The revamp and resurrection of Taurus have ushered in a new era for the company and a variety of new guns. Some have excited me: the 22TUX, the 692, the various Executive-Grade guns, and even the Taurus Judge Home Defender, not to mention the Rossi and Heritage guns. One that escaped me was the Taurus TX 22. I love rimfire guns, but the TX-22 just escaped my experience. It wasn’t until I ran into one for less than 200 bucks that I figured, hell, let’s give it a try.
The ! and Metal Gear Solid noise rang out when I saw the gun, slapped the cash down, and walked out happily. The world of .22LR pistols is fraught with unreliable guns. It’s been mostly figured out, but a wide variety of guns will only run with high-velocity ammunition. That’s fine, but finding a gun that can run it all is the goal. Would the TX 22 be that gun?
What made me purchase the TX 22 wasn’t good reviews or the Taurus fans, but it was the Taurus haters. It’s not hard to run into Taurus haters, and I see plenty of them. Guys who hate Taurus love to talk about how much they hate Taurus and to call you a poor if you think the G3 is a surprisingly good gun. However, even amongst Taurus haters, you’ll see something like, “Taurus sucks, but the TX 22 is pretty good.”
The TX 22 and The New Taurus
I don’t think Taurus sucks, but when you hear someone who does praise a Taurus gun, that’s worth noticing. The Taurus TX-22 helped modernize the .22LR pistol genre. Prior to guns like the TX 22, SIG P322, and even KelTec CP33, the standard capacity for every .22LR was ten rounds. The heavily rimmed cartridge makes double stack challenging, but the TX 22 helped figure it out.
The gun holds 16 rounds of .22LR in a mostly polymer magazine. The magazine has two knobs to pull down the follower and spring. This makes loading easy. However, loading these magazines can be a little tricky. You should only pull the follower down enough to fit one round. If you pull it too much, you can have a nosedive, which will stop the magazine from feeding.
The gen 1 gun I have isn’t optics ready. The new gen 2 gun is optics-ready and features a 22-round magazine. There is also a competition model, and a compact variant that’s also optics ready. The gun does have a short rail for a light or laser.
Predictably, the gun features a straight blowback design. I don’t think there’s another way to make a .22LR pistol work outside of straight blowback. The downside of a straight blowback gun is recoil, but it’s a .22LR, so it’s not a problem with the TX 22.
To The Range With the TX 22
I grabbed the TX 22, both magazines, and several different types of .22LR ammo. This includes premium CCI and Aguila Super Extra, as well as the bulk Federal Automatch and some standard velocity bulk Winchester White Box and Remington Golden Bullet. Predictably, the CCI and Aguila work without a problem.
The Federal Automatch also worked well, with no distinct problems outside of the occasional failure to fire. The Winchester white box and Remington Golden Bullet stuff surprised me. It ran almost entirely fine. Sure, it hiccupped occasionally with a failure to eject, but it occurred less than once per magazine. That’s not bad for bottom-of-the-barrel .22LR ammo.
Overall, the TX 22 is superbly reliable—surprisingly reliable, not just for a Taurus but for a rimfire pistol. The TX 22 series can seemingly eat whatever you put through it. Not only does the gun eat, it shoots well.
At fifteen yards, I could produce 2.2-inch groups with CCI ammunition. Some of the bulk stuff opened up my groups as expected, but not drastically. Nothing exceeded 3 inches.
We get very little recoil, as expected. Little recoil and cheap ammo make the gun a blast to shoot. Regardless of how refined and trained we become, we never get away from the joy of mag dumping into trash. The TX 22 is perfect for engaging in the mag dump for the mag dump’s sake.
Ergonomically, Taruus made the weapon easy to handle. The grip feels fantastic, the slide is very easy to reciprocate, and the controls are easy to reach. The safety is 1911-like, and most of the time, I don’t even engage it.
Well Trained
Winchester just announced a price hike for ammo in January, and I don’t see ammo getting any cheaper. It might be time to return to rimfire. The TX 22 acts as an affordable, reliable, and accurate rimfire pistol. It’s perfect for training, for Steel Challenge, and for fun. The TX 22 proved to be a solid surprise, and an excellent rimfire pistol.
For more information, please visit TaurusUSA.com.
