I am looking a picking up a .22lr pistol for teaching new shooters and plinking. I think the TX22 would be more fun to plink and burn up cheap .22lr, but I think I would love the good accuracy of the Victory. I also like that the Victory has more aftermarket support.

Anyone have both? If so which do you prefer and why?

Poll Fail. Ruger Mk Whatever. Teach new shooters with a reliable gun that has the most aftermarket support. Just something about it feels right in the hand, too.

The Ruger Mk x series are great guns. I have a lot of trigger time on them. My issue is their price and ammo sensitivity. The TX22 and Victory that I have seen have ate lots of different types of ammo, not just the hotter stuff. I shoot a lot of CCI Standard Velocity plinking with my Cz 455 it would be nice if I could just but that in bulk and have it run in my .22 pistol as well.

Also the Mk series pistols are a priced a little higher than the Victory and TX22.

Don't have a TX22 but I just picked up a Victory. I would think that would be the better choice between the two and more versatile. Although I haven't really run the victory through its paces I would also have you consider the Ruger mark ,Similar but better in my opinion.

I won't vote because I don't have both. But I can highly recommend the TX22.

1).  BUY a Ruger 22/45 Lite or any other Ruger semi auto pistol before the second tier guns.

2).  The Smith Victory is ugly.  It looks like it was designed by three separate drunken committees and then welded together.

3).  The TX22 is a really excellent gun and a good trainer IF AND ONLY IF you can personally clean and inspect the barrel before buying.  They are still being shipped Feb2020 with barrels ranging from unusable because of rough machining causing leading to acceptable.  Boring chatter pushing the drills too hard ruins many.  The design is like a centerfire double stack.   The trigger is the best in a factory 22 plinker gun.

I bought one and it is a gem to use and shoot.  Below is a copied post for info with a realistic evaluation.

“Since it was a nice winter freezing rain/snow day, time to shoot the TX22 and zero it.  Random details:

Sights:  The front sight has a screw from underneath.  It wants to rotate in the slide if banged.  It is not a Glock trunnion.  Smaller.  I LockTited it between the bottom of the sight and the top outside of the slide. It stayed put.

Taurus’ idea of an adjustable rear sight is the same thing they put on some centerfire pistols. Plastic with a screw windage adjustment and a screw type eccentric elevator for elevation.   Both with little deep set white dots that are hard to see and shadow the white.  Out came the bright yellow/green nail polish. The three white dot holes were dished opened slightly with a larger than the holes finger spun drill bit and polish was added to try and level the now larger dished holes.  The white dots stayed as they existed under the polish.

Photo:  At arms length, all three appear the same size.



From past experience with a centerfire Taurus and also actually experienced with this TX22, the eccentric elevator does not always stay put.  As I was shooting the TX22 seated at a bench on a carpet roll rest at 25 yards, I marked the sight with pencil so that if, and it did, walk, I would know where to reset it.  It might in the future get filled with LockTite since its now zeroed.  Maybe not.

Photo: Rear sight.  I zeroed it with CCI 40RNHS MiniMags and kept it every shot at the place marked on the sight.



That fun activity done, I shot a few mags at 60 yard 6” rocks in the berm and then one group of ten at 25 yards with each of:

-CCI MiniMags 40RNHS 100 box plated copper
-CCI Blazer 40RNHS 50 box plain lead
-Remington 40 RNHS 100 box plated Golden Bullets
-Federal AutoMatch 40RN not quite High Speed plain lead

Photos:  10 shots each 25 yards rested sitting freezing.  Paster with ammo ID on 6” Shoot-N-Sees.





That done and a few more rocks shot at 60 yards, I put up an IPSC repair center and shot two mags at 20-15-10-5 yards just standing up and shooting.  The 10 rounds at 20 yards was a surprise.  Decent.  Centered and fairly close.  The TX22 is easy to shoot fairly well cold and having concentrated enough zeroing.

Photo:  20 yards standing.



Since that worked well, I added quick pairs at 15 & 10 yards to the box and fast single shots for 5 rounds out of the 35 to the head at 5 yards.

Photo:  15-10 & 5.



Remarks through the first 200 rounds:

-The barrel remains bright clean shinny grooves and black lands.  No trace of leading.  This is after 200 rounds of plated and unplated ammo.  But not cheap stuff.

Photo:  This picture is after shooting and cleaning by running a bore brush with Hoppes #9 twice and the two patches.  Perfect it isn’t but it doesn’t lead and the photo is magnified many many times.  To your eye, the grooves are bright and shinny.  The lands are not leaded, but are darker colored just looking.  This is a good one.  Clean even drill marks on the bore/land diameter and bright shinny grooves.



-Zero.  Nada.  None.  No malfunctions of any kind and NO failures to fire with four kinds of ammo.

-4 1/4 pounds on a RCBS trigger scale.  Steady pull not changing.

-Generally shoots each of these brands to the same place.  Blazer and Remington GB seem the winner.  One mild and the other Zippy.

-The sight stayed put after it settled into this spot as marked for at least the last 100 rounds.  I will keep the marks in a more permanent medium, but skip the LockTite.

-One negative:  The TX22 will throw stupid high shots now and then.  Really stupid.  Like 6” up from the top of the main group of all the other shots.  Beats the hell out of me.

-For $229, I have no idea what I could expect better.  At any price, the TX22 is easy to shoot well and functions 100%.  No asterisks.  It just boringly functions.

-Magazines:  2 came with the gun and I bought 2 spares.  Ran the follower down and back up 25 times before loading the first time and all four were perfect.

-Taurus numbers them 1&2 in the box.  The salesman found me a set of two spares numbered 1&2.  Thoughtful.

-It really feels like a Smith MP9 2.0 in your hand.  Loaded with 16 or 16+1, it is not always empty like the 10 shot guns.  It was fun on the IPSC target to just shoot rather than reload all the time.”

I have both. TX22 is absolutely more fun as a plinker. Victory is definitely more accurate.  I prefer both over the MK series. Nothing wrong with Ruger, but the TX22 and Victory fill better niches for what I want them for ultimately.

Thanks for the info guys.

As I said I have had lots of time on Ruger Mk III's, I just couldn't get myself to like them.

At this point I am leaning towards the Victory.

I've shot the TX22 and will buy one at some point, fun little shooter.

I own a Victory that i bought my Wife when they first came out. Didn't care for it. Added the Volquartsen CF barrel, it's ok, but I just don't like the way it shoots so it sits in the safe. When I shoot the Victory next to my Buck Marks and Rugers, it just doesn't feel right. Not sure why, I just don't like it. I've had the chance to shoot several other Victorys, didn't care for any of them. I own a fair number of 22 pistols, it's the only one I don't enjoy shooting.

Anyone having issues with the safety versions of the TX22? I cannot find a NMS version locally or online at a decent price.

I've not had any problems with the safety. Like you, I had a strong preference for the NMS version. Like you, I was unwilling to pay extra for it.

This thread is as good as any to add a comment about the Victory.  Yesterday at the range I discovered what some have already discovered after I did some research about this.
The Victory doesn't like shooting higher velocity ammo when suppressed.  It blows out the extractor, plunger and spring.
I was shooting it for the first time with a new suppressor.  No issues with standard velocity.  So I tried some Winchester 1435fps and got through those without issue. I then loaded 10 CCI Stingers 1640 fps.  It was during the last few of those when it was failing to eject.  Wasn't until I got home and looked closer that I noticed the missing parts.  I got some Tandemkross replacements on the way.  If would be nice if there was some way to further contain these parts.

The Victory was designed by a committee of four individuals, possibly all drunk.  Each independently did one part.  Then the random parts were assembled by monkeys.  The receiver, barrel, trigger area, and grip frame look as if they are just parts glued together.

The TX22 at least has style, looks like a real gun designed by a shooter, and works like it.

I love my TX22.  Got the replacement barrel in the mail the other day and it looks good.  It will be even more fun when my CGS Hydra Al and Holosun 407k are on it

My Victory has been reliable and a great shooter.  Sounds like they’re coming out with an optics ready TX22 so I’ll wait for that to come out.

The Victory is an outstanding pistol. I’m confident in it enough for use in big matches like Nationals.

I really like my Victory.  Have never had a malfunction,  and the grip feels great in the hand.

#metoo. My TX22 has been flawless.

I put Lakeline steel sights on mine. Fiber optic front, black rear. Big improvement for me. And a suppressor. Another big improvement. I have 10 magazines. Out of 160 rounds I might get 2 or 3 misfeeds due to the slide short stroking. Only using SV ammo and only after 600-700 rounds of rimfire crud buildup. I prefer shooting to cleaning I guess. Never an issue using HV ammo, but I stick with SV for the quieter report.

ETA Lakeline does not recommend their steel sights on the aluminum slide. I had no problems myself.