I just obtained this 1988 taurus model 66 357 revolver. I haven't shot it yet, but bought the ammo tonight. The chambers and bore or in very good condition and the gun is nice and tight and alignment is well and everything is fully functional from what i can tell. But the surface finish is messed up and has very very light pitting. It isn't effecting operation since the guy I got it from shot it for a while yesterday without issue. It's just more of a bother to me personally and I want to know how much I could expect to pay for this to be fixed or the cost to do it myself. Thanks in advanced for any help.
Can't help on the refinishing but I had a Taurus 66 (mine was stainless, though) and can say that they are good shooters. Mine was also a late '80s model (looked up the year by the serial number) but looked brand new when I bought it back around 2010 or so. I think part of the reason it looked so new, and why it hadn't been shot much, was because ejecting the rounds was difficult. Inspecting the casings, I found that one casing had a scratch. Tracked it down to be a tiny (smaller than a grain of sand) burr on one chamber mouth. Unfired rounds slid in easily but fired, expanded casings were hanging on the burr. I say 'burr' but it was more a tiny, little bump on the metal, didn't really look so much like a machining burr but maybe it was. At any rate, I am almost 100% sure it had been there from the factory and the previous owner(s) just hadn't figured out why it was so difficult to eject. Anyhow, I wrapped some fairly fine sandpaper around a pencil and, in just a few minutes, hand sanded/polished the burr smooth. No problem after than and it really was a nice shooter. I ended up trading it for a Ruger GP100 because the LGS had a used GP100 and a GP100 was what I
really wanted - kind of a 'grail gun', I guess you could say, not because anything was wrong with the Taurus. I even had a FOBUS holster for the Taurus (I think it was the same holster that fits a Smith and Wesson Model 66) even though I didn't really carry it all that much. The only 'problem' I had with mine that I might caution you about is that the ejection rod liked to work loose, sometimes, so I had to periodically screw/tighten it back down. I guess some LocTite would have solved the issue but it never got bad enough that it bothered me so much that I remembered to do it.
I never put any 'hot' loads through it but did test it out with a few of the Buffalo Bore 180 grain hard cast loads that are supposed to be 'standard pressure bear defense' loads for .357. It worked fine with those. The recoil was more 'noticeable' with them than lighter loads but not bad.
This was the Taurus 66 at the LGS when I bought it just to give you some idea of what a stainless version looks like in case you wanted to go with that look if you do a Duracoat refinish. I am pretty sure those were the original, factory grips - it looks like yours is wearing a set of Pachmayrs, probably aftermarket - I like Pachmayr grips a lot. This one also had adjustable rear sights. Man, my old cell phone took pretty crappy pictures:
