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Taurus has made a couple of pocket .22s over the years. The first PT-22s had some obvious Beretta 21A lineage with their tip-up barrel design. They did differ though in that the Taurus pistols were double action only and had a longer grip frame. They used an aluminum frame and also came in .25 ACP as the PT-25. The aluminum frame models were discontinued somewhere around 2017 and replaced with a polymer-frame version, the PT-22 Poly. Well, Taurus is again revisiting the PT-22 concept with the all new .22 LR 22TUC pistol.
The 22TUC
The new 22TUC has the same general size and features as it’s ancestors. It’s chambered in .22 LR and still uses a 2.5-inch, tip-up barrel. The TUC also still has a double-action trigger, which Taurus points out gives you a double-strike capability in case a rimfire round fails to go off. Rimfire ammo has come a long way over the years, but it never hurts to have that feature available. Capacity on the 22TUC is 9 rounds, like the earlier generation PT-22s.
What’s new is the profile and styling. The new TUC has a sleek polymer frame with textured panels and contours molded in. It has a pronounced beavertail for a high grip. The trigger guard is angular, which I presume is just an aesthetic touch. The slide has aggressive cocking grooves, although with the tip-up barrel you really don’t need to manually cycle it to charge the pistol. A manual safety is located on the left side of the frame. The 22TUC has a magazine release located behind the trigger guard in the classic Browning position, as opposed to the low-grip mounted release of the Beretta 21As.
The barrel has an octagonal profile and is fitted a decent sized fixed-front sight, which is equipped with an orange dot. The rear sight is a fixed notch. The barrel and slide on the TUC are made from stainless steel. The gun is available in a matte black finish or matte stainless.
The 22TUC ships with one mag, which isn’t uncommon for a pocket pistol. I still like seeing guns ship with at least two magazines, but I’m not in charge of those decisions. I was always a fan of the tip-up barrel Berettas and had looked at the Taurus PT-22s before, but never picked one up. I may have to give the 22TUC a try. I do wish they came with a threaded barrel, as the sights look high enough to clear most suppressors. It would have made a great companion piece for my tiny Bowers Bitty suppressor if they did. Maybe a later variant will?
The 22TUC is only one-inch wide and just 10 ounces unloaded. It should make for comfortable pocket pistol. It’s not likely a .22 pocket pistol is going to be anyone’s first choice as a defense handgun, but as a backup gun or gun for when you really can’t carry anything bigger, it may be worth checking out.
Ammo has come a long way in recent years. A 22TUC Loaded with 9+1 rounds of something like the Federal Punch round is going to be a lot better than harsh language. By all means use the harsh language, but back that up with some well-placed .22 rounds if need be. If you want to check out the new 22TUC, it has an MSRP of $334 for the matte black version and $349 for the matte stainless model.
Taurus 22TUC Specifications:
Caliber: .22 LR
Capacity: 9 Rounds
Front Sight: Fixed (orange dot)
Rear Sight: Fixed
Magazines Included: 1
Action Type: DAO
Special Features: Ambidextrous Safety
Frame Size: Microcompact
Barrel Length: 2.50 in.
Overall Length: 5.00 in.
Overall Height: 4.35 in.
Overall Width: 1.00 in.
Overall Weight: 10.00 oz. (Unloaded)
Twist Rate: 1:10-in. RH Twist
Grooves: 6
Frame Material: Polymer
Frame Finish: Black
Slide Material: Stainless Steel
Slide Finish: Matte Black of Matte Stainless
Barrel Material: Stainless Steel
Barrel Finish: Matte Black or Matte Stainless
Safety: Manual Safety
MSRP: $334 for Black $349 for Stainless
For more information check out TaurusUSA.
Where To Buy
“it has an MSRP of $334 for the matte black version and $349 for the matte stainless model.”
I’m seeing prices of about $265, with shipping, for those interested. I’d be interested if it was threaded, but it isn’t…
Wonder if someone will make an aftermarket barrel that is threaded?
Maybe you should bring this up to Major Boothroyd?
This article isn’t very helpful. It merely reports that this new gun exists. I want a review of the gun. Is it any good? The previous generations of this gun reportedly have a lot of problems (as many older Taurus guns do). Many newer Taurus guns are really pretty good (like my G3C). Has Taurus fixed the problems with their pocket 22?
I like pocket guns, and I like 22’s. I’d be interested in one of these if I knew it was fairly reliable.
Ditto.
Talk to actual shops that carry and sell them, Taurus guns don’t really have all that much more problems than others. The fact that they have such an uncommonly good warranty means that they do tend to show up at gunshops more often years later than others for minor issues that wouldn’t otherwise be brought in. The one thing that hurts customer satisfaction is the long turnaround time for factory repairs. There are some very vocal detractors in the guntuber universe. Bunch of money-grubbing grifters the lot of them IMHO. Follow that money…
An LGS that I visit occasionally offers a limited lifetime warranty on firearms, and they have an in-house gunsmith to deal with most issues. For a while, they dropped the entire Taurus line because they kept the gunsmith too busy, but within the past couple years, have begun to offer them again. They are holding one of those new Rossi RP63s for me, looking forward to getting it tomorrow.
“…much more problems than others.”
I took the wife and daughter there for a beginners handgun class. The instructor was kinda badmouthing Taurus when one of the other students asked about them. Funny, because the S&W Victory 22 that my daughter drew for a bit of range time choked on every other round, and he had to get another for her.
My experience with pocket sized .22 autos has been less than stellar. They seem to be real finicky about their ammo and jam frequently.
There are too many pocket sized .32’s and .380’s out there to get stuck with finicky.
There is a huge variety of .22lr ammo out there. A tiny semi-auto pistol like this firing a rimfire (and thus rimmed) cartridge really isn’t going to be able to accommodate every variety of ammo with equal reliability.
The nice thing about .22 is that it is so cheap you won’t go broke experimenting with a large variety of different ammo and also proof testing the pistol well beyond any reasonable break-in period to prove to yourself that the ammo that is found to work keeps working.
I am excited about this little guy, but do expect it will not be able to shoot everything and anything dug up from between the seat cushions, the pockets of old hunting jackets, or found in old coffee cans. You pay a price for a compact little rimfire like this and that is it won’t be able to reliabily fees everything ever made in .22 long rifle
I’ve yet to find anyone anywhere state how many pounds of pull this DAO trigger is on this little guy. The fact that they aren’t telling anyone doesn’t bode well. I fear it is in the double digits.
The grip size (height and thickness) makes this a bit larger than the 738 TCP and Spectrum that see a lot of BUG duty here, although the Spectrum is .4 inch longer. I’d like to have a pocket 22, so maybe, if I stumble across one on sale.
For the uninitiated, hand gun hero dot com is an excellent resource for comparing handgun sizes.
Just so you know, we are more than happy to have links to other useful articles/sites/videos. If you do a normal link it’ll just get caught up for a few minutes until the comment gets approved, but you don’t have to do the workaround urls. If it’s not spam we will 100% approve the comment. http://www.handgunhero.com (for your convenience). I use their site all the time!
As long as it’s got serial numbers.