The Rimfire Report: Taurus TX 22 Long-Term Review

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What drew me to this firearm initially, was the 16-round magazines. At the time, most .22 handguns came standard with 10-round magazines. It was a huge advantage to be able to load up multiple 16-round magazines and rapid-fire them at the range. The magazines are affordable and reliable. My pistol came with two magazines. Much to the dismay of RSOs in the Central Texas area, I soon bought a few more. I would load three 16-rounders and double tap or rapid fire at the range until there was a huge plume of .22 smoke in my shooting lane.

The trigger has a good feel and is comparable to a better out-of-the-box striker-fired trigger on a centerfire pistol. My example has had a lot of rounds through it and really needs to be cleaned but has a roughly 3-pound take up to a defined wall. One and a half additional pounds causes the sear to drop and the shot to be let off. My trigger pulls at a pretty consistent 4.5 lbs with a Wheeler trigger pull scale. Taurus advertises a 5lb trigger, so your mileage may vary. There is a little bit of a gritty feeling while pulling the trigger towards the wall, but once you are on the wall there is no creep past it. It does have a relatively short reset as well. It’s really a pretty good trigger for this price point.

The controls on the firearm are easy enough to operate. The magazine release is in a good location for my hands. The slide stop/slide release can be hit to drop the slide, but I do wish it was a little bit bigger. I think this is the only pistol I have with a safety, and the frame-mounted safety just disappears for me. I personally don’t use it, but it is easy to operate with your thumb. I think it is too small to leave your thumb resting on the safety while shooting though.

In the hand, the Taurus TX 22 feels as you would probably expect a handgun at this price point would. The slide feels very lightweight. In fact, the whole package is lightweight. The action and finish don’t seem to be as smooth as some handguns with higher price tags. It doesn’t feel bad. I would just describe it as usable. The polymer frame does feel to be made of good materials. It doesn’t feel like it’s made of recycled 2L bottles, it’s nice. The finish could be a little better, and the pistol could be a little bit tighter, but at this price point, I'm happy.

As far as performance goes, the TX 22 has performed admirably. It has decent accuracy with iron sites, and I did not have to adjust them out of the box. The pistol runs very reliably for a rimfire. I think I may have only had a handful of light primer strikes, which is normally pretty usual for rimfire ammunition. It has cycled every time I have a non-dud round, and I don’t think I've ever experienced a stove pipe or feeding issue. I’m not a huge fan of cleaning rimfire firearms, and this pistol has been a victim of it. I shoot whatever the cheapest .22 ammo is at the time, and this TX 22 keeps chugging along. I’ve shot Remington, Aguila, Monarch, Federal and I'm sure other brands, and the TX 22 does not care. It yeets it all.

From a competition standpoint, the Taurus TX 22 can be used in competition and be competitive. Personally, I think there are much better options for a dedicated .22 competition handgun, but this one is usable. Taurus themselves now make a few other models of the TX 22 that are more competition-oriented. I shot this TX 22 in a Steel Challenge match. I rotated shooting the TX 22 from low ready, and a full-size centerfire P320 Max from a holster. I would say the TX 22 had a better trigger, but ended up with faster times on the 320Max, due to it having an optic. I would probably buy an optic-ready TX 22 model if I were buying one today.

The Taurus TX 22 has a surprising amount of affordable aftermarket support from Taurus. Spare magazines can be had at the moment from the Taurus web store for $24.99 MSRP, slides can be had for $100 MSRP and competition conversion kits can be had for $199.99. The competition conversion kit looks to include a new barrel, slide, optic plate, and recoil spring, so it’s a pretty good deal in my opinion. Tandem Kross, who is a known seller of go-fast parts also offers some pretty cool parts for the platform too.

In my personal opinion, from owning the firearm and shooting it quite a bit, it’s a pretty good gun to have. I usually bring it to the range and use it to warm up before shooting larger guns or use it to scratch the itch of mag-dumping as many controllable rounds down range as I can as fast as possible. It handles like a full-size pistol, with almost no recoil. It’s a great trainer pistol. I use it all the time to get a little bit more weapons handling on my range trips.

When I get the chance to take a new shooter out, it’s usually the gun that I will start them out with. It’s not a collector’s item or a showpiece, it’s a firearm meant to be fired and enjoyed. It’s great for a budget because it fires a more affordable cartridge, and has a good starting MSRP. I like the fact that Taurus offers a lot of aftermarket options, and the options are affordable. All in all it’s been a great experience to own one of these, and I hope Taurus keeps pumping them out to bring a fun handgun shooting experience to more and more people.

Follow Taurus on their social media platform: Taurus USA (@taurususa) • Instagram photos and videos

To see all of the current Taurus TX 22 lineup, visit the Taurus website: Taurus USA

For aftermarket Taurus TX 22 parts, check out the Taurus webshop: Shop Taurus

The original TX 22 as shown in this review can be found here: