Shooting the Taurus 692 Executive Grade Revolver
*With the .357 Magnum / .38 Special Cylinder*
In Part 1 and Part 2, I covered the finer details of the Taurus Executive Grade Revolver. Part 3 of the Taurus 692 Executive Grade Review covers the live-fire portion, shooting rimmed .357 Magnum and .38 Special revolver cartridges. In Part 4, I will cover shooting 9mm Luger ammo and the gun’s results with the other cylinder.
Other than a 25-round box of Hornady Critical Defense (110-grain FTX .38 Special +P), I exclusively fired .357 Magnum cartridges. This includes the fairly new High Desert Cartridge Company offerings, along with factory cartridges from Fiocchi (125 and 158-grain Defense Dynamics JHP) and Sierra (158-grain Sportsmaster JHP, also relatively new).
15-Yard Accuracy and Velocity Evaluations
I shot the Taurus 692 Executive Grade revolver off a bag at a distance of 15 yards. Using my new Garmin Xero C1 chronograph, I captured the muzzle velocity of 20 rounds from each load of the cartridges I list above (and below). Prior to shooting for groups and data, I drifted the rear sight so that 158-grain loads would print dead-center at 10 yards as the gun sat in my hands freestyle.
To simplify the process, I shot everything into groups of ten rounds for a total of ten ten-round groups. I seldom shoot double-action revolvers in single-action, but I made an exception in this case for pure convenience. Funny enough, after shooting the Taurus 692 Executive Grade’s trigger in single-action 100 times, I think the double-action trigger pull is nicer than its single-action trigger pull, ironically. This is fine by me because revolvers are meant to be shot double-action.
For consistency’s sake, I also used a deliberate 6 o’clock hold, and this certainly affected my point of impact, which pushed nearly every group low, naturally. I couldn’t help but notice how much lower the shift affected the lighter Fiocchi .357 Magnum 125-grain JHP and the Hornady 110-grain .38 Special +P loads.
The nice thing about a revolver like the Taurus 692 Executive is that it has both adjustable sights and a more modern and faster 1:10 barrel twist. Both of these can help the revolver better adapt to more modern loads.
Unfortunately, some groups are skewed by error on my part. But this is part of the reason I chose to shoot ten-round groups in the first place. Ideally, I’d have a Ransom rest, but those aren’t cheap and are even more cumbersome.
Hornady Critical Defense 110-grain FTX (.38 Special +P)
Notes: This was the only .38 Special load I tested through the Taurus 692 Executive Grade. Though the recoil impulse when shooting off a bag/rest always feels different than shooting with a natural two-handed grip, it was definitely noticeable how mild and pleasant this cartridge felt through this fairly heavy and ported revolver.
Sierra Sports Master 158-grain JHP
Notes: Group 1 with the Sierra Sports Master 158-grain JHP was the tightest overall group I fired with the Taurus 692 Executive Grade. The reason Group 2 was more open is more my fault than the revolver or these cartridges. I’ve been shooting Sierra Sports Master ammunition since last year for my accuracy evaluations, and it has proven to be generally consistent and accurate.
Fiocchi Defense Dynamics 158-grain JHP
Notes: I had two egregious flyers that I decided to omit from Group 1. They’re on the far left and nowhere near the main cluster. Group 2 has 11 shots because I accidentally deleted the muzzle velocity of one of the original 20 shots, so I fired an extra round to account for it.
Fiocchi Defense Dynamics 125-grain JHP
Notes: Nothing out of the ordinary to report. It’s decent overall ammo across calibers. But I’ve noticed that Defense Dynamics tends to be on the flashy side, at least with 9mm and .357 Magnum, so far.
High Desert Cartridge Company 158-grain XTP
Notes: I wrote an entirely separate article about the High Desert 158-grain XTP load and what it’s designed to do.
Shooting The Taurus 692 Executive Grade On The Range
Shooting various loads off a bench or bag only tells one small part of the story in any handgun review. While it’s good for printing groups and capturing muzzle velocities, it’s only good for that. There’s a lot of nuance that gets left out.
Therefore, my proper introduction to the Taurus 692 Executive Grade revolver began with some 10-round NRA B-8 targets. I shot these targets with High Desert Cartridge’s .357 Magnum practice load and Federal American Eagle .357 JHP at 10 yards. I would have grouped and chronograph these, too, but I didn’t have enough on hand.
Dot Torture
My other standard operating procedure in reviewing handguns is shooting Dot Torture. So, I also shot 50 rounds at a Dot Torture target using the Fiocchi 125-grain JHP ammo.
Dot Torture is an interesting exercise that’s both easy and challenging. There is no time limit, and the goal is consistency and accuracy over each of those 50 rounds. It calls for steady focus and requires the shooter to apply the fundamentals with each trigger press made. I dropped three careless shots for a final score of 47/50.
My biggest insight from shooting Dot Torture with the Taurus is just how controllable of a double-action trigger this revolver has. While any tuned competition revolver will have a lighter double-action pull, the trigger on the Taurus is smooth enough to allow the shooter to carefully manage the trigger for each shot until the trigger breaks. The fact that I managed to shoot what are arguably the hardest targets on Dot Torture—the single-hand only at #5 and #8—cleanly is strong proof.
Shooting Controlled Pairs
After Dot Torture, I took some leftover cartridges and attempted to shoot controlled pairs quickly at a 4×6-inch target from 5 yards. My splits weren’t blazing fast, but they were certainly spirited. However, while shooting these, the gun’s hardwood stocks, though gorgeous, proved less than ideal due to their shape.
I will cover this in more detail towards the end of my review. But to summarize, the stocks can easily slide under in the hand during recoil, making it harder to control the revolver during rapid double-action shooting.
Although the porting changes the revolver’s blast and reports, its helpfulness in controlling muzzle flip was quite noticeable. Likewise, it does become handy for extended sessions shooting full-house .357 Magnum loads, as I was shooting that day.
Taurus 692 Executive Grade Review Continued In Part 4…
