u/RhubarbSpare1756

I'm not really a Hogue grip guy so pulled this thing off of a G43X that recently bought with it and had it lying around. In a moment of boredom I figured I'd try it on the GX2 and with the exception of a little looseness at the heel of the pistol (2nd pic) it fits really well and actually feels quite good to me. So yeah, for anyone who's been bummed that Hogue hasn't added the GX2 to their line for Taurus, there ya go!

Hey all! Snagged this GX2 T.O.R.O. on a trade the other day and it'll be my first Taurus in a number of years. My first carry gun was a G3C and that little pistol served me well for the first two or so years that I was carrying and shooting consistently. I sold it off a bit ago and have since owned, shot, and carried a large number of different handguns from Caniks to CZs to Berettas to Smith and Wessons to name a few, so I definitely have some comparisons I could make to this little pistol. I was honestly a little excited to get a hold of this GX2 since it's kind of being touted as the "new and improved" iteration of Taurus's older pistol line. I was also a little skeptical as I have owned a couple of Tauruses since my old G3C and have had very mixed experiences. I can't say I've had the benefit of owning a GX4, so unfortunately can't make any comparisons between it and the GX2. I'll just drop my two cents on the GX2 below:

First Thoughts out of the Box

- Ergonomics are phenomenal for a gun that cost $230. Not just for this price point, but for any price point. The palm swell really aids in pushing your hand up on the gun and in some ways reminds me a little of the P10C. This is, in my opinion, a major step up from the G3C in ergonomics and if you handed this thing to me while I was blindfolded and didn't tell me what it was, I would guess it was a far more expensive gun.

- Super good texturing and very grippy, but not so aggressive that it tears you up when carrying.

- Polymer quality feels very similar to the G3C.

- Very good trigger reach for me (medium gloves are snug on me). I could easily get my first joint on the trigger face.

- The safety was way too stiff and compared to the G3C it definitely did not feel as good. That has since improved with a lot of manual use, but I still prefer the G3C safety if I have to have a safety at all. Would recommend not to use the safety for anyone looking to carry this thing.

- Very decent optics system. It's direct mount for RMSC and if you want to run a Holosun K, the two rear lugs can be removed from the slide as they're just two little pins that drop out pretty easily. Pretty neat little system that avoids the annoyance and tolerance stacking of plates. I threw a Sightmark Minishot Aspec M3 on it.

- Slide tolerances were excellent, better than most of my other handguns including CZ and Beretta examples. The full-length rails make a world of difference and the interface between slide and frame is one of the best I've seen at this price point. There was definitely more noticeable leftover machining marks and a slight bit of grittiness in the slide but nothing crazy.

- Very tight lockup between barrel and slide - good sign for mechanical accuracy

- Trigger was very impressive. Maybe 1mm of pretravel to a solid wall, no creep, and a very crisp break right at 5 lbs. No noticeable overtravel. Reset was a little longer than I prefer but still a good bit better than the G3C in my opinion. Very tactile reset "click" and a pretty positive feeling reset overall. Very nice feeling trigger shoe with no pinching or rough edges.

- Mag was average Taurus quality. One ugly weld running up the back and some paint-like finish that immediately began wearing off on the contact points. Nothing to write home about. It also really would have been nice if they gave you a second one, considering pretty much every handgun on the market has at least two mags with it in the box nowadays.

- The slide and barrel finish were mediocre to poor (pretty much identical to the G3C), but that's not a really big deal for a carry gun and definitely a small thing compared to functionality and reliability.

- Reverse crown on the barrel was a nice touch.

- Slide serrations are better than the G3C, particularly the front ones.

Thoughts at and after the range

- My first thought when I pulled the trigger was astonishment at how flat the recoil impulse on this thing is. It has so little muzzle flip that if I didn't know better, I would think I was shooting at least a G19 sized pistol or above. It should be noted that I shot the gun both with and without the TLR7X and even without the added weight of the light, it was incredibly flat. The felt recoil is more rearward, which is far easier to mitigate on the part of the shooter, rather than the trickier upward snap typically associated with smaller guns like this.

- The witness hole in the barrel is a nice feature for visually clearing the handgun, but if you run an optic, it absolutely will throw crud on your glass. Not a huge deal and I didn't really notice it until about five mags in, but still kind of an annoyance.

- If you choose to run just the irons or have an optic with a low enough deck height that you can get a cowitness with the factory sights, the white dot on the front sight very quickly gets dirty and hard to see. At least the fact that this gun is set up for glock sights makes finding better aftermarket alternatives easy.

- Accuracy at 15 yards was well above the expectations for a handgun of this size. Consistent A-zone hits on an IPSC target are very doable at speed, and I ran several consecutive bill drills and Mozambiques at similar speeds and with similar group sizes as my full-size handguns. Slower fire at 25 yards yielded groups consistently inside of 6 inches, and I am really looking forward to getting this to an outdoor range where I can push it past 50 yards.

- If you get sloppy on your fundamentals, the larger backstrap will really work against you. I find that my inclination is actually to kick the muzzle up and to the right rather than low left as is the case with most of my other pistols, and I believe this is due to the backstrap. If you stay sharp on your grip though, this shouldn't really affect the shootability of the gun itself; it's more just a thing I noticed with myself if I began to let proper form go by the wayside.

- Reliability has been 100% thus far at about 250 rounds to start. Hoping it will remain so in the long-term.

- Slide tolerances have remained tight after the first range trip, but the grittiness I initially noticed in the slide is mostly gone.

How does it carry?

- I started carrying this in a Crucial Concealment universal TLR7 holster with a slight kickstand for concealment and have been very impressed with concealability so far. It does carry a little more like a compact than a micro since the grip size is incredibly close in length to a G19 or a whole host of other 15 round offerings out there. Though you sacrifice two rounds in comparison to those offerings, you get a pretty slim profile (not quite G43x slim) that tucks in tight to the body. In the concealability department there are "better options" that conceal just as well if not better while carrying more rounds, but this little gun definitely is not shabby at all as a CCW piece. It should be noted that a number of those other "better options" also do not shoot nearly as well as the GX2.

Summary Thoughts

I'm immediately adding this one into the carry rotation. It has proven itself thus far to be an excellent handgun overall with very few things that warrant substantial complaint. I can honestly say I enjoy shooting this little thing as much as some of my other pistols that cost 2 or 3x its value and I'm looking forward to letting it stretch its legs at distance a little more. With ergonomics that feel like a mix amongst a miniature CZ P10, a Walther PDP, and an HK VP9, and a recoil impulse more pleasant than anything else I have shot in this size, what's not to love? All I can say is that if Taurus keeps turning out offerings like this and can get their QC up to a more acceptable standard, they definitely have a shot at moving up in the industry even more than they already have.

PX9 Duty threaded with TLR1HL, Gowutar A20, and a generic universal comp + 9DS Carry Gen 1 with TLR7X and Sightmark Minishot A-Spec M3. I'd put these two up against some of the top brands in the game! Ok maybe not completely but y'all get the picture - good is good at any price.