If one shoots on a club or public range often enough an acquaintance will ask him or her to shoot a few rounds out of their new handgun or rifle and ask their opinion on accuracy, felt recoil, etc. These brief, informal events often form lasting impressions - which can be unfortunate. Was the gun using the ammunition best suited to it? With the current limited supply of ammunition with which to compare one has to wonder how many guns are quickly resold by unhappy owners.
One of the 'economy' brands of firearms is Taurus of Brazil. Starting with close copies of Smith and Wesson and Beretta firearms they've grown into a substantial part of the market and they have a good reputation for honoring the 'lifetime guarantee' on their products. Having recently obtained a Taurus 942 .22 revolver ('.22LR', which is to say short/long/long rifle as all work in a revolver so chambered) I took the time this morning to check it out on the local range. Distance was 13 yards and, knowing what to expect, 4 kinds of ammunition were used. They were Federal 'target grade' 40gr lead(1), Aguila 'SuperExtra' copper plated high velocity 40gr (2), and a Geco and RWS 40 'match' load (3,4).
The point was to see if the little gun was sensitive to which round it was shooting and which performed best. Very quickly it was obvious this was the case and, beyond accuracy, other considerations were demonstrated.
Groups correspond to the ammunition pictured with Aguila top right
The other consideration was ease of extraction. In all cases but the Aguila the cases were solidly stuck in the cylinder and only removed with considerable effort. The Aguila merely required a strong press on the extractor rod.
So, bottom line, so far, with 4 rounds tested, only one is suitable for this specific revolver. But, with the Aguila load I am quite satisfied this will serve for it's intended purpose (training and field dispatch of varmint/small game). I expect to try several more loads, including CBs in the future, and may adjust the rear sight a bit if the low, right impact is consistent.
All in all, a nice morning out in the Texan sun.
1. Federal Automatch 22 LR 250 Rounds | Ammo Yards
2. Aguila 1B221100 Super Extra High Velocity 22 LR 40 Gr Copper-Plated Solid Point 250 Round Box | Green Acres Sporting Goods
3. unavailable
4. unavailable
UPDATE 7/2/21 the results of two more days on the range, testing various rounds through the 942. Same range, same distance to tgt, same old shooter.
The Aguila was hard to extract. Good accuracy. The Super Colibri showed useful accuracy, if a little low, for training with very low noise.
On the left, top to bottom, 40 Gr CCI minimag (a long time favorite), CCI CB Short, CCI CB Long.
I was very impressed with the Stingers. A tad difficult to eject but good accuracy and likely good energy for a .22 from the little snuby. I know I pulled one flyer on with the CCI .22 Long CBs so they are a good low report training round along with the Super Colibri
And, in case you were wonderin' ... as proof of concept, here's a group of 10 fired from my luger at 15 yds just after the target above.
so ... the shooter is good enough and consistent enough that the above data can be informative. Aguila copper 'super extra' and Stingers, with Super Colibri and CCI 22 CB Long for training gun shy shooters are what I'll be feeding my Taurus henceforth.
