Taurus PT22 Experiences

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ahil925

ahil925

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Well on the 2nd I picked up a new Taurus PT22 (metal frame, blued, synthetic grips) from Academy for $179.99+tax and have been shooting it whenever I get the chance since then. I estimate I've put about 300+ rounds of .22LR through it so far. I've ran CCI Mini-mag (Round nose copper plated, 40gr., 1235fps), Winchester SuperX (Round nose copper plated, 40gr., 1300fps), and Winchester 555 bulk through it (Copper plated hollowpoint, 36gr, 1280fps).

Reliability is actually pretty good. I have experienced a number of FTEs, but only when I've held the pistol with a loose one-handed grip. Once I change my grip to a firm one-handed or a two-handed grip the FTEs disappeared. I've also experienced about 4 FTFs. Two of those fired with another trigger pull. The other 2 refused to fire after multiple strike (I tried to feed these to my revolver as well but no boom). Pulling them apart showed both had powder so I can only assume that there were issues with the priming. Both of these were from the SuperX box.

I'm not much of a paper puncher, but at 7 yards I was tearing apart soda cans with a rare miss, at 25 yards I was about breaking even with the cans, and at 50 yards I was putting 7/9 rounds into the steel human silhouette. None of this was from a rest. I'll try to track down some appropriate paper targets later.

Fit and finish of the PT22 could be a bit better. A pair of marks is developing where the slid meets the barrel pivot, I'm guessing when the slide moves forward slightly when opening the barrel its contacting the frame. Also the hammer cut-out on the back of the frame is visibly a bit crooked. Already some of the bluing under the barrel and inside the slide is beginning to wear off.

My only other complaints are that its causing me to burn through my .22LR stash and that its damned safety digs into my thumb. I'm tempted to take a file to it, make it a bit lower and less sharp.

Overall I'm very happy with my purchase.

I know Taurus has a hit-n-miss reputation on the web, so what has been you alls experiences with the PT-22 (both metal and polymer frame)?
 
I'm probably the worst person to judge that given that I'll dryfire a Nagant M1895 for hours while watching TV.

To me it feels a hair long, but not very heavy. My attempts to "stage" the trigger generally ended with the gun going off before I intended it to (I need more practice with DAO triggers). Reset is also a hair long, when I attempted to rapid-fire (read: mag-dump) I had failed to let the trigger reset before pulling it again the first couple of tries (guessing around 100 rounds in). Since then I've gotten used to it. The trigger does not feel "mushy" at all.

As a side note, its exciting to see fireballs and sparks coming out the barrel, and given its small size and loud report, I almost forget I'm only shooting a .22lr.
 
The trigger on those really aren't bad, I can second that it will make a soda can dance at 5-8 yards. Mine was a long pull that wasn't too stiff or gritty, definitely appropriate for a gun that will likely see the inside of a pants pocket or two.
 
I had one, was a fun little gun, mine wouldn't cycle worth a darn unless I was using Velocitors. However, with Velocitors, it was 100% reliable and ran GREAT ! I had the cheap blued version with the walnut grips. I found some aftermarket grip that made the gun much more comfortable to shoot, had the thing for a few years, put 1000+ rounds thru it. No complaints here.
 
Congrats and good review.

I have two of the little PT-22s.

Mine like CCI Mini-Mags and Remington Golden bullets.
 
I had one a few years back. It was a bit ammo-sensitive and busted a safety or hammer spring (can't recall which), but was generally fun to shoot. After a year or so I realized I had no real use for it, it not being a carry/defense or target/plinking gun. I traded it in for a Buckmark and I've never missed it.
 
I bought a secondhand one back in May, and I really like it. Like most smaller semi-automatics, it isn't all that reliable with bulk ammunition. Runs flawlessly with CCI MiniMags, and pretty much shoots where I point it out to about fifteen yards (haven't pushed it much beyond there.)
The safety is really stiff but, being a double-action pistol with a fairly firm trigger, I never use the safety anyway. Those who do say it loosens up with repetition; some loosen it up by flicking it on and off while watching TV or something.
I like the little gun. Seems like it might even be a good trainer for my carry gun (Kel-Tec PF9) because of the similar size and trigger.
 
Mine was one of the best looking, worst performing pistols I have owned in 50yrs of shooting.
Constant failure to fire with quality ammo that worked fine in my other 22's. Plus, when it did fire, it keyholed, even though there was no visible flaw in the barrel or crown. It also jammed a lot.
I sent it to Taurus. They adjusted the mag and put in a new hammer spring.
They ignored the keyholing.
While it was gone, I did some research, and discovered the hard plastic "buffer" Taurus felt was needed in this design. It is prone to shatter, and Taurus is known to be back ordered for long periods on this part. Firing the pistol without it leads to broken slides.
Also, while it was gone, I bought a Beretta 21 bobcat. No buffer needed, and it feeds and fires perfectly.
After my PT22 got back, I tested it, and it functioned...still keyholed.
Sold it, and that was Taurus' last chance with me. No more Taurus.
 
I had one and sold it after the slide few down range while shooting. Purchased a bobcat and have been pleased with it.
 
Bought one at Academy Sports. Didn't work out of the box. Went straight back to Taurus. Came back "fixed". Wasn't so I traded it. End of story for me. Have had mixed luck with Taurus products. About half worked. Other half didn't.
 
I bought one a couple of years ago for the wife. She wanted to carry, and she wanted a .22, since she grew up shooting them. I bought the PT-22 because it was downright pretty in satin nickel and rosewood grips.

It was a fiasco. Loading it was too complex, it jammed frequently and there is no way old lady with arthritis is ever going to pull that slide to clear it. After some talking I convinced her to change to a revolver, and made the mistake of letting her shoot my LCR with standard .38spl in it, it went home in her purse. I finally got the LCR back, but had to give her a brand new 632 loaded with H&R mags for it.

Back to the PT-22. - Well looking it over, it had several issues. One I thought was light strikes, so I sharpened the firing pin a little, and clipped a half turn off the firing pin spring, and that resolved most of the issues for that, but with rimfire, especially bulk rimfire, FTF is going to occur, but I was down to about 20% of previous levels. Next I paid a little attention to the feed ramp, which had a pretty poor finish and wasn't helped by the nickel plate, and made it slick and smooth. I did this because despite the problems, the damn thing was a hoot to shoot and accurate enough for a 3" sight radius and fixed sights.

I tried a lot of different ammo in it, max velocity to match grade, and only found one that seemed to feed correctly, and it was a 31gr Federal Gameshok that was a bit rare and I could only find online. One thing I noticed about it was it was one of the shortest OAL .22lr rounds made, shorter than anything else I ever put it next to. It was supposedly a HP round, but the hollow was very small and the end was quite sharp.

I sacrificed one clip trying to figure if the mag lips had anything to do with the problems, but never saw much difference, even opened it up to the point where the mag was barely hanging on to the round. I pitched it and replaced it with a new one. No difference.

The original slide buffer was a piece of polypropylene stuck into the slide. Some of the really hot loads (Stingers and Aquila) I sent through it had squashed it flat. I asked Taurus for replacements, but they weren't available so I spent an afternoon making a new one out of high density polyethylene. I ran more hot loads through it, and the new buffer was holding up to the worst things I could do to it. 6 months later 2 replacements arrived for free, but I threw them in the box and forgot about them.

After all this, the stupid gun was starting to grow on me. With the Federal rounds it was pretty reliable, and 80% of the time when it wasn't the ammo was to blame. But I still had occasional FTE's but it would make the trip to the range when a lot of .22 shooting was on the menu.

One day, house full of daughters and grandkids, and that damn coon that was living in the garage was on the back porch eating his fill of kitty chow. I went after the little PT-22, very pocketable and less questions to answer than if I carried something bigger through that crowd, and quiet enough the neighbors wouldn't be startled. I opened the back door, swung around and hit the coon square at the point of aim in the chest as he went over the railing. He made it 50 ft and went to the great kitty chow bowl in the sky. I wouldn't have bet I was going to take a snap shot when I opened the door, but as I pulled down I knew the gun would do it, it always hits to point of aim.

A few trips to the range later, and the mag release fell out, and the spring went downrange somewhere. So two years after I bought the gun I packed it off to Taurus with a list of complaints about the ammo pickyness, FTE's, etc... I replaced the slide buffer to carefully keep my homemade treasure, replacing it with one they sent a year before. The website said 6 weeks for repairs.

5 days later it was back(!). The included a list of things they had done. I noted the mag release threads are now staked - but they also reamed the chamber where - as will always happen with this design - the chamber was peened in a little from inadvertent dry firing. No slide hold back, so this is going to happen. They also did some trigger work, and it seems the trigger reset is now more rearward.

Hmm.. the final act was a little more looking for ammo it liked. I tried the CCI stuff, and still no go, as well as the typical bulk. However I did look at the length of the case (thinking shorter = easier to eject) and after pulling out about 10 boxes of different ammo I realized the .22lr ammo varies a hell of a lot in OAL and case length. And the Federal it liked was short on both counts. Also HP .22lr means a wide nose on the round, and that seemed to compound this gun's issues, and damn near everything is HP. A little time spent at Cabela's annoying the clerks opening ammo packages, and I went home with some Remington Viper and Jellow Jacket.

To wrap this epic up, solid nose, pointy ended Viper feeds awesomely well, and 300 rounds later I've never had a single failure with it. Yellow Jacket, nearly the same round but HP, does not feed nearly as well, and the difference is in the end of the bullet. Oh and that slide buffer, well the ones they had sent years before weren't the same as the original, and it seems the wait was because the stock was being replaced by the fixed stuff. I tried to flatten it again, I really did, no success.

It is now, finally, a great little reliable gun. A joy to shoot, enough recoil in a light gun to let you know it - about like cowboy loads in a full frame .38. It goes for walks in the neighborhood doing larger critter duty, and I have no doubt it will do it's job now if I do mine. Love it. Stupid gun. :rolleyes:
 
I own a basic model PT22. I also own a Beretta Model 950BS, in .22 Short, and a Beretta Model 21A in .22 LR.

All three are fun to shoot, but all three are ammunition sensitive, really sensitive.

My PT22 has always run 100% with CCI Mini-Mags. Yet, the Model, 21A can't get through a magazine without choking on them. Oddly enough, it loves Federal Bulk Pack ammo.

The little 950 is 100% with full-power Short ammo, not the CB loads.

In these mini-guns 100% reliability over years is a fantasy. :)
 
Bought one of their junkers . Mine light strikes and cheap plastic grips breaking
Back to factory 2 times They never fixed the light strikes I use CCI ammo. I replaced with a Beretta 21 Like it so well bought a 2nd one. They run perfect as do my 2- 950 Jetfires and model 20 all these in 25 auto.

I had 1 Taurus that worked a PT-92 but never could like it . Gave to my son He carried the Beretta in Army. He likes that overly thick over sized 9mm.
 
My wife bought one. I wouldnt buy another for half the price for all the reasons listed above.

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk 2
 
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I have an older one with the wood grips. It is in my front pocket right now. CCI standard vel. No probs ever. I like the little bugger but I have read mixed reviews.
 
Are these things steel or zamak? It matters very little in .22lr but I'm just wondering given the low price.
 
I had one and generally liked it but the slide cracked.......twice.
Friend has one. His slide cracked also. Since he got it back from Taurus he hardly ever shoots it. So far it hasn't cracked again.

Now this was a few years ago, so maybe Taurus got the problem fixed.
 
I bought my wife's about 6-7 years ago. Firstly, you can't get round to feed from the magazine if you load more than 5. Then when I fired it the first time it would jam every shot. Soon I realized the lock was engaged, it shouldn't have been firing at ALL! I returned it to Taurus and explained all the problems with it. They fixed the lock and returned it but it still won't feed from the magazine if its fully loaded. Personally, I think Taurus should be ashamed of selling such a low quality product and I'm wary of all their products for that reason. They don't seem to mind selling lemons.

Clearing any type of malfunction from the Pt-22 is difficult to say the least. Carrying it for defense is not responsible in my opinion.
 
Oddly, it was my Model 21A that chewed it's slide up, to the point where it became unreliable.

The Model 950 BS, in .22 Short is also the recipient of three (count them) sets of Beretta Plastic Grips. The left hand half always cracked upward from the screw. I finally found a set of older, wooden grips, and they've been fine.

Now, the .22 Short has seen much more work than the .25 ACP version. It, the .25 has been stone reliable since day one. The little .22 Short is a crowd pleaser, everyone wants to shoot it.

I've had MUCH worse luck with S&W, Sig, Wilson, Hk, and Colt than I have from Taurus.

It's been my experience that these companies have a QC issue, especially at the price mark that they command. If I pay upwards of $1000 for a gun, even today, I expect it to function from the box. That hasn't been my experience. Yes, "send it back, they'll fix it" is the usual mantra, but two or three times? We see what Taurus reaps with that, so should these bozos. :rolleyes:
 
Had 2 of the older ones many years ago. They are the only 2 Taurus that have failed on me over the years. Taurus was very good with customer service - I replaced one with a Model 94 9 shot 22LR and the other with a Model 44 8 3/8" 44 Mag after an upgrade fee. Still have both of those. A loose PT22 mag in my safe seems to get me thinking of trying again, however once bitten, twice shy. They were picky on ammo. And they came apart in my hands.

Moved on to a S&W 2214 which is one fine 22LR, only marginally larger than than the PT22. Uses same mags as a Model 41 for 10 or 12 round capacity as opposed to the stock 8 round mag. The 2213 and 2214 are far better than either Taurus or Beretta's offerings but are hard to find.
 
Yep. Own two PT-22s myself. One is a old model and have a newer PT-22 model.

Both are reliable with CCI Mini-Mags and Remington ammo of most kinds.

Hyper ammo is a no go in them.

These are reliable enough they are my second gun to my main CCW carry. In summer that is. In winter the Taurus 732, or Beretta Tomcat, or a NAA Guardian gets the call.
 
worst gun I ever owned. Crack under the barrel (I bought it new) and jammed about every fifth round or so. Never own a PT 22 again
 
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