Taylor's & Co. Affordable Single-Action 9mm TC9 1873 Model Revolver

Taylor's & Co. TC9 is a unique 9mm-chambered 1873-model single-action revolver that's perfect for affordable cowboy-action training at home.

March 13, 2024 By Frank Melloni

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Cutting the costs associated with going to the range can be accomplished in many different avenues. The easiest is to choose guns that aren’t expensive. Naturally, if you choose a $500 revolver over a $1,000 revolver, you put immediate coin back into your pocket. However, often unseen is the money that can be saved by choosing a gun that is less expensive to feed. Rimfire conversions and lookalikes typically come to mind when this topic is broached, but it doesn’t always have to be that way. While I love a good .22, eliminating the noise and recoil takes away from the experience, and if I’m going to the range for the experience, it’s almost a waste of money to spend time firing guns that don’t deliver. As the years leading up to 2023 brought on a strange shortage of revolver cartridges (among other things), most of us couldn’t swallow the idea of $2-a-round .45 Colt, and that’s only if we were lucky enough to find a scalper who had some. Taylor’s and Co. got it and, through their work with F.LLI Pietta, delivered us the TC9 1873 SA, a taste of the Old West chambered in easy-to-find 9mm Luger.

taylor-company-tc9-revolver-02 — A deeply blued barrel, cylinder, ejector tube, and triggerguard give this TC9 a classic look.

Just like the original, the TC9 is a six-shot, single-action revolver featuring a spurred hammer and a case-hardened frame, making this one stylish piece to set your eyes on. Unlike the original, you don’t need to source .45 Colt ammunition to run it. A cursory internet search shows the price difference between 50 rounds of 9mm Luger and 50 rounds of .45 is about $50. So, if you already own an 1873 in the original chambering, Taylor’s 9 is going to pay for itself after 11 boxes of ammo. Everybody shoots differently, but for me, that’s only about three or four trips to the range. Now, I know I introduced this revolver as a cost cutter because it’s cheap to feed, but with an MSRP of around $575, the gun itself is in the budget category. At the same time, you’re getting a display-worthy piece, especially if you sprung for the hardwood grips.

taylor-company-tc9-revolver-03 — For a 5.5-inch- barreled revolver, this TC9 balanced nicely and pointed well during testing.

Setting off the frame is a deeply blued barrel, cylinder, and ejector tube that complement the triggerguard of the same finish. The overall machining is exquisite, with nary a tool mark to speak of and every edge coming to a fine point or smooth radius, depending on the creator’s intentions. Being that single-action revolvers are simplistic in nature, the sheer heft tells us whether or not the manufacturers skimped on the metal. This is certainly not the case with the TC9, as it feels just as it should in the hand. For a 5.5-inch-barreled gun, the balance wasn’t half bad, and it pointed rather well for an early handgun design. For those looking to lighten the load, I invite you to give the 4.75-inch-barreled version a look, as some find the compact nature more agreeable.

Being that this is a dedicated 9mm revolver, concessions didn’t need to be made to accept longer .38 Special or .357 Magnum cases. Therefore, the rounds headspace on the mouth, eliminating the need for moon clips or a complicated rim retention system. In short, each chamber is designed just like the one in your semiautomatic, and that’s cool, because it’s stupid simple to make. This means increased reliability while decreasing production costs or a free lunch if you will. You know what else works like that? The trigger. There isn’t a lot to a single-action trigger, so making it light and crisp is easy. My sample broke at a measured 2.5 pounds, a pull weight people have spent hundreds to achieve on other firearm designs. I was sold.

taylor-company-tc9-revolver-04 — This revolver is available with both plastic and hardwood grips, depending on shooter preference.

At the time of this writing, I counted 48 different types of 9mm in stock at Brownells. That’s impressive when you compare it to the one lousy load of .45 Colt they have ready to ship. This brings me to the other reason this is a great buy: variety. Luger is a NATO cartridge, meaning it has worldwide demand. For that reason, you’ll find a plethora of weights, nose profiles, case composition, you name it. That includes hardcast bullets like those used in cowboy-action shooting. These days, we have offerings on this classic design that are a touch more refined, like Federal’s Syntech. Solid lead on the inside, these pills are treated with a thick polymer coating to keep that lead out of your barrel. Federal offers these in various weights, so I grabbed a few boxes of the 115- and 124-grain versions, as I was sure one was going to perform better than the other.

taylor-company-tc9-revolver-05 — Unloading was smooth, and unfired cases didn’t require the use of the ejector rod, a sign of correctly sized cylinder walls.

As guns like this have a tendency to gobble up ammo, I also added a Remington UMC Mega Pack to keep the fun going. There’s nothing wrong with shooting FMJ at steel; just make sure that you’re at least the minimum required distance set by the target manufacturer. My first order of business was determining its point of impact. At 15 yards, I found that my rounds landed between 4 and 6 inches below my point of aim, which isn’t atypical for old cowboy guns. If I really wanted to dial it in, I could have filed the front sight down until I was happy, but for what I planned on doing, this difference wouldn’t affect me much. Overall accuracy was decent and, again, well within its intended use. It also seemed to prefer the less expensive Remington ammo, which is another happy bonus. During these initial shots, I just couldn’t get over how clean the trigger was. There was zero creep throughout its travel, firing with just a slight press to the rear. I will note that there was a touch of overtravel, but a carefully placed setscrew can take care of that if you care enough to drill and tap.

taylor-company-tc9-revolver-06 — This 1873 model will spark a bit of cowboy nostalgia in shooters.

Stepping away from the bench, I addressed the gang of steel bandidos that had moved into the north woods. One-handed shooting was second nature, and even with a semi-arthritic elbow, I was able to cock and fire fully presented without much trouble. In case you’re wondering, you can fan the hammer, and I may or may not have done so for the sake of journalism, which brings us to unloading. Unfired rounds flopped right out of the cylinder without the use of the ejector rod, something I look for in every revolver. If cylinder walls are so tight that they grab hold of a case before it’s fired, it’s almost a guarantee that you’re going to experience issues somewhere down the line. Spent cases came out nearly as easily, requiring just a slight depression of the ejector. Between these two operations, that’s about all that needs to be checked to deem an old wheel gun “reliable,” and everything before and after it was certified fun. Taylor’s & Co.’s TC9 1873 SA puts cowboy-action shooting within the grasp of every American, regardless of their ammunition budget. Cheap to purchase, cheap to run, but not cheap in fit and finish are everything that I look for in a budget firearm. The only downside to guns like this is that we tend to pull the trigger on all of them, and before you know it, you’re out of storage space.