A GOOD CHEAP SHOOTING IRON: THE TANFOGLIO MODEL TA22

Image from an auction arms auction.

As I posted her previously about a holster I found for this gun that just fits it to a "T", ROY'S LEATHER ?"PANCAKE? HOLSTER FOR SMALL FRAME ..., I began doing a little research on the gun pictured from my family's collection.

It's a Tanfoglio Model TA22 made in Brescia, Italy. It was imported (and that fact documented with the words "EXCAM HILEAH FL" very crudely stamped on an otherwise very nice case finished side plate) by EXCAM and sold at gun shows and stores and were not expensive guns at all. The gun itself is well made, this particular model with a brass frame and plastic grips with a thumb groove on the left side of the grip for the right handed shooter. The gun and stamping are solid, and I don't know much about Tanfoglio but I know EXCAM was some sort of importer in Florida bringing in all kinds of cheaper, but sometimes well made guns in the 80's and 90's. Some were junk, but some like this particlar gun are just a gem.
I have some nice guns, and I have some shooting irons. I've always shot everything I've owned, and this particular .22 small frame Single Action revolver has always been a great shooter. My dad picked it up at a gun show somewhere, for about $75 of so in the eighties, with an extra .22 Magnum cylinder. His fireman and lawyer shooting buddy friends told him "get the one with the brass frame and the case hardened finish on the side plates", and so he spent a bit more and got a very solid gun.

Loaded with five, it weights in at 33 and a 1/4 ounce. It's a solid hunk of metal, and it point shoots like crazy. From the first shot out of the box, the fixed sights have been dead on the money, but the crazy fun thing about this gun is it's a GREAT point shooting.

Let me elaborate. Let's say the target is a beer can at 10 feet, sitting up about 40" in the air on a stick. It seems like I point the Tanfoglio in the general direction of the target and I hit the target. It's the kind of gun that makes me feel like a real pistolero, when I'm shooting from the hip or point shooting or doing some fast draw on a can or target.

So maybe it's an anomaly or a lucky pistol purchase, but as I recall the group of characters my dad ran with from his twenties on in Houston all had these when they were selling cheap at the gun shows. Heck, they're still selling cheap, just a quick goggle showed a recent sale at Guns America for something like $84 and some change. Plus shipping to a dealer, but that's $20-$30.

I see them around at various gun shops that trade in used revolvers, and one day I'll find a nice one. I can say ours is in exemplary condition, particularly when you consider it's had at least 3 or 4 thousand rounds through it. A bunch. Hunnerds and hunnerds. Maybe more.

It shoots better than my Ruger Bearcat from childhood. It shot better new than the Ruger did, and it still shoots better. Had a new firing pin put in and springs about a thousand rounds ago, because it was getting on in years. My father often bought the firing pin and spring kits or the like when he was buying a pistol, particularly a foreign made one.

He figured the guys selling these cheap imports could get or supply at purchase the necessary parts because they had a stock on had for troubled new guns of some spare parts. This was for sure a *Gun Show With His Buddies Purchase*, all of which I'm glad he made of course. I remember them talking about what a great bargain the gun was for what you got and how the ones they were buying from this distributor through their own small gunsmith and gunsales side/hobby businesses were just shooting dead on.

Deer hunters were buying them like crazy, for shooting at camp and taking into the field as a lighter weight belt gun to accompany the hunting rifle. Fishermen loved having them in their boat as a snake gun. Just regular old every day shooters loved them for fun at the range or for a good pest gun on the old home place or even in the city with the wrong kind of snake.

They are not terribly loud for what they are, and certainly to me are much quieter than other kinds of these guns that I've shot over the years, both import and high quality high dollar guns. But of course the guns primary feature has been it's performance as a good old shooting iron. Just over 24 ounces loaded.

El Fisho Jr. has long declared this pistol his, and fair enough, he can shoot it even better than I can, and I can shoot it pretty dang good. So now El Fisho Jr. has a great field holster for this gun when we are out at the range. And of course, er, em, uh, well Dad you know will need to continue to test that holster with that pistol and others it's size to make sure that it's safetly doing the job, especially after I install the hammer flap to the holster.

So now paired together, a bargain pancake holster and a bargain good old shooting iron like the Tanfoglio TA22. Yeah, I like high end guns, but when you get a good shooting gun like this, it's just a fun time everytime it comes out. You can buy this gun today at a gun show for under a "hunnerd", and probably barely more than that at some used guns stores. Or of course, gun auction sites. Try to look for the ones with the extra magnum cylinders and the brass frames.