TAURUS TX22 COMPETITION PISTOL
Small Calibre, big rewards
EARLIER this year Magnum ran a pair of my articles that are directly related to the one you a reading now. The first was on Taurus’ new TX22 pistol and the second was a Battle Royale of compact pistols equipped with electronic dot sights.
For those readers who have not perused the two aforementioned articles, I believe it would be informative to repeat some advantages of using an electronic dot sight:
1. Faster targeting – once a target is acquired, it is easy to quickly centre the red dot on the target and fire the gun. There is no need to align the sights and take time to aim. In addition, this type of sight works better than standard sights when taking aim at a moving target.
2. Unrestricted eye relief – eye relief is unlimited which allows for faster targeting as it takes away part of the restraint placed upon someone who is aiming with another type of sight.
3. Greater field of view – having a wider field of view allows for a shot from a greater distance, but the sight is still not magnified so being reasonably close is still recommended.
4. Works well in low light – red dot sights are easy to aim in the dark. The crosshairs of most sights become invisible in the dark, but the red dot is visible even in the darkest environments.
5. While most shooters can benefit from these advantages, dot sights are especially useful for those shooters who, because of poor eyesight, handicap or age, have trouble using standard iron sights.
I’m sure I don’t have to introduce Taurus Forjas of Porto Alegre, Brazil to Magnum’s readers as their extensive line of revolvers and pistols have been marketed in SA for decades. Over the years Taurus has offered a line of .22 rimfire pistols that have been constantly improved and upgraded. In 2019 they introduced the Taurus TX22, which is one of the most user-friendly .22 pistols I have ever fired.
The TX22 features Taurus’ Pittman Trigger System (PTS) which provides a short, spring-assisted trigger reset allows the shooter to deliver quick follow-up shots while maintaining good sight alignment. Unlike the so-called ‘safe action’ triggers, the PTS is, for all practical purposes, a single-action trigger with an audible reset and which can be felt. It lets the shooter know when the sear is re-engaged and the pistol is ready to fire the next round.
After testing the TX22 my wife Becky became so enamoured with it that, instead of returning it to the factory, she purchased it for herself!
In early 2021 Taurus announced an upgraded version of the TX22 intended
for serious competitive shooting, appropriately known as the TX22 Competition pistol.
Like the TX22, the Competition model uses an injection-moulded polymer frame which keeps the pistol’s weight down while providing improved resistance to moisture, salts, solvents, wear and abuse. Thanks to the .22LR’S low operating pressures, the pistol’s slide is machined from lightweight aluminium with a separate steel breech face (which the owner’s manual refers to as an ‘impact insert’). The slide reciprocates on four steel tabs, two on the steel central block in the frame and another pair on the fire control housing.
It features a bull barrel assembly that adds recoil-reducing weight up front where it helps to counter muzzle flip. The muzzle of the pistol is threaded to allow attachment of a suppressor adapter collar for use in those localities where suppressed firearms are legal. The ½ - 28 threads are compatible with the majority of .22LR suppressors on the market and are protected by a barrel thread collar.
A traditional striker-fire design has the trigger bar contacting the striker which means that the striker spring will influence the trigger pull weight. To break the connection between striker energy and trigger pull weight, the PTS’ striker is fully cocked as the slide goes forward and the sear simply prevents the striker from being released. To release the sear, the PTS has a rotating sear trip that the trigger bar contacts.
The TX22 Competition is a blowback operated pistol which means that upon firing, the weight of the slide and the pressure of the recoil spring hold the slide in battery until the bullet leaves the barrel and pressures fall to a level where it is safe for the slide to reciprocate to the rear, extracting and ejecting the spent cartridge case. The recoil spring then pulls the slide forward, feeding the next round from the magazine and chambering it as the slide goes into battery.
It features a sixteen-round, polymer magazine and comes with a loading tool that allows you to quickly fill the cartridge
container to capacity without needing a manicurist to repair your fingernails. Like its predecessor, the TX22 Competition has ambidextrous thumb safeties at the rear of the frame and the magazine release can be switched from the left to right side for the Southpaws among us.
The Competition’s open top slide is reminiscent of those on Taurus’ P92 series pistols, which not only looks (in my opinion) sexy as all get out, but is designed to keep the slide’s weight within limits to ensure functioning with a wide variety of .22LR ammo. It also allows for the mounting of electronic dot sights directly to the barrel instead of the slide, and reduces the likelihood of a spent case hanging up in the ejection port.
Two, two-sided mounting plates are included with the pistol which secure to the top of the breech end of the barrel.
Each of the plates is configured to accept one of the four common electronic dot sight patterns including: C-more STS, Leupold Delta-point, Bushnell RXS 250, Trijicon RMR, Holosun 407, Vort ex Venom, Docter Noblex, Burris Fastfire, and Sightmark Mini.
For those who do not care to use electronic dot sights, the TX22 Competiadjustdots tion comes standard with a fully able rear sight whose dual white mate up quickly with the white dot in the front sight.
Taurus USA kindly provided me with a TX22 Competition pistol to evaluate for Magnum. I was suitably impressed with its quality of materials and assembly. The trigger had a short take-up and broke crisply, according to my trigger pull scale, with slightly less than 4.4lbs of pressure.
While it came with a very practical set of iron sights, it was really designed to be shot with an electronic dot sight and I mounted a Leupold Delta-point.
From my storage closet (or as my wife Becky refers to it, “Your trash pile”), I gathered a supply of .22LR ammo from Winchester, Remington, CCI and Browning. At the range we set up a series of targets at 20m and I proceeded to fire groups from an MTM K-zone pistol rest. After a few turns of the adjustment screws on the Leupold – and once I got used to that little red dot bouncing around – I was soon shooting well-centred groups ranging from a very impressive 20 to 40mm. Honours went to Winchester’s fast stepping Wildcat load but the other three brands produced groups close enough to keep me happy.
On the club’s steel range we proceeded to shoot various plates, animal cut-outs and – what was really challenging, and fun – a duelling tree. We both racked up satisfying ratios of ‘dings’ to ‘bangs’ and before we knew it, we had gone through almost 300 rounds of ammo.
Early on we experienced two failures to feed with the Browning ammo, but after that the TX22 ran smoothly for the rest of the day.
In conclusion we found the TX22 Competition to be just as impressive as its older relative. It was reliable, easy to shoot, had a good trigger and excellent ergonomics. We believe it would be a good choice for rimfire competition, getting rid of vermin (where legal), as a bakkie gun, teaching new shooters or, just for fun. And, after all, the latter is a .22 pistol’s main purpose in life. Isn’t it?