Pistol .22 Auto
Until recently I would not have considered this deal but I have read postings on this board in praise of Taurus handguns that appear to put them on a quality level with Smith, Ruger and Colt. A gun store here has two barely used (appear to be new but storekeeper says used) Taurus PT-22 auto pistols. Each has its original box, paperwork and one magazine. He's asking $120.00 each but has been flexible in the past and I suspect he'd take $100.00 if our history holds true. I know lots of the readers here may sneer at a .22 but my bride just cannot consistently get the slide back on any auto pistol (we have a .32 CZ that she struggles with) and this Taurus has a "tip-up" barrel. The pistol is small enough for her purse and glove box and I was impressed with the comparatively large butt and grip area. It felt more comfortable in my hand than Beretta and Browning 25's. That said, I would appreciate your thoughts on it:
1- Is the pistol reliable? Hopefully it will never be fired in a stressful situation.
2- Is the $100.00/$120.00 price in line? Actually the price looks to me to be okay as I see them at auction and with mail-order costs running $40.00-$50.00 on top of the sold prices.
As always I appreciate your opinions and advice. Best, Jim
timbroman@aol.com
1- Is the pistol reliable? Hopefully it will never be fired in a stressful situation.
2- Is the $100.00/$120.00 price in line? Actually the price looks to me to be okay as I see them at auction and with mail-order costs running $40.00-$50.00 on top of the sold prices.
As always I appreciate your opinions and advice. Best, Jim
timbroman@aol.com
0
-
$100 sounds good to me. New over the counter is $199.
See my local dealer website here
http://www.submachinegun.net/
Academy is also selling them at the same price.
Quality? Better than good.
About a reliable as a semi can be.
Merry Christmas to ALL
Grumpy Old Man
I Refuse to be a Victim
Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of All Those that Threaten it0 -
The Taurus was a copy of the Beretta of which the tip-up barrel is a feature. The tip-up was designed for the very purpose of easy loading
and unloading by women. Many accidental discharges happen during loading, unloading and dryfiring of semiautos so the tip-up feature makes it safer because you can leave the magazine in and not have to drop the hammer when you unload it.
I loaded and unloaded a Baby Browning 25 twice a day for several years and broke three firing pin tips from fatigue so the Beretta/Taurus tip-up, double action is a better deal from a safety and reliability point of view.
The PT22 is worth between $50 for one in poor condition to $150 for new in the box.0 -
I sell them brand spanky new for $179.00. Cheers.
"If your gonna be stupid, go find a democrat."0 -
timbroman
It is a fairly common problem with the fairer sex not being able to rack a semi-auto. Most try by pulling straight back on the slide with the weak hand and the pistol straight ahead of them. This is a little trick that I use in class that works 99% of the time.
First, instead of standing with the pistol straight in front of you, stand sideways to the target with the pistol parallel to you. (that way it is still pointed in a safe direction)
Second, Hold just the top of the slide with your weak hand.
Third, With the strong hand open push with the web of your hand against the back of the grip while pushing the slide rearward with the weak hand.
The slower you do this the harder it is, but I bet you it will work. Try it for yourself. You will be amazed at how much easier this is for the fairer sex.
AN ARMED SOCIETY IS A POLITE SOCIETY0 -
The quality of the Taurus is very good and the price is excellent. My problem is that I can never recommend the use of a .22LR cartridge in any pocket pistol which may be used in a self defence situation. The rimmed 22 cartridge simply does not feed with enough reliablity from these tiny pistols to risk ones life on them.
One of the major reasons that the .25 ACP hangs onto its market share is because there are many people who feel (as do I) that it offers FAR better reliablity in both feeding and ignition. The .25 was designed from its inception for use in very tiney self defence type pistols and its lack of a rim and centerfire primer make it much more suitable for these uses. Ballistically it has little to offer over a high velocity .22LR, but none of these guns were ever intended for prolonged or serious gunfights! The entire purpose of these little pistols is to threaten the bad guy with at least some fear that he may be shot. Jams or misfeeds in such a critical situation would be a disaster. Once a gun it is drawn and used as a show of force the weapon HAS TO WORK! If it fails at this critical point in time you are now dead as the bad guy is VERY PO'd right about now!
As a test years ago we shot two Walther TPH automatics, one chambered for .22LR (common in the USA) and one in .25 ACP (common in Europe). The .25 never failed even once to feed or fire while the .22 failed to fire about once every 12 shots (light strikes) and would often misfeed. One misfire in 12 is too many for my tastes and I'll stick with the centerfire everytime. Just my opinions.
Mark T. Christian0 -
Thank you all for the thoughtful replies. I will take all under advisement. You appear to have pointed up the basic advantages and downsides of the little pistol and I certainly appreciate it. 22WRF, I did go to the site - nice. I emailed you. Punchie, Jen and I are going to use your rack technique with the CZ in the morning. Mark, I'm thinking about looking at the Taurus in the 25...there is a PT-25 as well but I've only seen them on the auctions...I'll poke around here locally and see what turns up. Interstate, V35, thanks much for your time. Best, Jim
timbroman@aol.com0 -
Consider the .32 KelTek. It is DAO, light, flat, reliable, easy to rack the slide because it is a locked breech design rather than heavy spring blowback recoil design. I had one of the Berettas and couple of others and found them either too heavy or too wide for easy pocket carry. The Keltek may be a bit longer but I prefer its flat-ness and light weight, also costs less than some of the competition. 0 -
Punchie/Mark,
Pretty easy for us all to agree when talking 22/25's. Main point I have here is the REAL knowledge shared on this site by the comments you both added. Most beginners just won't get that anywhere else.
Congrats!0 -
Many thanks again. I've about reconsidered the .22 rimfire pistol in favor of a small centerfire. At the risk of sounding almost too green to have access to a firearm, what are your thoughts re .22 auto pistol vs .22 auto rifle: On the pistol, is the blow-back, eject, load cycle less reliable than the similar cycle of the rifle? I suppose the Ruger 22 rifle design is an improvement along those lines over the rest of the tube-fed autos like my Remington 552, with which I really haven't had any problems other than it being a witch to frequently clean the action. Echoing Outdoortexas's thoughts, you folks are a terrific source of info with no particular product to push. Best, Jim
timbroman@aol.com0 -
Im not pushing these the link is for info only.
But if you don't want to put out big bucks.
http://www.southernohiogun.com/surplus_hand.html
I bought the CZ 70 from them and been real pleased with it.
I thought is was a good buy, arrived better than discribed.
Hard to tell from new.
If you order anything from them your FFL has to have an acount with them.
Merry Christmas to ALL
Grumpy Old Man
I Refuse to be a Victim
Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of All Those that Threaten it0 -
Thanks 22WRF. Yes, nice sites, both of them. I misunderstood your first post and wrote to you at the Pensacola gun shop. Anyway, I appreciate all the info. I'll visit your local when we drive over to see my sister in Cantonment. Email me with your email address if you like. Best, Jim
timbroman@aol.com0 -
I'm glad this thread didn't get locked yet! I'm going to give you an entirely different opinion--one that agrees with your original idea. I think that your choice of a .22 L.R. over a .25 Auto is a good one! The .22 has superior velocity and penetration, and a good .22 semi-auto properly maintained is highly reliable and something to be feared. As a retired L.E.O. I observed more than one person killed by a .22, saw several wounded by .25 ACPs, and one instance of where a .25 failed to penetrate a leather jacket. I have seen .25s enter one side of a steel can and fail to exit the other with the bullet found in the bottom of the can, and a .22 L.R. go completely through. I have a wife and daughter and experienced the very same problem when training them to shoot of insufficient strength of arm and wrist to reliably retract the slide of a semi-auto. They caused a feeding jam 80% of the time. When unable to retract the slide by pulling back on the rear of the slide they tried putting their entire hand over the slide and pushing to the rear. Since slides should be pulled briskly to the rear and released, they always caused a jam using this technique because their hand rode the slide forward. I also considered the Taurus PT-22 and it's Beretta counterpart, and consider this a good option. But.....I settled on giving them both s.s. Taurus Model 85 .38 specials. Research and reconsider giving them .25 autos--they'd be better served by your original idea or a small revolver. 0
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
12 comments