So
aside from the painful restoration, what else will you notice
upon delivery? The most
apparent is how huge this piece really is……
I bought this piece with the intention to mainly stick
it in my “collection,” and as such, debated a bit with my good
friend and fellow enthusiast Wallace of the www.AirsoftOhio.com community between the
6 and 1/2 inch version and the 8 and 3/8 model, and I’ve gotta
say, his instinct was right-on, he told me to just go all-out,
especially as I already had a 6” KWC Colt Python gas-operated
revolver in my war-chest. The commanding physical presence of this replica
is simply second to none. More on this size/weight issue later. Looks: Cosmetically, the finish,
very much as fellow enthusiast Just Handguns mentioned on a www.AirsoftZone.com Forum discussion thread
said, is below that of Tanaka Works' silver/chrome-plating. However,
Marushin’s work isn't shoddy, either, and compared to WA's INOX
plating, say on their original Beretta M92FS PV INOX or that on
the “Chrome” S&W Shorty .40 (888, I'm doing this comparo
for you, bro!), there is not the same spots of "pooled"
plating as there is at times on the WA's. I'd say that for the
low price of this piece, you're getting quite a bargain. And besides,
from a distance even of only a few feet away, anyone not knowing
that this is a toy will be just as convinced if you pulled a Tanaka
or a WA on them (not recommended -- this is just a way of comparison,
that's all, if you get hauled to jail, don’t expect me to bail
you out). The trademarks are actually rather nicely and deeply inscribed into the body of the replica, and is nicely counterstained in a contrasting black color to bring out the visuals. Everything is in-place from the real-deal, and this even extends to the trademark red striping down the rear of the grip handle, which is a visually distinctive and instantly recognizable part of the real-steel Taurus Raging Bull series.
Size
matters! With my 8 and 3/8 inch model (8.375 for all you metric nuts, but remember
this Taurus is just about as American as you can get, so let's
stick with the English measurements, please, LOL), despite a low
objective weight/mass, it is quite hefty to hold, and subjectively
ranks right up there with, say, a 6" WA SVI with heavyweigt
slide. Tricks on your mind, I tell ya. Honestly,
those who would complain that this piece is too light really are
allowing the spec’ed mass-to-size comparison get the better of
their frames of mind. This revolver’s weight is right up there with
what are often considered the “benchmarks” of today’s airsoft
gas-operated revolvers, the Tanaka Works PEGASUS-powered Smith&Wesson’s
– in truth there is but a few grams separating the weight of the
Raging Bull with even the 6” Performance Center versions of the
Tanaka revolver replicas. Sure,
I guess that it could be a valid debate that something as big
as this piece should really weight 300 or 400 grams more, at the
1.2 kilo mark, but truthfully, heft it in your hand, you won’t
be disappointed. This is all the more so when you add on the hefty sight rail that’s included – and definitely so when you add a sight or scope atop that rail. Speaking of which…….
Scope
mount:
I didn't bother with the scope mount -- it's a rather poor reproduction
of the real-deal, which carries with a a wonderfully detailed
"Raging Bull" trademark that this replica's does not
(hence prompting me to place a call to Taurus, USA, for just that
part). Nevertheless, it
is quite hefty (as is the case with the real-steel’s), and surely,
with that and a red-dot sight on-top, this will be one heavy merry
trucker. What’s
strange about the Marushin-supplied mount is that it’s a two-part
piece, split directly down the middle LENGTHWISE.
It’s much the same mount as that seen with the KSC SP2340
Delta Trial Limited Edition GBB’s underslung Picatinny rail mount.
You essentially screw the two halves together around the
replica – in this case, the around the Marushin’s vent ribs. With the real-steel, the mounting system is much more conventional. The main body of the sight mount rail is a one-piece assembly, and a small slab of metal is inserted into a dovetailed assembly at the junction of each vent rib, which then passes through the open area and is locked down with a screw on each side. Supposedly, this design (which is reflected on the Python’s real-steel sight rail mount as well, and I’ll get to that in just a bit with an additional concern) minimizes the possibility that the sight rail will literally tear itself off of the pistol during violent recoil – but of course, with an airsoft replica revolver, which has effectively no “recoil,” instead of the real Raging Bull’s .454 or .44 Magnum load, we won’t really have to worry about this much, will we? =) Heavy bits: Let's break off here and consider the mounting of such heavy accessories. On my 6" KWC Python, I use a real-steel B-Square brand mount, specially designed for the Colt Python, to mount a rather heavy 20mm BSA electronic red-dot sight. With that combo in-place, you can actually see the chassis of the replica "wobbling" and flexing a bit within the grip panels. Not very reassuring -- I keep this KWC for plinking, and I would definitely not advise anyone to deck it out like this for skirmishes. The risk of something catastrophic happening to the body (READ: the body snapping in half!) is simply too great. With
the Raging Bull, however, there's absolutely no fear. One look
at it's underlying frame/chassis, and you'll see why. When you
grip this piece, you're really gripping the chassis and the main
gas reservoir. Despite the weight of the real-steel Raging
Bull sight rail that I’ve mounted atop this replica (hey, I just
had to have the cute little bull marking, OK?) combined with a
Tasco PDP5 electronic red-dot sight system, the Marushin does
not exhibit any of that creepy “wobbling” that plagues the KWC.
However, having the main gas reservoir right in the grip also causes a huge problem. The grip: First, of course, you won't be able to replace the grip with, say, a real-steel wood grip (but then again, why would you want to? as anyone who knows anything about the Taurus Raging Bull knows that the recoil-buffered handgrip is one of this item's unique trademarks) -- but the bigger problem is that the grip is essentially a two-part "sleeve" that is bivalved (cut in half, like a clam, only with both parts separated from each other) and held together mainly by friction pegs, further secured at the base with one set-screw to prevent separation and loss in-the-field. This leads to the same kind of "separated" feeling that stock Tokyo Marui M4 AEG handguards will give...only worse, as this is in the handgrip of the replica itself. Can you get used to this? Yes, and the tighter you grip it/longer you've gripped it, the tighter the assembly will be...but still, it's less than optimal. If you’ve handled one of the Tanaka’s solid grips, you’ll constantly be bitching about this oversight on Marushin’s part. Trust me, I do. Ergonomically, the grip is huge (hell, this is one big pistol), and to cock the hammer for single-action use will necessitate a shift in the hand position of all but the largest shooters. Functionally: The Raging-Bull unique
safety lock (keyed) mechanism is nicely, if rather simplistically,
replicated (along with a nice Marushin logo-molded key for that
purpose), and the main cylinder release can be pulled "back"
as an active safety as well, preventing trigger engagement. The double-release cylinder used on the real-deal Raging Bulls was not overlooked and is replicated, but the action of the cylinder, both in engagement as well as in its outward release swing, is much less fluid than that of Tanakas' revolvers and even KWC's. A bit of lube and a bit of use will be required to work-in this area, but still, it will never achieve the smoothness seen with the Tanaka Works pieces. Thankfully, however, the cylinders actual rotation is quite smooth. It's not the nice clicking, near-bearing, action of the Tanakas' but it's also not as plasticky feeling as that of KWC's. Trigger: Single-action, this thing is not bad at all. Nice crisp break, literally the same as with Tanaka's trigger, only with slightly more poundage necessary. Double-action, however, it is absolutely HORRIBLE. The first thing you'll notice -- and this will be noticed by anyone without large paws -- is that under double-action, the rigger is a looooooooong ways off. This is a result both of the trigger design/situation itself as well as the bulk of the grip. With me, and I have medium-large sized hands, I need to really "stretch" to reach the trigger, causing my shots to pull down and to the right, as evidence of trigger jerking. This is further compounded by a dreadfully high-poundage pull, and to add injury to insult, there's no discernable point, by feel, where a positive break of the sear comes to. IMHO,
this trigger factor, more than anything else, speaks volumes as
to the apparent low-price of this piece, and betrays its nature
as such. I’ve shot some real-steel double-action revolvers in the past, but, at least to me, this is nothing like what’s see with the real-deal. Performance: Without a proper chronograph,
it is impossible for me to make a true quantitative assessment,
however, using the standard soda-can method, I was able to at
least get some approximations. Even just with HFC134a, it easily punches through one side of an aluminum soda can and leaves a dent on the other side that's reminescent of an entire 6mm BB -- so if you want to approximate muzzle energy from RedWolf's "Poor Man's Chrony," there you go -- but I caution you that such results are likely completely off since this is with a rather heavyweight 8mm BB..... Still, a quote of approximately one-joule of force-output is likely not that far off the mark. Regardless,
one big concern is the use of Taiwanese "Green Gas"
in this piece. As 888 has said, the "metals"
in this piece do not seem to be of that high a caliber -- but
then again, that can also be said of most of the GBB's out there....
Without having completely stripped this piece down for a true
inspection, it’s hard for me to insist on any particular area
of concern, but from even a review of its parts list, it seems
rather of greater concern to me that its striker assembly is so
friggin long. This would
seem to cause a tremendous amount of torsional and flexional stress
on it -- especially if the valve was harder to push down from
higher-pressure gas use. And
now that some time has had to elapse since when I first wrote
the Pre-Review of this replica, we’ve come across some rather
serious durability/reliability concerns. These are individually detailed in the posts
referenced here: http://www.airsoftzone.com/forums/message.cfm?topic_id=47763&forum_id=11 http://www.airsoftzone.com/forums/message.cfm?topic_id=48024&forum_id=11#457520 Well, you can read as well as I can, so I won’t belabor the
point. But honestly, these
posts from fellow enthusiasts worldwide seem to point to unredeemable
weaknesses with the construct/design of the Marushin 8mm GBB’s
that would make them not very well suited for higher-powered gas
use. Indeed, it will be smart to heed the advice of most of the
Far-Eastern airsoft press in reserving this gas-operated replica
for only true HFC134a (1,1,1,2 tetrafluoroethane) use.
As always, I thank the input of my fellow hobbyists in making
these issues known both to me as well as the community at-large. Of special note are, in no particular order,
888, Just Handguns, Howard Sohn, Blake, and Viper6. And of course, a very big and super-special
shout-out to Snowman (aka Snowman40), who gave us such valuable
information regarding Marushin’s promised servicing as well as
the design fault of part 32/83.
Without your Forum posts, everyone, this review would not
have been complete. Pictures: The group pix of some of my select "silver" pieces shows the finish of the Raging Bull with the Tanaka Smith & Wesson Performance Center M29 Flatside alongside. Right next to it is the Marushin Derringer SSB in their more traditional silver finish. Note that this silver finish differs from that on the Raging Bull in that the Bull's "silver/chrome actually has the ability to pick up finger-oils, and better replicates that of a real-steel finish.
Up-close and in real-life, though, the Tanaka's finish looks much richer and deeper than that seen on either of the Marushins. Also in that group picture, as you can see, are the Western Arms Smith & Wesson Shorty .40 (whose silver/chrome finish looks very much like the Tanaka's finish), the Western Arms Shibuya Shop Colt CDP (whose slide is of a matte, finely stippled "overspray" silver finish and is NOT glossy), and, at the upper right hand corner, my self-built BB-IPSC "Limited Class" replica (which has a silver-on-silver tone-on-tone finish), with a PGC slide that's matte silver raw aluminum in finish, with a polished aluminum Smoking Hole Pistol Design BlackHole magwell.
I hope that pic will help potential buyers get a better of what to expect.
Note the wonderful blued-metal finish on the "Premium Edition," which, just as real blued metal as well as the "blued" finish on the Maruzen PPK/S replica, can pick up finger-oils to reproduce that effect. For those who are fans of that finish (which, when "polished," looks quite shiny), this is a wonderful replica. I've added it to my "collection." I know that there have been a lot of questions and hype regarding both of these items, and hopefully, with these pix, other hobbyists and collectors can make some good choices.
Gas Capacity: Typically, I get about a 3 to 4 second fill with true HFC134a -- about 1/2 to 2/3 the capacity of a double-stacker WA magazine, I'd say. I let the replica warm to room temp (appx 65 deg. F) for about 5 minutes, during which time I loaded and tamped-down my 18 shells, which takes an average of about 2 minutes for me to do by hand. I then discharged the replica in single-action, one shot after the next. After a load of 6 has been discharged, I would dump the expended shells, and then re-load with the next set of pre-loaded cartridges. The average time it takes me to reload and discharge all 18 shells is just under 40 seconds. This
netted near full-strength shots for well over 54 rounds (3 sets
of 18). I stopped after that because I was getting bored. =)
And also because, of course, that is more than sufficient for
one course-of-fire Reloading: Now, of course, per every 18 shots, the replica had about a two minute rest as I re-loaded my shells. This time to re-expand the cooled gasses should have resulted in slightly higher gas-efficiency...but I doubt that you'd have trouble even if you just constantly rapid-fired. In any case, during reloads, due to the fact that:
(1)
no "speed loader"
is as of yet available for the hunting-purpose real-steel Raging
Bull, and because (2) it takes two hands to simultaneously trip the double chamber release mechanism …the
best technique I've found to re-load this replica is to simply
keep your left hand on the frame and cylinder, using your fingers
to rotate the cylinder to align the slots as you reload shells,
by hand, With such practiced motions, you actually can unlatch and swing out the chamber, dump the expended shells with your left hand all as you're grabbing for your first reload shell(s), reload, spin the chamber with your left fingers as you reach for the next set of shells, and then reload again. Even then, getting 18 shells out in less than 30 seconds will require practice, and getting that out in under 20 will likely require a LOT of practice due to the particular construction of this replica's cylinder internals as well as its shell, which I described on AirsoftZone: "...And the shells......now, I have yet to see any speed-loader for the Raging Bulls (which are typically hunting hand-cannons), in either .454 or .44 MAG calibers, and if none are available (or if incapable of being modified), then loading the shells is a bitch, too, as although the casings have a mock neck/throat as with real shells, the lack of a smooth bullet/ball surface at the head makes it so that unless you properly seat each shell in its slot, it simply will not go in smoothly..." (source) Accuracy tests: I found this to be rather disappointing. At appx. 5 meters, I'm unable to hold anything better than a 2.5 to 3 cm grouping. This is opposed to, for example, a stock WA double-stacker, for which I can actually quite easily hold a 2 to 2.4 cm grouping under the same circumstances, and that's with a considerably shorter inner barrel. Also to further put this in perspective, my Guarder/IS non-Hop 6.03 mm diam. inner barrel fitted double-stacker "Limited Class" of 5" WA double-stacker base construct, can easily stay well under 1.5 cm in terms of groupings at that range, provided that high-quality BB's are used. At the same time, even a *stock* WA SVI Championship .45, which is "factory built" for BB-IPSC with an extended non-Hop inner barrel, can easily hit marks under 1.3 cm in grouping. And
once you step up to a professionally tuned balls-out "Open
Class" race gun, such as my "DumboRAT Special"
by Clarence Lai/Airsoft Surgeon, you're looking at 0.7 to
0.8 cm groupings..... Sure, revolvers will typically compete in their own separate “Class” for BB-IPSC and other such events, but the accuracy, or lack thereof, for this revolver is defnitely nothing to be proud of. This is also further confirmed by fellow hobbyist MMZ_Cee, who also expressed his disappointment with the relative lack of accuracy from his Marushin Anaconda – and yes, MMZ_Cee is also an experienced GBB hobbyist. Why such poor accuracy? So why this poor performance from the Raging Bull? My best guess is that it's subjective -- that it comes from my interaction with the piece. The
trigger pull, even when on single action, is rather heavy, and
typically causes me to "pull" the shots. And when
one tries to compensate for that, it just becomes inconsistent
overall, as any such human effort will induce extra variability. This actually has been the case with MMZ_Cee’s interaction with his Marushin replica as well – as I cited before, it seems that the trigger pull of these double-action modern revolver replicas is just too heavy for their own good. A secondary concern is again the grips. Should the grip "sleeve" rotate axially due to hand-torque at a different rate than the actual pistol chassis (being a car-guy, I like to think of it as "slip angle," instead of between the tire [tyre for all you Brits!] and the wheel, here, instead, as such between the rubber of the grip vs. the chassis of the replica), this causes a slight mal-alignment between the shooter's hand/arm and the actual pistol's bore axis. Add to that the additional and near-instataneous (and therefore unable to be compensated for accurately) induction of additional torque during the heavy trigger pull, and what you get here is quite a bit of instability/inaccuracy within the system. Not
the best BB-IPSC chassis, IMHO. Summary:
Overall, if I were to advise
someone looking to purchase this as a skirmish sidearm or a
BB-IPSC competition revolver, I honestly think that I’d tell
them to just go with the Tanaka Works’ PEGASUS-powered replicas.
Truthfully, the Marushin’s are too large and too delicate
for either such purpose, and also is not accurate enough, overall,
to fill the second’s needs.
But if what you are seeking is a honking large revolver for your collection, then seriously, look no further. This piece tops them all. External Links: http://www.taurususa.com/ - "loads of goodies in so far as reference Raging Bull literature/reviews in real-steel format, as well as offers some goodies that you can purchase for yourself, such as a hat, T-shirt, gun rug/case, and even that ultra-cool Raging Bull trademarked sight rail."
Site links: Possible Raging Bull fault Comment on this article in the forums Last modified: Saturday, January 11, 2003 8:23 PM Copyright ArniesAirsoft
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