I'
ve always been a fan of .22s,
whether in rifl e or pistol form.
For general marksmanship
practice and plinking, it really
doesn’t matter what the form factor
is, but for defensive shooting practice
having something akin to your duty
weapon or concealed carry piece is a
major plus..The closer you come to the feel and
operation of your primary sidearm, the
better the training is for you. While you
can get .22 caliber conversion kits for
many guns, it’s nice to have a dedicat-
ed piece that you can use so you aren’t
constantly changing up your carry gun.
I had the chance to check out one such
handgun recently that showed a lot of
promise and that was the Taurus TX22.NICE DESIGN
The TX22 is all new from Taurus and
it has a lot of unique things about it.
First thing of note to me was that this
is a gun designed by an American en-
gineering team and built in the United
States at Taurus’s Florida manufactur-
ing plant.Jason Pittman was the lead designer
of the team. He explained to me that
they spent of a lot of time making
this a shooter’s pistol with attention to
small details. They really focused on the
ergonomics, particularly the grip, which
is extremely well contoured. It has a
texture that’s just right for a solid grip,
without being too severe.The TX22 is very comfortable for a
wide range of hand sizes. I received
very positive comments on it from
every person who picked the pistol up,
from my 14-year-old son to some of
the 6-foot-plus guys at work. The gripworked equally well for both left- and
right-hand users too. Adding to that, the
TX22 has ambidextrous safeties and a
reversible magazine release. That’s a lot
of detail for a .22 pistol.While the TX22 is striker-fi red pistol, it
has a smooth-faced trigger to reduce
trigger fatigue during long range
sessions. The trigger pull is a crisp 5.8
pounds as measured on my Lyman
scale and has a short, crisp and audible
reset. Another huge plus is that the
trigger is dry-fi re safe so you can train
and practice at home without fear of
damaging your pistol.ANY AND ALL AMMO
One of the things I thought particularly
interesting was that when I asked Pit-
tman if the TX22 was ammo picky, he
said they used a unique testing pro-
cess to ensure it would run anything.
He said that they went to the nearest
Walmart and bought every brand of
ammo on the shelf and made sure it
worked with those. Making sure it ran
with basically the cheapest ammo out
there ensured that it worked with the
good stuff as well.Taurus lists the TX22 as having a full-
sized frame, but it’s very close in size to
a Glock 19/23, which makes it a great
understudy for training with those
pistols. The pistol has a 4.1-inch barrel,
with an overall length of 7.06 inches.
The height is 5.44 inches and the
weight is a pleasant 17.7 ounces.It has a fully adjustable rear sight and
a white, 3-dot sighting system. In addi-
tion to the unobtrusive manual safeties
mentioned, the TX22 also has a striker
block and a trigger safety.At a glance most
folks would assume
the TX22 was
actually a center ire
9mm or .40 pistol.BOTTOM LEFT: The
TX22 is itted with
a Picatinny rail for
mounting lights or
lasers.
BOTTOM MIDDLE:
Despite being a
striker- ired pistol,
the TX22 has a
smooth faced
trigger to reduce
trigger inger
fatigue during
extended shooting
sessions.BOTTOM RIGHT:
Taurus engineers
put a lot of e fort
into the ergonomics
of the TX22 and it
shows in the con-
tours and textures
of the frame, but
it really needs to
be felt to be appre-
ciated.FALL 2019 CONCEALED CARRY HANDGUNS 81
SHOOTING RESULTS MC1SC
AMMO AVG. VELOCITY AVG. GROUPS
CCI BLAZER 38-GRAIN LRN 1,035 1.25
CCI CLEAN-22 SUBSONIC 40-GRAIN RN 915 1.44
CCI CLEAN-22 HIGH VELOCITY 40-GRAIN RN 937 0.5
FEDERAL PREMIUM HUNTER MATCH 40-GRAIN HP 993 1.5All shots fired at 15 yards offhand using iron sights. Velocities in feet per second measured using a Labradar chronograph. Ambient temperature 60 degrees.
Group size in inches is the best of five-shot groups fired.