I've got this gun in 22lr (9 shot rather than the 8 you've got) mine was a first year gun and like Ramjet, Tuarus replaced my rear sight. I'd like to have nothing but good things to say about my gun but can't. It's almost perfect, I like the size and weight, when clean it's accurate enough for my needs. Having 9 shots was handi when I skinned a lot. I'd load it with 6 shorts and 3 mini-mags. The shorts did the job every time, but having the 3 mini-mags seemed in some way logical. I've carried it a bunch of miles. The bad part of it is that it fouls horribly. You can't get a cleaning rod through it after just 50 rounds. Gobs of lead sticks in the barrel. I've had it back to Taurus 3 times and all they do is ream the forcing cone a bit deeper. I used a Tubbs fire lapping kit on it. The barrel was beautifully shinny, but it still fouls. All in all it's no big deal, 50 finishing off shots is a lot of shooting. Plinking with it is deffinately out of the question though.
On my recomendation a buddy of mine got the magnum version. He liked it, but the casing tended to stick in the chamber, he polished them a bit and the gun seems fine now.
All in all, even with the bad things I've aid about mine, I really like these Taurus revolvers though.