Last week, I announced the arrival of the Taurus TX 22 Compact pistol. A variant of the original TX 22 with an optics ready capability – one that’s not like the TX 22 Competition pistol -- it’s a smaller 13-shot gun that seems to be a better fit for the new shooter wanting to get into shooting defense pistols.
For those who missed it, the TX 22 Compact has a slide cut for the Holosun K-format of PMO. A lightweight at 16 ½ ounces, it’s not a small gun: over an inch and a quarter wide, nearly five inches high and with an overall length of 6.7”, the gun features the Taurus “SAO” striker fired action.
Basically, the gun is cocked when you rack the slide and trigger movement doesn’t translate to moving the striker further back to prepare to fire. There is a manual safety and the levers are bilateral.
The slide is hard anodized aluminum – typical for 22 pistols of the type. There’s an accessory rail to deal with foxes in the henhouse, to shed a little light on the problem. There’s a trigger safety to prevent firing from inertia if dropped, as well as a striker block. The price is fair, with an MSRP just under $400.
The first range trip with the new 22 was a bright February morning, around 28° -- there was going to be no shooting from a seated bench rest. I only shot the 40gr. Federal Auto Match load.
I started on the rimfire dueling tree with 4 ½” steel paddles from fifteen yards. Moving to the dueling tree with 6” paddles, I did some ‘target focus’ work. I found that the ergonomics of the TX 22 Compact are as good as the full-size edition.
From 20 feet or so, I checked the zero and noted that the sights are ‘close.’ There’s not a lot of light on either side of the front sight when looking through the rear sight, making it a bit crowded.
I’d marked hits on the previously shot half-sheet of copy paper and the EZ-Scorer 12” x 18” BC IPSC Practice Target. I did a ‘walk back’ exercise, pairs at each distance, starting at 25 feet and moving back to around 35 feet. The entire 13-shot magazine was used. There were two misses escaping from the 3 ¼” by 3 ½” head box, one quite high.
I fired several magazines of Federal Auto Match on a range of exercises. I found the magazines were easily loaded to capacity. The magazines were loaded to capacity throughout the exercise to check reliability.
So far, so good. Consuming about 100 rounds of Auto Match, the gun ran without stoppages.
I switched to another gun, the Taurus Model 942 snub nose with the same target and the Federal Auto Match load. Shooting the Claude Werner “ball and dummy” drill, I put eight hits into a 1 7/8” by 1 ½” cluster from thirty feet.
I finished with the TX 22 Compact at about twenty feet shooting the barcode on the target. It was strictly a “feel the trigger” exercise. One hit went a little high, still on the bar code, the remainder went into a single large hole.
It’s a good shooting and fun shooting gun. Going to a little unsighted shooting, I found considerable vertical dispersion with nearly no lateral dispersion. I’m guessing it’s the rounded back to the grip frame. If that’s it, then a little practice will sort that out.
Now if I can find a holster to fit it, I’ll see if this is a worthy trainer for self-defense skills --- and for potential carry around the farm.
Stay tuned.
-- Rich Grassi