Toolbox Taurus: GX2 Personal Defense Pistol

It’s been said that you can get something good, fast, and cheap — just so long as you only pick two of those options. And while that oft-repeated refrain largely remains true, thanks to modern manufacturing and economy of scale, the margins between those categories continue to thin. 

The new Taurus GX2 is emblematic of that axiom — except that it isn’t cheap, it’s inexpensive.

We first covered this new budget carry pistol option back in CONCEALMENT Issue 41, before it was in full production. There were some initial magazine failures in specific conditions. Namely, fine dust could choke them up. We’re told the main issue was the coating — it had to be redone and retested. That’s not really a difficult problem to fix so much as a tedious and consuming one. When one thing is tweaked in production it can affect everything down the chain.

Palmetto State Armory	$262
Guns.com	$262
Sportsmans Warehouse	$255

Speaking frankly, many companies in this industry would’ve simply moved forward with their original release date, but Taurus didn’t. Instead, they trashed the whole first run of magazines, addressed the issue, and consequently pushed the release by months.

Once again, Taurus doing the right thing and being responsible — bet you wouldn’t have had that on your bingo card a decade ago.

Now, with the magazine issue fixed, the GX2 is in full production. And so far as we can tell, the pistol itself remains the same.

DETAILS

The Taurus GX2 polymer-bodied, striker-fired 9mm feeds from a 13-round double-stack mag. Or put another way, a plastic pistol produced in a world after the Gen 3 Glock patents expired (to the benefit of us all).

But the GX2 is more than just a mere clone or copy, because Taurus knows a thing or two about mass production and engineering in their own right. You can see the bones of the striker system in there, but the design is more refined. There’s a stainless internal chassis system. The designed-for-carry 3.4-inch barrel is more accurate than it needs to be. It has a genuine Picatinny rail on the dust cover instead of some proprietary nonsense. That shorter barrel is paired with a compact grip you don’t have to hang a pinky from, giving a sort of pug-nose appearance without being overly ugly. Not quite a pocket gun, certainly no duty pistol — call it a utilitarian carry size.

The grip itself doesn’t feel cheap; no Chinesium brittle, rigid plastic feel. The GX2 has thoughtful grip textures applied, and even the plain sections have a nice matte grain to them. The grip is actually a good example of exactly how far we’ve come. A good half of the old prejudice against plastic pistols is probably prior experience with subpar polymers. If you happen across any surviving examples of 20th century plastic products, it begins to make a bit more sense. Many early not-Glock examples were truly awful. Well, there’s none of that here. Whatever glass-filled long-polymer chain fiber resin wonder Taurus is using in the GX2 has the right amount of thickness and heft.

There is a manual safety, but you can ignore it if you don’t like it because it’s slim and unobtrusive. It’s easy to disengage and a bit harder to put on, which is about all we could ever ask — this one won’t go “on” by accident, but some people will still lose their minds about it.

On the range the Taurus GX2 ran just fine with the bag-o-random 9mm ammunition, though we’ve seen some reports of teething issues with some loads. As always, take it out yourself and put rounds through — you can’t expect anything to run 100 percent if you actually use it. Like other short-barreled striker guns, the slide can take a heft to run, so give it some practice.

And while the one you see here is basic black-on-black, Taurus offers the GX2 in a ton of fun colorways straight from the factory. Frames are available in black, brown, tan, cyan, olive, and two shades of purple. Slides can be had in black or stainless.

VERDICT

No, it’s not ambidextrous. No, it doesn’t have modular grip panels. No, it’s not threaded for a silencer. No, it’s doesn’t come ready for a red dot or other optic. The MSRP is a mere $310, and we’ve seen this sell for under $250 brand new. Don’t expect a free hot fudge sundae to come with double-extra cherries. The optic you’d put on it would probably cost more than the gun anyway.

Palmetto State Armory	$262
Guns.com	$262
Sportsmans Warehouse	$255

And still the verdict is: Buy one. Hell, buy three. Stick one in a wheel well. Another in a tackle box. Set one aside as a loaner. This is a gun you can afford to miss — a gun you can always have, even if you forget you have it. It’s probably not going to be your primary, but it could be if need be.

It’s hard to say no to a compact, reliable 9mm that holds a devil’s dozen and costs less than a long night out. Hot damn, Taurus.

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