I visited Mom recently and we spent quite a bit of time at the Clemon's Creek Shooting Range. Mom lost a lot of strength after her surgeries, and that has become a problem when she shoots her Ruger LCP. She can't grip it as well as she could two years ago, and that is causing stovepipe jams, plus, she can no longer rack the slide. Brother Chester, the jeweler has been frequenting Skunk River Arms at Hayesville, Iowa, and we went shopping there on his recommendation. Mom and I looked at a variety of small .22's that might serve as pocket guns, and I think we found a winner. Dan, the proprieter, had Mom try a polymer framed, double-action-only Taurus PT22, and she was able to snap the hammer. The tip-up barrel eliminates the need to rack the slide (harder that you would think on this little pistol) and the little gun drops easily into a pocket with a pocket holster protecting the trigger. The grip is wider and more rounded than the LCP, and I think that will allow the little gun to cycle reliably in Mom's hand. Dan cautioned us that these little Tauruses often need a brick of ammo run through them before they will run reliably, and he assured us that it would run well if we would give it a vigorous break-in.
Dan was right; the little PT22 was stiff and we had several malfunctions early on, but we oiled it well every other magazine, and ran it as fast as we could. Between 200 and 300 we realized that one magazine was misfeeding the final round every time, and we did a lip-tweak with Swiss Army Knife pliers. That problem disappeared, and between 300 and 400 we had no malfs at all. The ammo we used for break in was new Federal American Eagle High Speed hollow points. We also ran 100 CCI Mini-Mags through it, and had zero malfs with those. We took it back to Mom's house, cleaned it and oiled it, and it is ready for duty on her daily walks. Many thanks to Dan at Skunk River Arms for his help and recommendations!
Jeff Quinn at Gunblast.com posted an informative review on his site, and also made a good video demonstrating this neat little pocket pistol.
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