According to company sources, the striker-fired, polymer-framed Taurus TS9 was developed to appeal to military and police customers. However, it recently appeared on the U.S. civilian market due to a production overrun. And it comes at a price that won’t break the bank.
The Taurus TS9 Hits the U.S. Civilian Market
Company sources state the Philippine National Police (PNP) placed orders for 10,000 guns, which were delivered in 2019. The PNP tested the TS9 with a military-style regimen. The test involved three randomly selected pistols evaluated for function after being dropped in mud, sand, and water. This was followed by a 20,000-round endurance test.
All made the grade, experiencing no failures during the endurance test portion. I didn’t learn about this until after I completed my test & evaluation. It was more a relief than a surprise.
Many of the TS9 design features appear intended to improve its reliability on the battlefield. However, you don’t have to get too far into the gun to realize it’s not your typical striker-fired polymer-framed pistol.
Anytime I see a new engineering approach, I always wonder just how durable it will prove in actual use. Such was my feeling with the TS9, but the PNP endurance testing put those concerns to rest. I didn’t do any torture testing on my sample gun. However, I found that it worked flawlessly with flat point and round nose FMJ ball and four different styles of hollow points.
It never missed a beat. In fact, my only disappointment was that the pistol I tested demonstrated only average accuracy. I won’t be competing in a bullseye match with the TS9, but it shoots as well as some of its more expensive and less feature-rich peers.
The TS9 MSRP is $499, but the lowest online retail prices I found were around $380, which included shipping. For a military-grade pistol, that looks like a good deal.
The TS9 In Detail
Before I get into the engineering, here’s a rundown of the important features the TS9 has to offer. Admittedly, most of these are fairly standard across quality brands these days.
The magazine release and slide hold open are ambidextrous. The carbon steel slide is Tenifer treated for corrosion resistance and grooved on the sides for grasping at the front and back.
Both the front and rear sights are dovetailed to the frame and secured with Allen head lock screws. This allows you to adjust for windage easily. The three-dot sights themselves are made of steel, with drilled holes for plastic white dot inserts that will not wear off in use. Likewise, the sights are sized for combat shooting. Additionally, the wide rear notch allows you to pick up the front sight quickly.
The ample polymer grip frame accepts 17-round magazines. Two quality Italian-made MEC-GAR magazines with 17 witness holes come with the gun. The grip is scalloped with finger grooves on the front strap and aggressively textured on all sides to improve purchase, wet or dry.
The pistol comes with four backstraps to customize the grip frame to your hand’s unique anatomy. For me, it was the third tallest backstrap that made the sights line up exactly with my pointing finger.
The triggerguard is square in front for holding with your off hand. This also allows for neat installation of a light/laser on the 1.9-inch section of molded-in Picatinny rail.
The frame is also undercut behind the triggerguard, rising high—almost to the bottom of the slide—in the rear. This seats the pistol as low as possible in the hand for improved control in recoil.
A Frame with Purpose
The TS9 frame also has four features that look to me like military “soldier proofing.”
The first is a shallow channel above the triggerguard on each side that Taurus calls an “indexing pad.” It is intended as a resting place for your trigger finger to reduce the incidence of accidental discharges.
The second is molded shielding above the magazine release button to prevent the accidental dropping of the magazine. I would add that a second magazine retention feature is the above-average pressure required to depress the release button. I found it easier to release with my trigger finger than my thumb. The buttons themselves are big, made of steel, and checkered to minimize slipping.
A third bit of soldier-proofing is found in the molded shields below the slide-hold-open levers. This prevents them from being accidentally pushed up and activated.
Finally, the back strap heel has a slot to attach a lanyard, which is the military version of having clips on your mittens.
Safety Features
Some TS9 pistols had a manually operated trigger block safety that you could push into position behind the trigger, physically blocking its rearward travel. Though it looks like these guns do, too, that is not the case.
Pull the trigger with a round in the chamber—with or without the magazine inserted—and it will fire. The two passive safety mechanisms designed into the TS9 (a firing pin block and a blade safety on the trigger) make it drop-safe and prevent firing unless the trigger is pulled.
The TS9 was designed to allow both visual and tactile confirmation of a loaded chamber. When the chamber is loaded, the rim of the cartridge is visible through the ejection port. Likewise, a metal loaded chamber indicator pin in the bolt face protrudes about 0.035” above the top surface of the slide.
The end of that pin could stand some rounding, as it is sharp enough to snag on clothing and skin.
The TS9 Takedown
Some of what’s unique about the TS9 comes from the patents of Austrian firearms inventor Wilhelm Bubits. This man’s accomplishments are a story in themselves, and his work can be found in pistols from Glock, Steyr, Kimber, and others.
When you fieldstrip the TS9, you notice first that the takedown is both extremely simple and unusual. Instead of a rotating takedown lever on the side, the TS9 has a spring-loaded retaining pin that bears against the front of the barrel cam boss.
The lever to pull down the retaining pin and release the barrel is in the front of the trigger guard, flush with the surface. So, you cannot accidentally activate it.
Depressing the tip of the lever 0.063 inch pulls down the retaining pin with an audible click. This releases the barrel and allows the whole slide/barrel/recoil spring assembly to be pushed forward 0.125 inch and lifted off the frame.
My first reaction was alarm that there was so little mechanical engagement between the frame rails and the slide holding the two together when the pistol is locked in battery. However, the endurance testing demonstrates that it’s enough to do the job.
Handling the TS9
The two-stage trigger pull stroke is quite short at about 0.25 inches overall. It’s split about evenly between take-up and pressing through the 6-6.5-pound wall to the release. It releases just short of the rear of the triggerguard.
The trigger seemed to reset at the halfway point, too. This short pull is possible because the TS9 striker is always partially cocked when the gun is loaded. Pulling the trigger moves a complex stamped steel connecter rearward. This displaces the hammer block safety, pushes the striker all the way back to full spring pressure, and then cams off it so the spring can drive the striker into the cartridge primer and fire the gun.
It’s an elegant and cost-effective approach, especially the spring-loaded, side-deflecting, combination sear/disconnector cam. I think it could be improved by increasing the relatively tiny contact points where the connector arm engages the striker and the disconnector cam to twice their current size.
But again, the endurance testing suggests that it is enough to do the job for at least 20,000 rounds. That’s a lot of rounds.
To keep the ejection port small and the bore axis low, the TS9 barrel locks into battery with the slide with a single top rear lug. That’s some of Bubits’ engineering genius. With a tilting barrel design, the farther back you put the locking lug, the less tilt and vertical space you need to unlock it, allowing for a lower bore axis.
With the barrel out, you can see the multi-piece slide is deeply relieved. This serves to reduce its mass and allow for the displacement of any dirt, sand, or mud that might work its way into the pistol. Thus impeding operation under field conditions.
Holster Selection
The TS9 is a full-size handgun, so holster choice will play a big role in its concealability. I found the pancake style, slightly forward cant, Triple-K Victor XL (#778) was a good snug fit. It pairs nicely with the company’s single magazine pouch (#747-Group 61).
Both are open top without any retaining strap for faster access. Available in black or undyed russet brown, they cost $60 and $33, respectively, at TripleK.com.
Considering their high quality and that they are made from heavy American cowhide, tanned in America, dyed in America, cut in America, and then sewn by Americans, it’s surprising the price is so low.
At the Range
On the range, I tested the TS9 for accuracy from the bench using a Caldwell Pistolero rest. I fired five-shot strings at 25 yards, measuring velocity at 15 feet from the muzzle with a Competition Electronics DLX Pro Chrono digital chronograph. Range conditions were perfect.
Though a little creepy, the short triggerpull was better than most striker-fired guns. Likewise, the wall at the second stage was a convenient holding point for my triggerfinger as I lined up my sight picture at the 2.5-inch bullseye 25 yards away.
Statistically, defensive pistol encounters most commonly occur at frighteningly close ranges. However, most decent guns will pile their shots in a tight cluster around the point of aim at 7 yards. So, I don’t think it tells you very much about the gun’s inherent accuracy.
At 25 yards, the little differences between guns start to add up and show more clearly in the group sizes.
The most accurate of the loads tested was Hornady Critical Defense 115 grain, FTX JHP. It averaged 1,128 feet-per-second and groups measuring 3.99 inches.
Winchester Super X 115 grain Silvertip JHP averaged 4.91 inches and 1,162 feet-per-second velocity.
Federal Premium 135-grain Hydra Shok Deep JHP averaged 6-inch groups and 1,027 feet-per-second and shot notably lower than the 115-grain loads.
By the way, at 7 yards, shooting my least accurate ball ammo, I was able to shoot five-shot groups under 2 inches easily and consistently, with a standing, two-hand hold.
Parting Shots
This pistol’s short trigger-pull stroke, which is less disruptive to aim, combines with a low bore axis to mitigate recoil. Additionally, a customizable back strap that adjusts its pointing characteristics works in your favor in fast shooting.
This all makes the TS9 a worthy contender in the full-size self-defense pistol market.
For more information, please visit TaurusUSA.com.
Taurus TS9 Specs
| Caliber | 9x19mm |
| Capacity | 17+1 rounds (two magazines included) |
| Action | Locked breech, striker fired |
| Trigger | Two stage, 6-6.5 pound pull |
| Frame | Polymer (black, olive drab, or grey) |
| Finish | Matte black Tenifer treated slide & barrel |
| Barrel Length | 4 inches, 1:16 twist |
| Overall Length | 7.25 inches |
| Height | 5.64 inches |
| Width | 1.26 inches |
| Weight | 32.25 ounces empty |
| Sights | 3 dot, drift adjustable for windage |
| MSRP | $499 |
Performance
| LOAD | VELOCITY | ACCURACY |
| Hornady Critical Defense 115 FTX JHP | 1,128 | 3.37 |
| Winchester Super X 115 Silvertip JHP | 1,162 | 3.56 |
| Federal Premium 135 Hydra Shock Deep JHP | 1,027 | 5.25 |
Performance was tested with a series of five-shot groups fired at 25 yards from bench rest with a Competition Electronics Pro-Chrono Digital Chronograph set 15 feet from the muzzle. Bullet weight is in grains, velocity in feet-per-second and the group size in inches.
