SWEET SPOT

by Robert Sadowski

What happens when you focus on building better-quality guns with features customers really want? If you are Taurus, you win awards and your dealers are able to sell a lot of guns—especially to first-

time gun buyers. But there’s more to the story. Taurus not only has made decision-making easy for the first-time gun buyer looking for a concealed-carry pistol, but the manufacturer has also made the buying part easy, too, with price points that are—dare I say—cheap.

I know what you are thinking: cheap means inferior quality. Not with Taurus. Not anymore.

“We acknowledged our quality issues,” says Cody Osborn, marketing director for Taurus Holdings, Inc. “In the past we had some issues. Taurus management acknowledged it, and turned it around with better-quality guns.”

The industry has seen a change for the better, ranging from the the Raging Hunter introduced in 2019 to the fun-to-shoot TX22 rimfire pistol that debuted in 2020. Last year Taurus jumped into the micro-compact 9mm market with a real contender, the GX4. All three of these pistols gained accolades. In 2019, the Raging Hunter received the NRA’s Golden Bullseye award for “Hunting Handgun of the Year,” and the TX22 was Guns and Ammo’s “Handgun of the Year.” In 2021, the GX4 won two Caliber Awards from the National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers (NASGW), earning the “Best New Handgun” and the “Best Overall New Product.”

Both Osborn and Caleb Giddings, brand marketing manager of Taurus, are competitive shooters. In fact, says Giddings, “Most employees are shooters, which means there were certain features in the pistols we shooters needed and expect to have.”

Having shooters as employees helped to amp up the features in Taurus’ newer guns. The trigger in the GX4 is just one example. When I first tested the GX4 and tried the trigger my thought was: This is a Taurus? The trigger in the GX4 is one of the most crisp and consistent striker-fired triggers in a micro compact. The trigger has a flat face for simple finger indexing, just like what you might see on many custom aftermarket triggers. In addition, the GX4 features interchangeable backstraps to custom fit the pistol to nearly every hand size.

Taurus also produces variants with a factory optic cut. The T.O.R.O. (Taurus Optic Ready Option) is another feature new and experienced shooters are looking for in a pistol. Large, easy-touse sights are another user-friendly feature. No longer are the sights a three-white-dot style that’s as dated as a 1980s mullet haircut; instead, the sights have serrated faces and a white-dot front sight for fast target acquisition. Clearly, Taurus listened to shooters and focused on what they want in a gun and how that gun fits into their lifestyle, be it weekend plinking or concealed carry.

The trigger in the TX22 is another great example of a crisp, consistent trigger that does not require shooters to wrestle with it. Although some question the overall look of the gun, there is no question it is fun to shoot.

Some .22 LR pistols are notorious for jamming. Not the TX22. “It runs on any ammo you put in it,” says Giddings.

Old reputations can be hard to shed, and though Taurus has had a lifetime repair policy since Pac-Man was the most popular video game, reliability has increased to the point where the need for guns to go back to the factory has significantly decreased. The new manufacturing facility in the U.S. is a big reason for the overall improvement in the functional reliability of Taurus guns.

The G3, TX22, and GX4 still use barrels sourced from Brazil, but all are assembled here in the USA.

Taurus is now reaping the benefits of its investment in quality. These pistols are a sweet spot with dealers and buyers. The G3 has been one of the best-selling pistols in the U.S. With a street price under $300 (in some cases closer to $250) many new-gun buyers are comfortable with the price. In addition, the G3 series has one of the highest margins in the industry for dealers. There is no MAP pricing, either. Taurus can also deliver pistols fast to dealers since manufacturing geared up in the U.S. Another factor in the company’s popularity with new shooters is its ability to offer the pistols in different finishes and color options. FDE, gray, and two-tone are all available in the G3 series. It is really a no brainer as to why the G3 series has become so popular: price and quality.

The GX4 is a family of pistols that has really boosted Taurus’ new-found reputation for reliability, usability, and concealability. Taurus approached the design of the GX4 with a blank slate and incorporated features conceal-carry users expect in an EDC gun. And like many micro-compact 9mm pistols, the Taurus GX4 has a bigger brother. The GX4XL variant is built on the same polymer receiver as the GX4 and offers a longer barrel and slide and a bit more heft. Not only is the GX4 family popular with first-time buyers, but experienced shooters are warming up to the brand’s newer guns as well; they see the value and performance Taurus is putting into each gun.

Awards and accolades are all well and good, but the real benefit of Taurus’ investment in quality can be seen by an increase in sales and a new generation of satisfied customers. Booth #10338

(taurususa.com)

The GX4 micro-compact 9mm is a family of EDC pistols that has really boosted Taurus’ new-found reputation for reliability, usability, and concealability.