Hi all!

My favorite dude at my LGS turned me onto a decent deal for a what I think is a mid-90's Taurus M85.  It's an all stainless model with wooden grips. I've always been a S&W revolver bigot but frankly this might change that.  The double action pull is not quite as smooth as my Jim Rae 686 but it's definitely shorter.  The single action trigger is frankly amazing - I wish that my target guns had a trigger like this. It's the proverbial "glass rod" break.  Overall the gun just screams quality.  Wow!

A couple of Qs . . .

1. The serial number is NCXXXXX . . . my buddy says this makes it a mid 90's gun but it doesn't show up in the Taurus SN lookup.  Does anyone know?

2.  The barrel is marked "38 Special" . . . is this gun +P rated as well?  It's solid steel so I'm hoping so.

Pics for the folks that just look at the pretty pictures . . .

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I had a couple of those in the mid 90's. They were good to go and handled +P fine.

I have the blued version with the bobbed hammer.   Same vintage.

Seems solid, was cheap used.   Decent trigger.  Only put a couple hundred rounds thru it, no issues.

Amazing that this thread topic came up this morning. Just last night I was thinking about this beautiful, and I mean BEAUTIFUL black woman that I sold that exact piece like the OP's many, many years ago. It was my first job as a civvie working at a pawn shop.
She was a 2LT in the Air Force and would come in and talk/flirt with me. She finally bought the gun and gave me her number so that I could teach her how to use the piece.
She was so hot that I called her once and when I got her very sexy-sounding voicemail I chickened out and hung up. I never saw her again.
But...back on topic, those were very decnt guns for the price waaaay back then. We sold many of those and the the Rossi counterparts like crazy.

I had a titanium 7 shot 357 back in the 90s I bought used at the LGS.

Sucker shit 3 feet high and 2 feet left at 15 yards until the cylinder locked up tight.

Sent it to Taurus and they fixed the cylinder and I sold it

My one and only from big T.

Taking it to the range this week.  Hopefully it shoots straight!

I had a blued M85CH for years.  It was fairly rough when I bought it, but I disassembled it and did a fluff and buff on the inside of the frame.  That decreased the DA (only) trigger pull by about 35%, and the gun was surprisingly accurate and easy to shoot.  I shot the sh** out of that gun and sold it in 2016 before I left Arizona for what I paid for it 20 years earlier.

In early 90's I moonlighted in a gun shop 10-15hrs a week. We sold a ton of Taurus SS Model 82 2" barrel exactly like OP's shown. The price was low $200 range and they never came back with issues. Not sure on +P rating? Great little snubbie.

I had a older stainless Taurus .357 snub I shot the poop out of when I was in college, full power ammo of course - young & dumb...

Never had an issue.

The pawn / gun shop I worked in at the time had two .44 specials in the case forever, a stainless snub and a fixed-sight four incher with a beautiful blue finish.

I'm still mad at myself for not picking them up, or at least the blued one.

That’s a good revolver, lots of poor cops bought that Taurus as a back up gun when we couldn’t afford anything else. Run enough rounds though it to get you comfortable, then put it into your carry rotation, or just a carry gun.

I finally got it to the range today.

This is a dang accurate little revolver considering the tiny sight radius and the almost non-existent sights.  The double action trigger is heavy but smooth with a crazy strong return spring.  I'm seriously thinking about a slightly lighter return spring - it's a bit too positive if you know what I mean.  The single action is absolutely righteous!

The grips fill the hand well and the +P stuff that I loaded was delivered with zero drama. The all-steel frame soaks up the recoil too!

All in all I'm very impressed - especially for the great deal that I got.  I love my wheel guns!

I bought one just like it back in the late 80’s for the wife. Decent quality and fine shooter that never gave me any problems. The old lady sold it after she took it with her in the divorce just so I wouldn’t have it.
I liked it well enough that I found a model 431 round butt, 3”, blued, 44 spl, 5 shot, at a gun show a couple years later for something to carry. Still have the big bore but always wanted to get another of the 85’s in the older styles like yours. I’m not much of a fan of the more modern looks revolvers are taking these days.

As far as +P is concerned, I’d treat it like the old saying from back in the day. “Carry the +P, but shoot the standard. The gun will last longer.” Not that it won’t take it, or that you shouldn’t train with +P, but a steady diet of warmer loads and all jazz.

I bought one exactly like yours new back in the 90’s.  I still have it today and have never had one malfunction.

A couple of years ago I bought a new blued 85 when they had a package deal with lowers at PSA.  No problems with it, either, although obviously it doesn’t have nearly as many rounds through it yet.  One thing that surprised me though, is after an internal cleaning and some dry firing, its trigger is as good as any older S&W.

I had one in black oxide, after a lengthily talking to Taurus they said it doesn't have the +p rating due to
when it was made +p ammo wasn't around at the time. They also said if the firearm lost timing to send
it back and it would be fixed/replaced it. So shoot away.

This one has a lot of miles on it.  It was my travel gun:



I mostly shoot 158 gr reloads through it and carry HST rounds of some sort.

I definitely prefer the smooth wood grips versus what comes on the new revolvers. I never could find a finger groove grip that fit my hand. The wife has had her Taurus 85 with 3" ported barrel for quite some time. I bought a 2" 942 22lr to go with it about 10 months ago. The 942 got a set of wood grips to match the 85.

I don't have an 85 but I have a 7 shot 617.  The only thing I have had to do with it is tighten the thumb latch screw to the cylinder release.  If I shoot it a lot, then the threads back out.  Otherwise, I enjoy shooting the little snubby and occasionally carry it.