1st Gen Taurus 80

[grinanddull]

Picked up a nice old 38 spl in the form of an early Taurus 80. This one is from the early 70s in the style of a S&W 5 screw and differs from the later models of the 80 with having the firing pin in the hammer not frame mounted, it also has a strain screw for the coiled mainspring. The only rust I found on the gun is on the left side near the muzzle. At this point this gun is nearly impossible to shoot with the trigger pull but I've ordered some Wolff springs to hopefully correct that. The gun also has serrations in the cylinder flutes kind of like some of the S&W 27 had.

[seak89]

Nice using gun

[grinanddull]

Thanks, actually the fit and finish is pretty good of course the gun at over 40 years old has some spots and dings but for a $205.00 gun I can live with the looks. Its been shot but not much so there isn't a lot of wear on it.

The trigger is very oh shit are you kidding me heavy in both double and single action. I don't have a trigger scale but I wouldn't be shocked to find even in single action it's 10 pounds or more and double action could be pushing over 20. When the new springs get here I'll pop the side plate and deburr a little with a stone and do an oil change with the spring change. With the trigger right now it's really just a paper weight.

[grinanddull]

OK we got the band back together!
parts came put them in went with the 11 lb hammer and the 10 lb return
springs.
the trigger is now no worse than most the K frames I've had and maybe
better than some.
the hand wasn't really as big a pain in the butt as I'd feared. (it was the 1st time I've seen it and it's spring and plunger built into the side plate)
new grips
and it works, 12 rounds DA no problems and 6 round SA and it actually
shoots pretty much point of aim with my 148 gr wadcutters over 3.2 gr of
Winchester 231.
it even fits in my old holster so life is good,
but I'm still never going to take this gun apart again.

I got'r done. put back together, better trigger, and she runs, just had
a big beer to celebrate my victory.
note I've tied up more in this gun than planned from a $205.00 buy on
gunbroker,
adding $30.00 for shipping,
then my local ffl that I've been using raised their charge from $25.00
(would have put me at $260.00 about were I figured I'd be OK) to $47.50
(yeah I screwed up didn't check the price before I set up the transfer)
for doing the receiving and paperwork with call in.
Add a set of springs and grips for $37.00 (maybe should have seen that
coming, happens on about every revolver I get)
and a $205.00 gun now cost me $319.50,
that's kind of wild the real to own it cost going up by that much.
I guess now I'll have to do a little shooting and see if I have a
$320.00 gun, but as the old saying goes "in for a penny, in for a
pound." on the positive side the tear down showed the gun had very
little use before I got it and brief test I did when I got it together
went great so a good K frame size 38 shooter for $320 might not be a bad
deal, but it sounded better a $205.00.
The gun I'm replacing was a model 10 S&W that I sold for $450.00 shipped
so I cleared about $405.00 / $55.00 for overall on the gun. the new and
improved model 80 not really worried about making a dollar just wanted a
pretty good plinker in 38 so I guess I'm OK in this deal.

[Frank V]

Have you gotten it to the range yet? Some of the old Taurus's shoot well.

[grinanddull]

Just the beer can test and a little plinking against my son with his Glock. Old fat guy with Taurus 80 shooting SA with 148 gr WC on top of 3.2 gr of W231 beats younger guy shooting Glock 17 with some Remington 115 gr ammo. The gun actually shoots surprisingly well, the shooter not so much but I was able to hold a tighter group more to the center of the target and roll the beer can better than Jr did with his Glock. I just sold a S&W model 10 and this gun shoots at least on par with it. The RedHawk I still have and the S&W 66 I traded will beat it but they both have better triggers.
Time and a few thousand trigger pulls may help the trigger and new glasses may help the shooter but all in all I'm happy with the gun.
Ended up having to take it all apart again and when I did I went ahead and put the 10 lb mainspring from Wolf in sets everything off in DA so we're good. I used a buffing wheel on the dremel on the contact areas but still a little more creep and drag in the SA pull than I'd like but livable at this point.

[rugerdude]

I have an old Taurus Model 84 .38 Special that is in about the same age bracket as your 80. Looks very similar except mine has a solid rib machined on the barrel, adjustable sights and larger wrap around wood grips. I was thinking I had a photo of it, but I guess not. I'll have to get one tomorrow when I get home.

Fortunately, it doesn't have the heavy trigger pull you describe. Double action pull is usable and single action pull is actually pretty good. Unfortunately it's trigger and hammer are the same little narrow pieces yours has (I like wide hammer spurs and wide, smooth triggers). I will have to say though, that it shoots VERY well. It is fairly load sensitive though and seems to like lighter bullets better. I have a few boxes of Nosler 125 grain hollow points that I'm hoarding just for this gun as it shoots them fantastic with 5.4 grains of Unique. A 158 LSWC has only been so-so, but I have a ton of them so I'm going to keep trying different powders and see if I can get groups to tighten up.

[grinanddull]

I think in the old days Taurus leaned into it more and in some ways made a better product than some of their newer stuff. Now they've got a bigger product line that's harder to maintain the same control of. A coiled spring copy of an old 5 screw 38 Smith K frame isn't going to sell enough guns anymore to grow a business but it's what got them in the door on the world market back then.