Review of the Taurus PT-22 .22 LR Pistol

The Taurus PT-22 is a compact .22 LR pistol that is designed for use as a backup gun for police officers and others and for concealed carry usage. The Taurus PT-22 is a semi-automatic pistol that works on a blowback action with a pop up barrel. The pistol has a spurless exposed hammer and fires only double action. Weighing in at about 12 ounces (unloaded) and measuring just over 5 inches in length and just over 4 inches in height, the Taurus PT-22 certainly fits the bill as a lightweight backup gun that is easily concealable.

The Taurus PT-22 is an easy to operate pistol. On the left side of the gun are three controls: the safety, magazine release, and barrel release. With the controls being on the left side this would make the pistol difficult to operate for left handers. The two position safety located near the back of the slide hit both positions securely. The safety lever is fairly large making it easier to operate. The magazine release located between the grip panel and the trigger operated easily as well. The barrel release which allows the barrel to tip up for easy loading (the slide is stiff and has no hold open lever) is located above the rear of the trigger guard and operated well also. The sights on the Taurus PT-22 are sufficient for a pocket pistol and very slight to reduce hang-ups in a holster. The hardwood grip panels are very attractive (for what that is worth on a defense pistol!).

The biggest knock on the Taurus PT-22 for personal defense purposes is the pistol being chambered in .22 LR. While the 22 Long Rifle is hardly a powerful self defense round, it does have a number of factors that make it appealing. Ammunition for the .22 Long Rifle is very inexpensive to purchase and easy to find. While some semi-automatics are picky as to what ammo functions the best, the wide variety of .22 LR ammo means that a shooter should be able to find one that functions well in their gun. The .22 Long Rifle even produces more energy than the .25 ACP which is commonly offered in similar size pistols (Taurus offers a .25 ACP as well). Even in such a small pistol as the Taurus, the .22 LR offers no significant recoil. As the Taurus PT-22 is designed primarily for a last resort weapon, the .22 LR is certainly better than nothing. An owner of the Taurus PT-22 or any other semi-automatic .22 should buy an assortment of ammo and choose what works best in their gun. I would recommend starting with copper plated ammunition to reduce lead fouling and the harder copper coated bullets might feed better than the softer lead bullets. Some examples of copper plated ammo in the .22 LR include the CCI Mini-Mag and Federal Game-Shok.

I fired the Taurus PT-22 with Federal's inexpensive American Eagle ammunition loaded with a 38 grain plated hollowpoint. I shot a 40 round box through the pistol without any problems. However, though I have found 'duds' to be pretty uncommon with .22 LR ammo, it happens more often with inexpensive ammunition in my experience which would make me leery of using the American Eagle ammo in a pocket pistol being used for defense. The trigger pull was extremely long but again this is of little concern considering the pistol's designed use.

For a last ditch backup pistol, the Taurus PT-22 seems well suited. Though not ideal for a concealed carry pistol, the Taurus PT-22 will serve this purpose if the pistol needs to be very small or offer little recoil to provide confidence to the shooter.