Found A Taurus M66

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Havok7416

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I was at the gunshop the other day and saw a Taurus M66 6-shot in the display case. At first I thought it was a S&W but that was cleared up fairly quickly. The counterbored chambers stood out to me immediately. It has a few nicks and dings, but it is in very good condition IMO considering it had apparently sat in its case in some kind of solvent or lube which had hardened up (this per the gunsmith). He walked me through everything he had done to restore the gun and the amount of work was fairly extensive. I decided to buy it. I haven't found very much information on the 6-shot M66 and none seem to be listed on Gunbroker after a very brief search. Is there anything I should know about these revolvers?

In any event, I have a friend who has been looking for a decent .357 revolver that won't break the bank. While I didn't buy this gun with my friend in mind, if he has the money down the road I don't think I would particularly mind passing it on to him. Of course I get to have plenty of fun with it until then (and maybe forever)!

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My first handgun was (is) a Taurus M66, blued, with a 4-inch barrel. Bought it when I turned 21, back in 1987. I even carried it for a little while on the job the following year. It's always been a solid shooter, with only one fault I have found: the sleeve on the ejector rod would sometimes unthread and come loose, locking the cylinder shut. Loc-Tite fixes that.

That stainless one you have there is handsome. You can try dating it on the Taurus web site using the "Find My Model" feature. If it's too old (like mine is), though, it won't show up there.
 
Havok7416

Not sure but I think your Taurus Model 66 is not stainless steel but actually has a matte nickel plated finish. it just appears to have that "frosted" matte nickel look to it. Other than that I think you've got a decent .357 there and hope it does well in the accuracy department for you.
 
I will see if the gun can be dated when I get home later.

It is entirely possible that the gun has a finish other than stainless. There are many spots that are shiny although they dont show up very well in the photos.
 
A 66 is one of if not the best revolver to ever come out of the Taurus factories. They had a lot of variations over the years, but the standard 66 has always been a good gun for the money. I had a 689 (vent rib barrel 66) that was an incredible gun. I shot it a lot and I shot it often, with nuclear handloads and it held up well. I basically beat it to death, and it fought a long hard fight. I will replace it. You did well by buying the 66. They swapped the 66 to a 7 shot mid 2000s I believe...but that’s going off of memory which is cloudy at best. I hope yours proves to be as nice as mine was... not to mention softball accurate at 100 yards every shot...
 
That's a nice revolver. My folks had one of those in South Africa and I fired it many times. It was a solid gun, very pleasant to shoot.
Our one had a red insert in the front sight though.
 
I also cut my centerfire revolver teeth on a 6” Taurus M-66 back in 1988, I bought it at Bucksport Sporting Goods in Eureka,Ca. the week I turned 21. It was finished like the one you have, I believe it’s matte nickel plated.

I shot that gun a lot on the farm I lived on. I liked it, recoil wasn’t bad even with 158 gr magnums and it was more accurate than I was as I learned how to shoot. I must say, sadly, it’s primary function outside of ventilating cans was to put down several dairy goats that were old, sick or arthritic. (I learned that dairy Goats that are penned can be aggressive enough to beat the crap out of weaker/ill/old goats.)

I ended up selling that gun back when I was between jobs and sent a few guns away to get rent/food money.

Nice find :thumbup:
 
I checked the Taurus website, but the serial number is too old to come up in their system. I will try to call them tomorrow to get more details. I assume this puts the manufacture date sometime in the 80s, but that will hopefully be confirmed shortly.
 
I also cut my centerfire revolver teeth on a 6” Taurus M-66 back in 1988, I bought it at Bucksport Sporting Goods in Eureka,Ca. the week I turned 21.

I did a fair amount of business at Bucksport around that time. Who knows, might have bumped elbows in passing....

Havok7416: I have a similar vintage 66, a blued 4 inch. It seems to be well made, has a nice finish and it shoots well. Your 66 looks to be in really good condition, if it shoots as good as it looks I think you have a keeper.
 
We sure may have, I was a regular there and at that smaller gun store off the main drag in Eureka (That one I forgot the store and the owners name.).,Greg and Alan at Bucksport were good guys, I really liked going in and shooting the breeze with them.

(Been almost 30 years since I was up there and I still remember their names. :). )

Stay safe!
 
Your gun appears to have a 5 digit serial number, no letters, from the photos. My blued 66 has a 7 digit, no letters, and was made in 1988. Yours is a bit older than mine. Taurus didn't make stainless guns in those days. What I'm pretty sure you have is the satin nickel finish. It appears to have held up well for over 30+ years.

FWIW I had a mid 70s vintage S&W M19 I bought new. I didn't shoot many magnums through it and after 5 or 6 years I had considerable flame cutting and timing issues. Knowing my Taurus has a lifetime warranty I've fed it many 8-10k magnums over the time I've had plus many standard and +P 38s. No flame cutting or timing issues still running strong after over 30 years. Only problem is the rear sight screw loosened resulting in me losing the sight. More my fault than the gun's. Taurus replaced it free with about a 2 week turnaround time..

One of my favorite revolvers.
 
It is indeed a 5-digit serial number. From what I was told, this gun likely spent more time in the box than being shot.
 
Good find in my humble opinion. I've owned both a seven shooter M-66 and a M-65 (fixed sight version, same gun). I didn't see a thing wrong with either of them. Well made, nicely finished. I didn't shoot either one of them a lot, but when I did they shot just fine.

I passed on a (Model 66) 4" one, about a week or so ago, at my LGS. Nice gun, but if there is anything I don't need it's another 357. :)

I do have at this time a Taurus 82 (38 Special, 3" barrel) and a 431 (44 Special, 3" barrel). Both nice guns.
 
Good news, bad news: I just got off the phone with Taurus. A very nice lady answered their phone almost immediately. I gave her the serial number, but she said it wasn't in their system. She said guns that were imported before they set up their US office were not documented by them and are also not eligible for warranty work, which I'm not really worried about. She said the US office was established in 1984(!) and that I should call the importer marked on the gun. The only problem with that is it appears to have Taurus as the importer. I'll look at the gun a bit closer when I get home.
 
Mine is a 5 digit serial as well, and it is marked "INT. DIST. INC MIAMI, FLA" on the side plate directly above the trigger. I assume this was the Taurus importer at the time.
 
Yes, International Distributors was the original importer. From what I can find, the Model 66 was introduced to the US market in 1977 or 1978 (I couldn't find a solid consensus). A guess on my part puts my 80xxx s/n around 1978-1980.
 
I have one from the early 80's or so. It has an internal hammer block of some kind, instead of a transfer bar, and the trigger is extraordinarily good. It's one of my best-shooting handguns. It even looks kind of like the OP's.
 
Our shop used to sell quite a lot of Taurus revolvers in the 80s and 90s. They were pretty nice guns for the price that only needed a little tuning to get a very nice DA pull. I have never seen a stainless Taurus with that rough of a finish on it - I do not think it is factory but with Taurus almost anything is possible. The color does not quite look like nickel to me - it looks like someone bead blasted the gun with some coarse grit (or sand). Of course I could be wrong.......
 
Drail

Pretty sure it's a matte or satin nickel plating. I think Colt use to offer it on their Combat Commander then later went to electroless nickel plating with their Coltguard finish.
 
Our shop used to sell quite a lot of Taurus revolvers in the 80s and 90s. They were pretty nice guns for the price that only needed a little tuning to get a very nice DA pull. I have never seen a stainless Taurus with that rough of a finish on it - I do not think it is factory but with Taurus almost anything is possible. The color does not quite look like nickel to me - it looks like someone bead blasted the gun with some coarse grit (or sand). Of course I could be wrong.......
The finish seen on both mine and Tallball's indicates to me that this was a factory option, if only for a few years.

Oddly, I have the gun in hand now and it says TAURUS INT. MFG. MIAMI FLA. on the side. It also says Made in Brazil. Both medallions on the grips say Taurus at the top and Brazil on the bottom as does the logo imprinted on the right side of the gun itself.
 
Mine Old Model 66 is buried in the safe just now, and I would annoy my wife by dragging it out. Maybe I'll have a gander at it tomorrow, since I get home from work before she does.

The coloration is unusual. One of my friends at the LGS thought it was a sort of matte stainless, and the other thought it was maybe nickle. I am guessing more towards stainless, but that's just a guess. I've only had it a couple of years or so.

IIRC, they transitioned from internal hammer block to transfer bar around 1983 or 84. So whether or not it has a transfer bar would tell the OP something. My grips were a tiny bit loose, and I know the newer ones won't fit. I folded a small piece of paper a couple of times and stuck it between the grip and grip frame. Problem solved!

I owned a 4" Model 66 that I got almost new in the late 1980's. It had a nice trigger. After it was stolen, around 2000, I got a Model 689 (the fancy version of the Model 66) that was made in 1990 or so. It also has a nice trigger. The old Model 66 in the above picture has a better trigger than either of them, though. It's better than several of my Smiths (note I didn't say all of them).

Here is the 689 with fancy grips:

 
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