Last year I conducted a long term review of the Taurus 856 Defender TORO. While it wasn’t perfect, there was a lot of potential there. Fast forward to SHOT24, and Taurus blessed us with a version in .327 Federal Magnum. As a certified .32 caliber fan, this was great to see. With a change in chambering, and some other improvements, I was eager to see how this compared to the 856 of last year. How did the Taurus 327 Defender TORO turn out? Read on to find out!
The 327 is part of Taurus’s small frame revolver line. Take their flagship 856, swap the caliber, and you’ve got this gun. Or at least on the surface it appears that way. The 327 Defender TORO is a six-shot, 3-inch barrel revolver chambered for .327 Federal Magnum. As such, you also have compatibility with .32H&R Magnum, .32 S&W Long, and .32 S&W Short. That’s a lot of loads in such a small thing, and the gun gobbles them up with glee. Thanks to the mid size barrel, we get a full length ejector rod to help eject longer magnum brass.
The 327 Defender TORO ships with Hogue Tamer grips, providing room for every digit to help control recoil. With an open backstrap, trigger reach is reduced, but the soft rubber helps add some protection against moisture. As an additional benefit, speed loader compatibility is better than factory boot grips. With these on the gun weight comes in right around 23.5 ounces empty.
One of my favorite additions here is the bobbed hammer. This helps smooth things out when carrying the 327 Defender TORO, especially at AIWB with my Harry’s Holsters Monocle. The single-action notch is gone, so the gun can only be fired in double-action, as God intended. While I’m no expert, it appears that the finish is slightly different as well. The gun feels a bit more slick, with a deeper gray that is more resistant to wear in my experience.
Controls are much the same here as on other Taurus offerings. The cylinder release is in the standard location, and functions without fanfare either way. The ejector rod stays firmly screwed in, with no sticking whatsoever when pressed or slapped. This is a nice improvement in the base model from previous experiences.
A big change is the trigger. The trigger is dramatically improved from last year’s 856 review. Without exaggeration, it is comparable to the Executive Grade line of Taurus revolvers. Normally I would be skeptical, thinking this a one-off. Luckily, I had the opportunity to handle multiple 327 Defender TOROs during SHOT, and this was the case across the board. According to the Taurus rep, there has been a change of geometry inside the gun to cause this. While it’s no guarantee, there are rumors of these improvements making their way across the board for all of their wheelguns.
TORO designates this as an optics-ready gun from Taurus. As with the 856, the 327 Defender TORO uses a Holosun K-Series footprint. For this review I’ve gone with the Gideon Optics Judge. This zeroed easily without the use of a shim, and stayed firmly in place throughout the review process. Due to the height over bore, some optics may require a shim to attain zero. I recommend looking for optics with +/-30MOA of adjustment based upon my experience here and with the 856 TORO.
Iron sights are improved here from the standard Taurus fare. Front sights are from Ameriglo, offering a bright orange post with a tritium insert. This makes for a fantastic sight picture, and is something I’d love to see across the board. The rear sight is a simple trench in the frame of the revolver, so find a load that hits to the irons if you choose to use them.
As with the 856 TORO, irons are currently unusable with an optic mounted. I’d love to see a plate with an integral rear sight, much like the Raven Concealment RBU. That, paired with a taller front sight would make a great combination with the TORO system.
Unfortunately I had to cut range time a little shorter than usual. Between rising ammunition costs and competing financial priorities, this isn’t my normal 1,000-ish round count review. That said, I still put 500 rounds through the 327 Defender TORO, including some hotter .327FED loads. In addition to live fire, I gave the 327 Defender TORO about 1,000 dry presses during my review process. While this doesn’t have any recoil, it can be a factor for wear, especially with a wheelgun. Below is a breakdown of the round count.
Overall the 327 Defender TORO performed well during testing. I fired a variety of drills, and took the gun out to a local group’s range day to get some additional hands on it for the review.
I kept the Hogue grips on this throughout the review, and they’re a little small for my medium size hands. They’re certainly good grips, but for longer shooting sessions or precision work I would move to something like VZ grips to better fill my hands. This is of course very subjective, but I’m glad to see a full-finger grip from the factory. Luckily revolvers are incredibly easy to customize in this regard, so finding something to suit your preference should be easy.
There are some things you’ll want to pay extra attention to with the Taurus 327 Defender TORO.
When shooting loads with higher recoil, such as .327FED, you must be vigilant in checking your screws on this gun. Like ridiculously vigilant. I had just arrived to the range, with a plan to do some 25 yard shooting. Before beginning, I checked all of my screws, and everything seemed to be tight. After just 25 rounds, I went to open the gun and out plopped my cylinder into my hands. “Well that’s not good” I thought, turned the gun over to see a conspicuously missing yoke screw on the side of the frame. While I was able to recover a few missing parts, others were gone to the void. Total round count at this point was 290, with 30x .327FED and 50x .32H&R through the gun.
This issue caused a delay of about two weeks in completing this review. I had to replace my yoke screw assembly, as well as the cylinder stop plunger and spring. The latter of which I didn’t immediately notice was missing, but became misplaced on my return home. This required a second order for parts from Taurus, though the plunger and spring eventually reappeared. My bad. Things went from fine to fucked really fast with .327FED, so you may be better off sticking to .32H&R with this gun. Fine by me, still gives good performance without abusing my hands.
There is a substantial amount of leading with .32 Long and .32H&R ammunition in the 327 Defender TORO. Orders of magnitude more than with my S&W 632UC using the same loads. I’ve heard that .32 Long is notorious for leading, but my results were a bit shocking. Near the 300 round mark the bore was almost smooth with lead and carbon build up. Some serious work with bore cleaner and an oversized brush help to clean things up before heading back to the range.
In addition to this, I get a fair bit of blow back when shooting. Both my hands and face somewhat regularly get pelted with some sort of debris, with other shooters reporting the same with this gun. I’ve even had an RSO standing several feet to my rear-right report some impacts when I was firing. Virtually every shooting session provided a few examples of this, specifically when firing unjacketed ammunition.
The forcing cone is a bit rough, and there’s some rotational wobble in the cylinder with the trigger pressed to the rear. All of these factors lead me to believe that there may be a timing or lock-up issue with my 327 Defender TORO. To help check for this, I took the gun out to 25 yards. The thought process here is to provide a little bit of distance, and inspect targets for tumbling.
While not consistent, there were a few slightly oblong bullet holes, lending some credence to this hypothesis. I’m no bullseye shooter, and this gun isn’t a target pistol, so others could likely do better than me here. These groups are actually fine for me with a gun of this size at this distance, but I’m curious if things can be better.
From here, I sent the gun to Nelson’s Gunsmithing in Idaho for a professional opinion and tune-up. The results of that will be coming in a follow-up article, which I will link here. Stay tuned for more!
The 327 Defender TORO is very similar to last year’s review of the 856 Defender TORO. I love the ability to mount an optic on a revolver, both as a dry practice tool and for live fire. Putting this in the hands of other shooters instantly put a smile to their face and made them consider picking up a wheelgun for the first time. That’s something I love to see as a supporter of the revolver Renaissance.
This is a budget priced gun, so it has some budget priced features. That said, I appreciate the inclusion of an improved trigger, a really good front sight, bobbed hammer, and full size grips. Those make for a slightly improved shooting experience. Paired with a variety of .32 caliber loads, this gun can feel like you’re shooting anything from a .22LR up to the punishing .327FED.
While the 327 Defender TORO isn’t my favorite revolver, it’s definitely earned a place in my roster. If you’re considering adding a revolver to your collection, the Taurus 327 Defender TORO isn’t a bad place to start.
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Thanks for the run-down of the Taurus TORO .32FedMag! Well-written and interesting- also useful. I had been considering a .32mag revolver- after reading your test-piece twice, I have more or less decided against it- in spite of the number of obsolescent cartridges it will fire, I'm sticking with .38 special... Somewhat disappointing- useful information, and the old saying is true- "Friends don't let friends buy Taurus"... Thanks again for getting this informative piece published!
The Executive Grade guns from Taurus are a significant improvement in quality over their standard guns. Those are currently offered in .38, .357, and .45 Colt/.410 as far as revolvers go. I think those are actually really good options at stellar prices for today's revolver market. The 327 TORO hasn't been bad, but it has had its fair share of issues.
If you're looking for a .32 revolver, consider something like the 632 or 432 Ultimate Carry collaboration between S&W and Lipsey's. I have two examples and both have been very solid.