Today's broad selection of specialized handguns is a boon to those shooting-sports enthusiasts who have particular endeavors they wish to pursue. Whether you prefer handgun hunting, target shooting (formal or informal) or you're looking for personal protection, the field of options is expansive. It's also not too difficult to find guns in each of these niches that address the fourth ever present—but often under discussed—shooting-sports category: budget. Some folks are in a position to spend more for what they want while others need to pinch some pennies along the way.
Like most folks who get bitten by the shooting-sports bug, I've diversified and specialized the guns I keep on hand for various activities. But back in my early 20s, my wallet was often on a diet. And getting married did little to loosen the purse strings. That’s when I started what has become the three-decade pursuit of the 'Just One Handgun,' or, the J1H Project. The goal has been to find that pistol or revolver which, if you could only own one handgun, will do most, if not all, that you need a gun to do. It's been a useful and enjoyable exercise leading to the evaluations of a variety of flexible platform and ammunition combinations.
Back in my early handgunning days, I settled into the medium-framed, double-action .357 Magnum revolvers as a do-all, or at least a do-most platform. My earliest purchase was a retired Fish & Wildlife 4-inch barrel stainless steel Smith & Wesson 686 with a 6-shot cylinder. This was during the great law enforcement pistol migration of the late 1990s and early 2000s. These revolvers were selling cheap at around $300 and the one I got had the classic flat-bottomed checkered wood grip, which I was too young to appreciate at the time.
That duty-sized .357 Mag. was a hoot to shoot for practice and informal target shooting using the inexpensive HSM brand .38 Special reloads offered at the cop shop where I bought it. When loaded with .357 Mag., it was definitely 'enough gun' for defense against dangerous game where I lived. And stoking it with .38 Spec. +P hollow points made it a better fit for in-the-home protection. Yes, a 686 is on the beefy side for concealed carry but I worked it out until I found something a bit more compact. I would go on from the 686 to experiment with other affordably priced, used .357 Mag. revolvers that were fairly plentiful at that time. They included other Smith & Wesson models along with Ruger GP100s with 3-inch, 4-inch and 6-inch barrels. Despite working with a variety of calibers and platforms over several years, the .357 Mag. revolvers are still a 'home base' gun and caliber combination for me.
Time has passed and multi-purpose handgun requirements have changed. Today folks are looking for just-one-handguns with features that older revolvers may not provide. Increased ammunition capacity is a much higher priority than it used to be. Right up there on the list of must-haves is the option of mounting a micro red-dot optic for both sporting and defensive applications. Handgun barrels that are compensated, or ported, to reduce muzzle flip and felt recoil, are making a notable comeback for personal protection models. And affordable prices have yet to go out of style.
I've been left to wonder if there might be any .357 Mag. revolvers currently in production capable of ringing all of the J1H bells, including the more moderate price tag. And not too long ago, I discovered a contender. I found it while researching the new-for-2025 Taurus 608 Competition. This factory-custom 6-inch barrel wheel gun has a sporty cylinder and feature set tuned for formal and informal target shooting. But an older version of the 608, listed right next to the Competition, was the J1H I had been thinking of.
The 'standard' model of the Taurus 608 .357 Mag. is an all-stainless steel double-action built around the company's large revolver frame. This makes the 608 comparable in size and weight to the Smith & Wesson N-Frames. The 608's cylinder measures 1.75-inches in diameter, which is slightly larger than the 6-shot Smith & Wesson 629 .44 Mag. (1.70-inches) and just a bit smaller than a 6-shot Ruger Super Redhawk .454 Casull (1.80-inches) that were on hand for comparison. The reason for using a .44 Mag. size cylinder in this .357 Mag. revolver is to have enough space and material strength to give this gun an 8-round round capacity instead of the more common 5- and 6-round configurations. This may not be all that impressive to semi-automatic pistol fans, but to folks who know and understand the .357 Mag. cartridge, two more shots is a real boost in firepower!
This 608 ships with a 4-inch long 'duty-size' barrel. This is a handy middle ground option which fits in between the portability of snubby 2-inch and 3-inch barrels and the performance of 6-inch to 8-inch hunting handgun barrels. Commercial .357 Mag. loads are still commonly optimized for the old 4-inch service revolvers, so this gun should exhibit levels of bullet energy in line with the listed numbers.
The porting system consists of a total of eight round vents milled into the barrel with four to each side of the front sight block. This system is essentially the same as the factory porting introduced by Taurus during in the late 1990s. It's relatively simple to install and it has proven to be effective, so it has remained unchanged for nearly three decades. To better accommodate the heat and blast of the ports, the front sight base is a milled in integral extension of the stainless steel barrel. The base is milled and drilled to support a pinned, blackened and serrated sight blade with a bright orange stripe. The front sight is paired with a square notch target shooting rear sight which is adjustable for height and windage.
The cylinder's extractor rod is knurled at the tip for added purchase when expelling spent cartridge cases. The cylinder release, located on the left side of the frame, is of the Smith & Wesson design. This means it is pressed forward, towards the muzzle, in order to swing the cylinder out to the left side of the frame. The checkered spur of the exposed hammer allows it to be manually cocked for single-action fire. This hammer is outfitted with both a transfer bar safety and the Taurus security system. The key-operated stud at the base of the hammer can be engaged so as to block the hammer from cycling in order to prevent the revolver from firing.
I like the trigger on this gun. It's the old-school wide, rounded and smooth-faced variety often favored for hunting revolvers. The rounded shape, along with the smooth action, made for comfortable shooting at the range. The double-action trigger weighed in at 10-pounds 7-ounces with the single-action trigger exhibiting 5-pounds 11-ounces of pull weight. I was glad to see that this current Taurus double action revolver trigger cycles cleanly and smoothly with a level of fitting that can comfortably compete with more expensive models. This version of the 608 ships with a comfortable and hand filling clamshell-type soft rubber grip. It sports finger grooves along the front strap, pebbled texturing on the sides and a backstrap which fully covers the grip frame.
But what about mounting a red-dot optic? The Taurus revolvers that have a removable rear sight assembly, like this one, can be outfitted with a Weigand Machine and Design WEIG-A-TINNY Mini Scope Mount ($39.95). Available in black or silver finishes, this aluminum 5-slot Picatinny rail mount is installed in place of the rear sight. It's just the right size for a variety of red-dot optics fitted with rail mounts. This rail is unique because it is not exactly a drop-in component. It features this company's patented 'self fitting lug' system. The four small lugs are flattened to a just-right size as the rail is driven gently into the rear sight slot using a polymer mallet. The result is a snug, reliable fit for that particular revolver. For the range evaluation, the 608 was topped off with a Swampfox Justice II. This sporting optic features a 6-MOA red dot with a 30mm ruby-coated lens that provides a nice, wide field of view. Other features include an aluminum housing, ten brightness levels and up to 50,000 hours of runtime using one CR1632 battery.
The high-quality milled aluminum speed loaders and loading block were kindly provided for testing by 5-Star Firearms. I've often included their silver or black finish accessories in other reviews. This time around I thought we should show off some of their other colors. These loaders are anodized in bright red and hot purple with the block treated in a sporty blue. Other color options include green, gold, pink and orange. Although the color options add variety, they can also be used to color code for ammunition. For a revolver like this one, the red loader could be used to indicate full power .357 Mag. while another is used for defense-grade .38 Special +P. The little 2-loader blocks are handy for managing ready-to-use speed loaders with revolvers that have been staged for home defense.
The 608's informal and formal testing was conducted using various grades of .357 Mag. ammunition.
Its frame size and all-stainless steel construction give it an unloaded weight of 45-ounces. This does not contribute to ease of carry either on the trail or concealed per se. But this revolver's weight, ported 4-inch barrel and the shock reducing grip make it a real sweetheart to work with at the shooting range, even with full power .357 Mag. ammunition. The levels of felt recoil were energetic but manageable. This revolver would be a great fit for someone who is used to working with 9mm pistols but wants to take a step up in power to the big-bore revolvers. And for those who want to keep the .357 levels of recoil to a minimum, the 608 can safely chamber and fire the full range of .38 Spec. +P and .38 Special cartridge power levels.
Formal bench rested accuracy testing consisted of firing 3-shot groups into targets set at 25-yards using three different loads of ammunition. Two of the loads used were the more budget minded Federal American Eagle 158-grain and Remington UMC 125-grain jacketed soft points. They are representative of the .357 Mag. ammunition commonly available at big-box and sporting-goods stores, and also useful as multi-purpose rounds. The test set was rounded out with Hornady's 125-grain FTX Critical Defense load designed specifically for two-legged threats. A LabRadar LX chronograph was used to measure bullet velocities for 10-shot strings. Here are the results:
I recently saw a social media video in which the 20-something presenter gave double-action .357 Mag. revolvers the once-upon-a-time story treatment that more seasoned media members reserve for revolvers like the Colt Single-Action Army! Okay, okay ... I recognize that the .357 Mag. and its wheelguns do not garner much media attention these days. There are much more recent and exciting hunting revolvers and calibers to choose from now. And for daily carry, small-frame revolvers and pistols rule the roost. But when it comes to a middle-ground, multi-purpose, just-one-gun, a model like the 8-shot Taurus 608 .357 Mag. can cover a great deal of shooting-sports territory at a fair price. For more information about this and other Taurus revolvers, visit taurususa.com.
Technical Specifications
- Type: large frame double-action revolver
- Caliber: .357 Mag./.38 Special
- Cylinder Capacity: 8 rounds
- Barrel: 4-inch; ported: stainless steel; full under lug; shrouded ejector; 1:16.5-inch RH twist
- Trigger: 5-pound 11-ounce (SA), 10-pound 7-ounce (DA) pull weight
- Sights: adjustable square notch rear; fixed orange highlighted front
- Grip/Stocks: one piece textured black rubber
- Metal Finish: matte stainless
- Overall Length: 9.67-inches
- Weight: 45 ounces, unloaded
- MSRP: $856.99; taurususa.com
