Taurus brought two new handguns to Texas last weekend, each with its own well-thought-out design philosophy to push the budget gunmaker into new territories.

Announced on the first day of the NRA Annual Meetings were the new 856 Executive .38 Special +P revolver and the Taurus G3 Tactical. 

While Taurus has long sold the 856, the Executive is a new take on the legacy design as it boasts an all-stainless-steel construction and a hand-polished satin finish complemented with premium Altamont walnut grips. Taking the fitment serious, the Executive has a hand-tuned trigger and chamfered cylinder chambers, the type of work seen on classic old Colts and S&Ws. 
 

The Taurus 856 Executive ships in a Pelican hard case-- most of the company's handguns come in a cardboard box-- and has a retail of $689. By comparison on that price, it is a couple hundo north of a standard machine-fit 856, but well south of something like a Kimber K6S or even a stainless Ruger SP101 which carries fewer rounds.
 

Taurus G3 Tactical

Taurus has really been diversifying its G3 series of double-stack polymer-framed pistols over the past couple of years and, as such, has delivered the regular G3, the compact G3C, the crossover G3X, and the interesting G3XL as well as optics-ready TORO variants of the same. Well, one thing Taurus was lacking in the bullpen was a platform to hang everything you could want on it, which brings us to the new G3 Tactical. 
 

Shipped in a custom FDE soft case with two mags and four optics plates, MSRP for the Taurus G3 Tactical is $582.98. While almost twice the price of the standard G3 TORO, it is still comfortably less than, say an FN 509 Tactical or Smith & Wesson M&P M2.0 OR Spec Series, platforms with a similar philosophy of use, size, and feature set.