Searched for that guy who shot the Cat...
Dick Metcalf
Categories: Handguns
At the top of the Taurus Titanium Tracker lineup is a five-shot, four-inch .41 Mag. Model 425 Titanium Tracker in Shadow Gray finish. (Taurus also offers a same-scale seven-shot titanium .357 Mag. Model M627TT with four-inch or 6.5-inch barrel, and the four-inch Model 460 in .45 Colt.)
All Titanium Tracker models have titanium frames, sideplates, yokes and barrels that are drop-forged in Taurus's facility in Brazil. The titanium cylinders and titanium internal studs are CNC-machined from extruded bar stock. Since titanium is less than two-thirds the weight of an equivalent volume of steel, an all-titanium revolver actually weighs less than a same-size aluminum-frame/steel-cylinder revolver. The .41 Mag. Titanium Tracker weighs exactly 24 ounces--nearly a pound lighter than a Taurus Model 66SS .357 Mag.
As for durability, titanium comes as close to being indestructible as any manufactured material can be. Even the best stainless steel will eventually rust or corrode. Titanium will not.
The Tracker grips are the patented Taurus Ribber design, which I discussed in some detail in the September "Tech Corner." This grip, combined with the Tracker's integrally ported four-inch full-lug barrel, makes the gun genuinely comfortable to fire, even with full-power .41 Mag. ammunition. As an exercise, I've rapped five rapid-fire rounds of Winchester 240-grain Platinum Tips out of the gun just as fast as I could pull the trigger, and the ported barrel's quick recovery keeps them all in a 12-inch circle on a seven-yard target--which is as close as I'm inclined to let a mama bear get.
When you get right down to it, any of these new tools make pretty good primary handgun hunting tools, as well. I carried my Taurus .41 Mag. Tracker stuck in the cargo pocket of my Carharts up and down the Utah canyons for three days in two feet of snow a couple of winters ago, chasing cougars, and I never even had to think about it being there--until I pulled it out to drop a treed cat with a single shot.
On a belt in a nylon-fabric holster and loaded with aluminum-case CCI Blazer ammo, you'll literally have to touch it to remind yourself it's there. Pick whichever brand or model suits your fancy: These new lightweight, heavy-hitting belt guns leave no serious hunter with any excuse for not packing the security of a backup sidearm.
