Guns: Ultimate Carjacker Defense - Taurus Judge review

Introduction

Studies have shown that, sooner or later, we're all going to be victims of a carjacking. Whether it's Mexican drug cartels, terrorists, or just garden-variety hoodlums, there are a lot of evil people out there who would love nothing better than to take your vehicle for their own nefarious purposes.

Thankfully, Taurus has manufactured a revolver that is quite possibly the ultimate tool for carjacker defense. It's called the Taurus Judge:



The Taurus Judge got its name because judges in Miami started carrying the revolver in the courtroom as a way to deal with violent criminal defendants (talk about a "speedy trial"!). As you can see from the video, the Judge makes an absolute mess of Shoot-N-See targets. Of course, anything can cut holes in paper - how about a little Gallagher action?



Overview

The Taurus Judge bears the patented Taurus Ribber grip - one of the most comfortable handgun grips ever developed. The sights, cylinder release, and trigger are all made with the quality you've come to expect from Taurus, the world's foremost pistol maker - I imagine some wizened old Brazilian artisan in the Taurus factory hand-fitted each part for accuracy and precision:


The Judge has an extra long cylinder in order to fire .410 shotshells; this makes the gun almost unbearably intimidating. Plus, if the sight of a cylinder full of these bad boys doesn't make your assailant soil his pants, then a pull of the trigger will provide some instant "attitude adjustment."

Range Report

Supposedly, the Judge will shoot .45 Colt, but let's be honest: the whole point of the Judge is to pelt an attacker with enough lead to go deep-sea fishing with. Heck, I didn't bother to test the Judge beyond 3 yards. This is a street gun; in a crisis, time-is-life, life-or-death, lethal force-type confrontation, you'll likely be shaking so hard that you won't be able to use the sights on the gun anyway.

The Judge has a healthy kick, but I managed to keep most of the .410 shotshell's pellets on target. There was a distinct void in the center of the pattern - I think this is actually intentional on the part of Taurus, so that you can wound and maim an attacker without actually killing him (and thus avoiding a wrongful death action by the miscreant's family - very clever).

Conclusion

If you saw "Max Payne," you've already seen the Taurus Judge in action. My review just confirms what I suspected originally - this is a vicious weapon for intense CQB urban combat, enough so that I wonder why the U.S. military isn't arming our troops with it. This April Fool's Day, I hope you go out and get a Taurus Judge to protect yourself and your loved ones...and their cars.