It appears that the micro 9mm wars are still far from over. Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon and trying to outdo one another. I’m a huge fan of the micro 9mm handguns. We can have anywhere from 10 rounds all the way up to 13+ rounds in a sub-compact handgun/ These are just great for concealed carry – and the best thing is, they are all very shootable – more than accurate enough for self-defense.
Taurus is the latest gun maker to jump on the itty-bitty 9mm Parabellum pistol bandwagon, and they are coming on strong, too. When I first received a press release on this new model – GX4 – I knew I wanted one. Unfortunately, I no longer have any contacts at Taurus – they changed companies that handle their PR work, and I presently can’t get any samples to test and write about. And, the GX4 took more than four months to appear on local FFL shelves – but it was worth the wait.
Anyone who has followed my writings over the past 30 years, will know that, for many, many years, I was not a fan of Taurus handguns. They simply weren’t made for the long haul – they weren’t even “fitted” – they were simply assembled seemingly with no care if the guns even fired. A large detective agency I worked for, issued mostly Taurus revolvers to their uniformed officers, and I was the Investigations Manager, and I also maintained the firearms for the company. I spent a lot of time repairing all those .38 Special revolvers – so much so, that I kept an inventory of the most parts that failed in those guns.
I’m happy to report, all this changed at least 20 years ago, and Taurus is now producing some excellent firearms, and have even come up with some innovative designs of their own. My own wife, claims that she “collects” Taurus handguns – but only those that fit her hand. Her CCW weapon in her purse, is a Taurus G2c – she was carrying the PT111 for a long time, and I tried to get her to take a G3c, but she liked the way that the G2c felt in her hand. She is deadly accurate with it. She has habitually carried a spare 17-round magazine to spplement the 12-round magazine in the pistol.
The local FFL discount store in our neck of the woods, got two of the GX4 guns in, just an hour before we stopped in to pick up some ammo – if they even had any. My wife came out to the truck, and told me about the GX4, and I sent her back in to get one of them. I haven’t been in any stores since this pandemic started – I’m at a triple risk of dying if I caught it – so my wife does all the shopping. Sad to say, we had just spent over $1,000 on survival foods in the previous two weeks, so our funds were very low. Retail price on the GX4 is just a hair under $400 – this store had those guns marked for $299.97 – a great deal. Put it on a credit card, of course.
As soon as we got home, the wife grabbed the GX4 and tested it on our small homestead – she was in love with it. Wanted me to give it to her, as an early birthday present. I had to think on that – I had just given her a Ruger LCP MAX a few weeks before, for her birthday. Payday rolled around a few days later, and I should have used all of that money to pay off two gun samples I decided to keep. Instead, we only paid on one gun sample, and ran back to the store and got another GX4 for my wife. Just hope she remembers that this gun is a Christmas present when that day rolls around.
Specifications
Some specs are in order, for those of you who are new to this new Taurus. The gun, as already mentioned, is chambered in standard 9×19 mm Parabellum. However, unlike many other Taurus handguns, this one is not rated to shoot +P ammo through it – very understandable, considering the size of the gun – its small. The barrel is a mere 3.06-inches long – about as short as you can make it – if you want serious accuracy. The black plastic carrying case the gun comes in, states it has two 11-round magazines – nope, didn’t happen – it came with one 10-round and one 11-round magazine – both guns we purchased said this – and it is next to impossible to call Taurus and talk to a real human being, so we let this mistake slip without any complaints.
The firing system is striker-fired, like so many other polymer-framed handguns. But Taurus tweaked their trigger pull – it is short and very crisp, and has a short reset, I like it – a lot. It was hard to get a trigger pull weight, but I’m guesstimating it came in around 6 lbs. This is a single-action trigger, no pulling the trigger a second time if the gun doesn’t fire – not a problem as I’ve always taught students to just do a “tap-rack-bang” drill…tap the bottom of the magazine, rack the slide to eject the bad round and pull the trigger – “bang” – and it works well. There are cocking serrations on the side of the slide, front and rear – great!
The frame is all-black polymer, nicely done, and the sides of the grip and front and rear backstrap have a great texturing to them – a little rougher than extra-fine sandpaper, but it isn’t hard on the hand – and provides a great gripping surface. The barrel is black alloy, and the barrel and slide have a black DLC coating for a non-reflective look, and its durable, too. The slide has a satin black gas nitride coating.
Most other 9mm micro pistols only have the backstrap that is molded into the grip. Not so with the Taurus, it comes with two replaceable backstraps, the larger one gives you an overall length of 6.05-inches and the smaller one is at 5.8-inches…I left the larger backstrap on it – felt better in my hand, and my wife’s hand as well.
The gun only weighs in at 18.5-ounces unloaded, and the front sight has a white dot on it – while the rear sight is all black. Now, don’t get discouraged, the sights are easily replaceable, and with a few tools, you can replace the sights yourself. I was more than a little surprised to see that Taurus has a great inventory of parts – in-stock – for the GX4 – including sights – and you can replace the factory sights with tritium night sights and they are very reasonably priced. Plus they have a good inventory of spare magazines including a 13-round magazine, as well as the 10 and 11 round magazines, No one else has mags for this gun – yet. Plus, they have a good selection of holsters in-stock – something that is always a pain-in-the-neck to find when new guns come on the market – excellent!
The last time I ordered some spare magazines from Taurus, I waited about four months to get them – so its nice to see a full inventory on the Taurus website with magazines and everything else you might want for this new pistol…and prices aren’t too bad, either. One “small” item pun intended is a keychain that is in the shape of the GX4 – a little plastic replica of the gun – however, it isn’t just a keychain, on the butt of the gun, is a small protrusion – this is meant to be a disassembly tool, and it works great. To take the gun apart, remove the magazine, check and make sure the chamber is empty, and pull the trigger, while holding the trigger back, you can turn a little screw on the right side of the frame, and it releases the frame and you slide it off…the rest is easy…to reassemble, just put the barrel back in the slide, along with the recoil spring and slide in back onto the frame – simple as that.
We purchased a couple spare 13-round magazines – one for my gun and one for the wife’s. They fit and function perfectly – and it gives your pinky finger someplace to go – instead of dangling under the 10 or 11 round magazines. We also purchased some pinky catcher magazine base plates, and it makes the gun feel even that much better in the hand…I wish Taurus would have made these pinky catcher mag base places about a quarter inch longer – but they provide the added length to the magazine – makes the gun not only feel better, but shoot better – but still a small portion of your pinky finger will not be covered…I’m betting good money that, someone like Pearce Grip will make a mag base plate that will allow a full finger grip on the gun. I’m just surprised that Taurus didn’t include at least one of their own pinky catchers in the box – they didn’t- and they run $4.99 each.
If I were carrying a GX4 on a daily basis, for my CCW gun, I would put the 11-round mag in the gun, and that would give me 11+1 rounds on-tap, and the 13-round mag would be on my hip for a reload. You can also purchase a conversion kit from Taurus, converting the 11-round magazine to a 13-round version – just a longer and stouter spring, and the longer base plate and you’re good to go.
As we are all still painfully aware, we are in the worst ammo drought in history, and as of this writing, it isn’t getting any better. Of course, China Joe, stopped the importation of Russian-made ammo and firearms, and I discovered that 40% of the ammo sold in the USA was Russian-made – ouch! That’s a big dent in the inventories of ammo. However, Remington just came back online and are producing good ol’ American -made ammo – however, even now, they can’t fill the void in the already super-tight and expensive ammo supplies. So, we will be short of ammo for a long time to come – and are at the mercy of the wholesale and retail outlets that sell ammo.
Our Shooting Tests
I only fired 100-rds of 9mm through my GX4 sample and I didn’t ask my wife to keep count on the number of rounds she fired, but I know it was more than I did. There were zero malfunctions in either gun. From Black Hills Ammunition www.black-hills.com I had their 100-gr HoneyBadger load, one of my favorite self-defense loads, their 115-gr FMJ, and a little bit of 124-gr JHP – no problems were encountered. I had the target out to 15-yards, and rested the GX4 over a sleeping bag, on top of a huge boulder for my testing. If I did my part, I was keeping all shot groups inside of 3.5-inches – that is outstanding for a micro compact pistol.
As already mentioned, this gun retails for a tad under $400 – and we got them for $299.97 each – that is well under the prices of other similar 9mm handguns are selling for, it is several hundred dollars less than similar guns and in some cases, well under $200 less than similar guns – that’s a deal if you ask me. Taurus is producing some great firearms these days, and I don’t expect any long-term problems with this new GX4 – pick one up – you’ll love it.