Taurus M85- good deal?

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wintermute76

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I have a chance to buy a Taurus M85 , 2" ported bbl, blued with gold accent trigger, cyl. latch and hammer and rosewood grips. Comes with a galco belt slide holster to sweeten the deal a bit. He's asking $200.

Lockup seems pretty tight, a little play in the crane and some side to side of the cylinder on the axis pin, maybe .005", negligible end to end play.
Has about 200 rounds of plain .38's thru it, would rte the fininsh at 99%, it's just about NIB condition.

I know the standard 85's are going for around $230 to $250. Wanted to get some other opinions.
 
It's a fair price, not great, but not bad either. I've had a CH85 for going on ten years now. It took me almost that long to realize it gets the best accuracy with 148 gr LWC. It functioned perfectly up until two weeks ago when one of the cylinders would not index after the third round (this happened three separate times). I was using some cheap PMC ammo at the time and after opening and closing the cylinder it fired fine again. If it happens the next time with different ammo I'll take advantage of the "Lifetime Warranty".
 
For the condition you describe I'd say that was probably an OK price, tho if it'd drop to, say - $185 it'd be even better.

Mine is an ol' ''Plane Jane'' ... no frills ... and is well battered and weary from far too long in the holster ... and a sweaty one too at times in summer! It performs flawlessly still ... it is just showing it's age and scars!:D Served me well.


m85_s.jpg
 
I have several M85s. Yes, if you can get one in 99% condition for 200 bucks, then go for it. The model you describe usually costs more due to the fancy grips and gold accents.

I have had NO problems with any of my M85s, and I have just about every type made so far. See below:

my5taurustext.jpg
 
Sweet deal. The revolver and the holster together is a good value. I had good service from my M85. I traded it for a 5" S&W K frame round butt. It never coughed on any loads. The M85 is a very fine revolver. Check www.eaglegrips.com They have Secret Service faux ivory grips that would be great on that Taurus.
 
Not sure on the ivory grips tho Josey, I think it looks a bit on the pimpish side already :p Might get a black or silver hammer for it. We'll see what happens tho. :)



Cool, glad to see that it's a decent deal. I thought it'd be a nice summer carry piece for when I don't want to tote the 1911 around. Should be a fun little unit anyways.
 
I have a M85 with the gold accents but I have the houge rubber grip. A good man once said "life's too short to carry an ugly gun".
But really, I have had no problems at all. Sounds like a great deal.
 
I love mine. I've had it for about 4 years and I paid a LOT more for it new. I'm a big fan of S&W but I can think of absolutely no reason to ever trade this one in for a S&W. Never had a single problem with it and it shoots well. The only thing is that it has a habit of getting a tiny bit of rust inside the cylinder locking lugs if I'm not careful to get some oil down in there with a q-tip when I clean it. (Mine is blued.)

JBP,
Sounds like your problem is the bullets working themselves loose of the case crimp and walking forward enough to bind in the cylinder gap. I doubt Taurus would cover it, or that there's anything wrong with the gun itself for that matter. You just have to use quality jacketed ammo. I'm actually surprised it isn't a bigger problem when you use that Lead WC ammo.
 
It's a good buy. These little pups are holding their value quite well. Just check out all the ones on Gunbroker for $250 or more.
 
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