Look at this crap.  My stainless steel Taurus is rusting.  But, only the cylinder.  Is this a metallurgical fact of life with cylinders or have I got a bunk gun?  I put so much oil on this thing, I'm afraid it's going to ruin the primers; and it still rusts.  Granted, this last "bloom" was exasberated by being in a foam lined case for 2 weeks but the blued sight only has the smallest bit of rust on it.

TIA

David
[img]http://home.earthlink.net/~routhier/taurus/taurus1.jpg[/img]
[img]http://home.earthlink.net/~routhier/taurus/taurus2.jpg[/img]

Call Taurus, explain the situation, explain that you are a very unhappy customer.  Get names, be unhappy, but polite.  You should be able to send them just the cylinder, it's nothing for them to replace it.  Or, whoever sold it to you, if they are an FFL, can ship the whole gun back.  I have heard that Taurus does stand behind their product.
It is obvious that something is wrong.

If ya bought it new, Taurus should fix/replace it for life.  I have owned two stainless Taurus wheel guns ( a .357 4" & .38 2"), and they didn't do anything like that.  I think maybe you just got a bum cylinder.  Good luck, bro.

Stainless don't do that - you got a
regular steel cylinder ( in the white )
by accident .

Send it in under warranty  

[shotgun]

Contact Taurus and explain the situation.  They will work with you to remedy it.  However you will need to send the entire firearm because Taurus will want to be sure of timing and lock-up on the replacement cylinder and will also check the cylinder to barrel throat gap to be sure it is within acceptable range with the replacement.
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Did McUzi touch that thing?  You never know where his hands have been!  Ordinance stainless will corrode because it has a higher carbon content to allow it to heat-treat I think. But not like that.  Looks like steel that didn't get blued.

I found that Taurus has the worst customer satisfaction rating of any gun maker I have ever dealt with.  They like to give u the run-around and then hold your firearm for months, before returning it with more problems than it originally had.  This wasn't just my experience, but I have compared notes with other Taurus owners.  

I bought one of their pump action model 92 .22's.  I thought it would be a good rifle for the kids to plink with.  I found out it was a total POS!!!!  It wouldn't extract, had a tight chamber and had a light primer hit.

I have several stainless revolvers and they have NEVER rusted.  They have seen snow and rain for days at a time with just an exterior wipe-down.  These were S&W's and Dan Wessons.  

I would say that if you just bought this revolver (looks brand new in pic??), bring it back to the dealer and have him deal with it.  Even if it has been a few months, because if that is a standard steel cylinder it was fraud.  If he tells you "Taurus has a lifetime warrantee, just send it in", I would tell him "then take it in on trade for a QUALITY revolver and you can send it to them for repair".

OSA

Looks like everyone has the same option... and I agree, send it back.  It probably is a steel cylinder that got mixed up at assembly.  The first S&W revolvers made in SS had very high nickel content and would not rust.  I have had many SS revolvers that would get slight rust but nothing like that.

However, this does bring up a question about SS.  Stainless will rust.  Stainless gets its corrosion resistance from its high content of Nickel but has carbon steel suspended in the Nickel matrix.  When SS is machined, the carbon steel is exposed to the surface allowing rust to form.  The process to remove the carbon steel from this "machined surface" is called passivating.  Passivating basically acid etches away the carbon steel(/other stuff too like copper) on the surface leaving only the nickel.  This gives it the rust resistance.  The aerospace industry uses this a lot, but I think the gun industry just uses a high grade of SS and lets it go... does anyone know if the gun industry uses "Passivation" after machining SS?  

As an FFL Dealer, we once recieved a Taurus 38 Spl. with a .22 cal barrel installed on it. Needless to say......They didn't test fire that one!

T-Man,
Imagine if you didn't catch that one. Then somehow the customer didn't notice it during the pre-firing first cleaning.

Whose butt  would be on the line........yours.......Taurus........or both??

I never would buy an other Taurus and wouldn't let any one I know either.  They do have some nice models, but should contract out the actual manufacturing to some one who knows what they are doing.  

OSA

This might sound kind of stupid but put a magnet on the cylinder. If the magnet sticks it is definitely not SS, and a mistake on Taurus's part.

That's odd I think you just got the bad one in the bunch.  My first handgun was a Taurus model 608 in stainless steel never had a problem with it. I even spent my CCW training time outside shooting in the rain with it and it didn't/doesn't show the slightest bit of discoloration.  The only problem I ever had with it was the cylinder wouldn't shut once when I was at the range.  Ended up slamming it shut.  Hasn't happened since I think it was the cheap CCI blazer ammo I was using(too dirty).

Actually, stainless IS magnetic.  I just tested my S&W and Colt stainless guns.  SOME stainless is not magnetic.

As a sugestion to see just what you've got here:
Use some solvent to clean a small area on the cylinder and on the barrel or frame.  Apply a little cold blue with a Q-tip.  I'll bet the cylinder is un-blued carbon steel.  If so, the cylinder will turn blue, and the blue will just bead up on the frame.

david_r, first things first, stainless steel is NOT rust proof, it is rust resistant. If you had subjected a blue steel gun to the same treatment it would have been severely pitted. Never leave any firearm in a zippered case, you have just sealed it in a container with any moisture trapped right against the metal, the only exception is some of the special silicone impregnated gun socks. There may be some truth in the left in white theory, check this with a magnet. It would appear that the rust is limited to the outside of the cylinder, if this is so it may be because on a revolver the cylinder would be pressed against the lining of the case.
The cylinder may be a slightly different S.S. alloy also, I know on auto pistols this is done to reduce galling caused by two identical alloys rubbing against each other. If you try to clean it up yourself try a Hoppe's "QUICK CLEAN" treated pad. It works great on stainless weapons but can remove the blue from blued guns, follow up with a Sentry Solutions "TUFF CLOTH", this will protect from most anything. Look for it in knife shops.
If you live near the ocean you will have to keep on top of your cleaning, the only time I had rust issues is when I lived in Orange county, here in AZ rust is just a bad memory.

dang beat me to it

yeah stainless isnt rust proof i found out the hard way when shooting a stainless vaqueo (i hope i spelled that right) with some Black powder loads and stuck it in the safe for a couple days then went to shoot something else bad move rusted was easy to clen up thu but i learned even if its stainless just clean it just as quickly with BP just makes it easery to do [:D]

Here's how to tell if you got a regular steel cylinder 'in the white' instead of a stainless one. Get some Birchwood Casey cold blue at the gun store (small bottle), clean your cylinder with solvent, then dip into the cold blue with a Q-Tip, and touch it to the cylinder. Wait a couple minutes then rub it with a cloth. If it 'takes' it's carbon steel. If it doesn't, it's stainless. If it looks mottled or spotty, then it might be what Vergeltungswaffe mentioned, non-passivated stainless, although I wouldn't know about this personally.
I would imagine that if it were stainless, the rest of the gun would show at least SOME rust for the cylinder to rust THAT MUCH, even if it's a different alloy and is heat treated differently.
If it does turn out to be a carbon steel cylinder, here's what I would do personally to avoid Taurus customer service horrors:
1. Remove all the rust you can. Naval jelly and steel wool, or something.
2. Clean thoroughly with Gun Scrubber or TCE or other solvent that does not leave behind residue.
3. Cold blue the cylinder, or have your gun shop send it out for hot bluing (which lasts longer and is more durable than cold blue).
4. Or, just send it to a local 'smith if you don't want to do it yourself.

If you go the cold-blue route (cheaper, I know) get 3 or 4 bottles of it (or order a pint of Brownells Oxpho-Blue cold blue), pour it into a container that will fully immerse the cylinder when dipped into it, and dip it in. Follow directions on the bluing bottle. I'd dip it about 10-20 times (with steel wooling in between) to get a nice thick even coat of blue.
I can elaborate if you decide to go this route and need more info. Disassembly of the cylinder assembly would be necessary, of course.

Btw, we ALWAYS inspect each new or used gun we receive before it is put on display for sale.  We did send that gun back to Taurus and they promptly replaced it, without any questions.  
As to whose butt would be on the line, I wouldn't want to find out. Finding this problem was quite a shock as we generally don't have problems with Taurus handguns.
The only other problem we encountered was with a 357mag Taurus revolver where the barrel was not chamfered at the throat. We took care of that problem ourselves.

The cylinder must be acting as a sacrificial annode to have that much rust on it.