Taurus Judge

The Right Fit

I suspected the Judge Home Defender might be practically employed in the hands of a less-than-ideal home defender. For my test case, I wanted a person capable of operating a firearm safely but with no formal instruction and little, if any, experience handling or shooting firearms. I chose these criteria because I suspect they describe the majority of people who rushed to buy their first gun during the height of social chaos in 2019–20.

Additionally, I wanted a test subject whose physical characteristics offered them no advantages in using the gun. I chose a small-statured, middle-aged woman in good health but neither an athlete or unusually strong for her size and age. In short, a person who could easily be overpowered physically by a larger opponent, but possessing the minimum strength and dexterity to operate a firearm safely.

My test subject was a petite woman, 5’ 2″, with basic firearm safety knowledge but absolutely minimal shooting experience due to a complete lack of recreational interest in shooting sports. She was shown the basic operation of the gun, fitted with a green targeting laser/tactical light on the fore-end, which also serves as a stop for the supporting hand. A red dot optic was installed on the top rail. For familiarization, she fired one round, double-action, from the hip, at a gallon jug of water 10 feet away, aiming with the targeting laser. She hit it squarely.

Immediately afterward, she loaded the cylinder with five rounds to shoot a course of fire — three life-size silhouette target threats positioned 5, 10 and 15 feet away in a 20-degree arc in front of her. She was instructed to engage the targets as fast as she could, firing double-action with the gun’s pistol grip held tight against her body and aiming with the laser. The drill began by firing two shots into the five-foot threat on her right, then two into the 10-foot threat on her left and finally sweeping back to the center to fire her last shot into the 15-foot distant threat. She completed the exercise without a hiccup in 2.51 seconds scoring solid hits on all targets. For comparison, my first try at the drill was 1.61 seconds and I improved little over the next three attempts. However, hitting three targets at three distances in 2.5 seconds is decent for a novice and realistically, this is all many first-time self-defense gun buyers will ever be.

Part of the reason the Judge Home Defender did so well in untrained hands is its fore-end allows the shooter to better support the gun, aim it (especially with the laser in short range hip shooting), control it during recoil and retain if an assailant tries to wrestle it away. The targeting laser also aided novice shooters in placing shots quickly and accurately.

In terms of physical strength and dexterity requirements, revolvers as a class require less strength and mechanical finesse than autoloading pistols and long guns. The revolver is also more reliable. In subsequent tests with a pump shotgun, my novice shooter inadvertently induced malfunction through improper manipulation. This highlights what might be the Judge Home Defender’s greatest strength — it offers the point-and-pull the trigger simplicity of a double-action revolver with the firepower of a shotgun.

I’d venture that a typical novice would have missed some of the test targets shooting a Judge .45 Colt double-action revolver with a 3″ barrel. The Judge Home Defender is better as a little shotgun than as a .45 Colt revolver. With the right ammunition, a shotgun armed home defender can significantly increase the likelihood of hitting the threat through the pattern spread as well as the lethality of each shot through multi pellet hits.