Top Selling Guns | January 2026

The January edition of GunBroker.com's Top Selling Report presented by GunGenius.com, shows that despite Americans’ varied taste in guns, they can still find common ground with a judge. More specifically, the judge: the Taurus Judge.

Making an impressive jump of nine spots from number 11 to number 2 in the new revolver category, this is a gun that at its initial release  left many scratching their heads. Twenty years later, it has cemented its place in the handgun market.

Introducing a revolver that could fire .45 Colt and/or .410 shotshell cartridges was a bold move in 2006. The concept had been tried - and ultimately failed - less than a decade before with another design from a different company. Nonetheless, Taurus took the risk and thanks to what one of the earliest internet viral gun videos, where the Taurus Judge captured the imagination of gun owners as five watermelons were obliterated on camera. No ballistic gel was necessary to convey the stopping power the Judge was capable of.

The public quickly clamored to get their hands on one of these new guns. Not quite a revolver and not quite a shotgun, the Judge was in a category all its own. (To be sure, though, the Judge’s rifled barrel makes it very much a revolver and not a short barrel shotgun - unless you live in California.)

The ability to shoot both pistol rounds and shotshells wasn’t a novelty. Many people carried the guns in the yard or in the woods loaded with .410 shotshells in case they encountered a snake or other small pest that needed removal. Others still staggered the rounds with a mix of five shotshells and pistol cartridges in case they encountered something a tad bigger than the normal garden goblin.

While many initially doubted the utility of the gun in a self-defense scenario, ammo companies filled a void in the market and created loads specifically for the Judge. For example, Hornady’s .410 Triple Defense utilized a projectile column consisting of two .35-caliber round balls topped with one non‑jacketed .410-caliber FTX slug. Tests showed that all three projectiles would land on a man-sized target at seven yards.

What began as a gun that was just “big dumb fun” to many has become an absolute smash success for Taurus. Year after year, it remains their best-selling gun in the entire product catalog. And this is all without the gun being available in California, which is the nation’s third-largest gun buying state. If the Judge were able to take the bench in the Golden State, there’s no telling how many more Taurus would sell.

Not willing to rest on their laurels, Taurus expanded the lineup. The original Judge is now joined by multiple other legal scholars such as the Judge Home Defender, Judge Magnum, Raging Judge, Judge Public Defender, and more, including a 20th Anniversary model with special engraving on the frame, barrel, and cylinder, as well as custom imagery on the grips.

Given the sales numbers for the Taurus Judge over the past 20 years, it’s safe to say that most gunowners are personally familiar with one, or are only one or two degrees of separation from someone who is.

Top Selling Guns Sold in January 2026

Source: gungenius.com/top-selling/

To learn more or shop for any of the guns listed, visit Gun Genius at www.gungenius.com/top-selling.

Editor's note: In the report, guns are rated from one to five within each category, with the number one gun being the most popular that month. The numbers are color-coded to show any changes in the ranks from the previous report.

Black = Steady
Green = Up
Red = Down

Source: gungenius.com/top-selling/

To learn more or shop for any of the guns listed, visit Gun Genius at www.gungenius.com/top-selling.

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