It busted the bottle just fine. But the pellets only penetrated one side of the bottle. They did not exit. That means less than 2 inches of penetration into flesh. Not nearly enough for a defensive round.
Then with buck shot — three .34-inch pellets, about 62 grains each — against some water jugs:
The buckshot only penetrated one jug and went into the second one. That is equal to about 4.5 inches of penetration into ballistic gelatin or bad guy. Not nearly enough.
The slug, when cut open, was .40 inches in diameter and weighed 96 grains — much lighter than a .41 Magnum bullet, which weighs 210 grains:
It penetrated 2 1/2 jugs or equal to 7.5 inches of BG. Again, well short of the 12 inches minimum required for a defense load.
Well, how about a .45 Long Colt cartridge?
I tried an old Winchester Silver Tip that I had. The recoil was “brisk” compared to the .410 ammo. It penetrated 5 jugs, or equal to 15 inches of BG. Plenty of penetration, but the expansion was not very good, a problem with this particular bullet.
So the Judge is a fine tool for shooting snakes, but .410 buck shot is not a reliable personal defense load.