Taurus Thunderbolt's ,,,,,on sale??????????

rbertalotto · December 29, 2012, 07:32:25 PM

Sounds good! Thanks

rbertalotto · January 08, 2013, 08:49:32 PM

Look what came in the mail today......

A nice new Green Mountain barrel in 38-40.

Tore the Taurus Thunderbolt apart and hopefully I'll have the barrel on by this weekend.

Slamfire · January 08, 2013, 09:57:11 PM

R LOTTO!!! you have ,,my attention ,w/ that barrel ,,and by the way, a friend of mine has a colt lighting in 38-40, best i remember mfg. date 1901-or 1911 ,,he shoots it quite a bit,tight patterns. IF i may ask the price of "said" barrel i might look into one in 44-40 ( my choice ),.

Hootmix

rbertalotto · January 09, 2013, 05:40:38 AM

Product Name Price Quantity Item Total
Centerfire Rifle Barrel .38-40 Bore 1:40 Twist Item: WL383028 $165.00 1 $165.00
Total $165.00
Tax Total $10.31
Shipping Total $15.95
Grand Total $191.26

No idea why I was charged tax as Green Mountain does not have a footprint here in Massachusetts, but whatever.....the barrel is superb! The flats will only need a pit of draw filing and polishing if I wanted it to be gloss blued. But I might go with a rust blue matte finish. Or I might go with an antique finish in a brown...........

Pettifogger · January 09, 2013, 05:34:35 PM

Looks like a great project. You will definitely have the only .38-40 Taurus in existence.

rbertalotto · January 09, 2013, 06:00:04 PM

But the threads on the barrel are metric....I've never cyt metric threads. I changed the gears on my lathe and it seems to be cutting 1mm threads, but I can't figure out how to use the thread indicator so I stay in the same groove........AGHHHH!

Slamfire · January 09, 2013, 06:47:22 PM

I just love it when a plan comes together,,,,truly yours " murphy's law". I for one have faith in your ability.

Hootnix.

rbertalotto · January 09, 2013, 07:02:18 PM

I figured it all out. I forgot that I have an "Imperial" lead screw on my lathe (as most lathes in North America do) and therefore you need to leave the half nuts engaged. You can't use the thread indicator like you can when cutting Imperial threads........Hey, it's been a while!

I'm starting another thread on rebarreling this Taurus Thunderbolt. But here are a few preview pictures of what the factory barrel's chamber was like.....No wonder this thing had huge blowback. The chamber is huge. This is the reason no rifle back in the day were chambered for 45LC as they simply won't feed well without an oversized chamber. The 38-40 and 44-40 with their bottleneck design are much better at feeding.

Talk about unsupported case! If this was a 1911 with a feed ramp like this, it would be criminal...

Here is a 45LC case wrapped with electrical tape:

It fit in the chamber with room to spare:

The barrel was glued in with some type of "pipe dope"...

Slamfire · January 13, 2013, 02:46:20 PM

Reply to Pettifoger #24,,you stated taurus didn't make the thunderbolt in 38/40 ,,,what about in 44/40??

Pettifogger · January 13, 2013, 03:50:08 PM

Quote from: Slamfire on January 13, 2013, 02:46:20 PM
Reply to Pettifoger #24,,you stated taurus didn't make the thunderbolt in 38/40 ,,,what about in 44/40??

.357 and .45 only.

Slamfire · January 14, 2013, 06:15:30 PM

Thank ya, .

Hootmix

harleydavis · March 04, 2013, 02:12:37 PM

Just curious if anyone has had good luck with the Taurus right out of the box? I know that people generally only post "reviews" for bad experiences and very rarely report good experiences. Have a small hankering for one of these rifles but dont need headaches.

NCRanger · October 06, 2013, 10:39:33 PM

As was stated by someone earlier, I have had pretty good luck with mine. It did lock up on me this past summer when I took it out of the safe to clean/re-oil. I pumped it twice and it locked up tighter-n' a tick. I sent it to Taurus and they turned it around in a week. They had to adjust the locking block for excessive play. It was covered under the lifetime warranty.
With a stock unmodified one, I have found that it takes a good stroke to work it but if the forearm is stroked too hard the shell carrier can flip the cartridge up where the bullet hits the top of the chamber. I have learned when that happens, I can back up the forearm a hair an push the cartridge down onto the carrier and chamber it an shoot it. Once one gets the feel for pumping it, it works fine.
I would love to send it to that Jeff fellow and have it tuned up. When it works, it is fast. I alternate between it and my Winchester 73.
Rbertalotto, you wouldn't be interested in putting together some disassembly instructions for the Thunderbolt would you? Taurus doesn't recommend disassembly by anyone other than them and are pretty mum on the subject. I do some of my own gunsmithing work, but I have no idea where to start disassembling the Thunderbolt.