Taurus GX4 T.O.R.O 9mm Optics Cut: Full Review

The popular Taurus GX4 has been upgraded to the T.O.R.O. (Taurus Optics Ready Option).

June 10, 2022 By J. Scott Rupp

Taurus’s entry into the micro-compact concealed-carry pistol market, the GX4, made its debut less than a year ago. Now, the company has added red-dot capability with the new T.O.R.O. (Taurus Optic Ready Option) version. Pop off the slide optics plate and install a sight. That’s it. With one exception, sights attach without requiring an adapter plate.

The GX4 T.O.R.O. accepts the following sights: Shield RMSc, Holosun HS507K and HS407K, Sightmark Mini Shot A-Spec M3, Springfield Hex Wasp, SIG Romeo Zero, Riton 3 Tactix and Trijicon RMRcc (requires adapter plate). That’s a great bunch of options, and you shouldn’t have a problem finding the sight that’s right for you and your budget. Other than this new red-dot capability, the GX4 T.O.R.O. is largely unchanged from its predecessor. One change is it now comes with 11- and 13-round magazines instead of two 11-rounders. Ten-round mags are available for states with capacity restrictions.

Everyday Carry Quality

It has a 3.06-inch barrel, an overall length of 6.05 inches and a weight of just 18.7 ounces. Its polymer frame features excellent stippling and, an added advantage you don’t see on other guns of this size, interchangeable backstraps. There’s a small one and a large one, and the difference is the amount of palm swell you get. They’re easily changed. There are also stippled areas toward the front of the frame on either side. Taurus calls these “indexing” and “recoil management” pads, and they serve to give a tactile reference for your forward support-hand thumb and for where you index your trigger finger.

Taurus GX4 T.O.R.O: Full Review — The T.O.R.O. version of the GX4 adds an optics plate, and red dots like the Holosun and others with similar footprints mount directly to the slide. (Handguns photo)

The barrel is finished in a black, diamond-like carbon coating for durability. The alloy-steel slide is treated to a gas-nitride finish to resist corrosion and wear, and it has wide serrations front and back for easy slide manipulation. The front of the slide and the frame are beveled for easy holstering. There’s no manual safety, just a trigger lever, so the control layout is uncluttered. There’s a small slide-lock lever located within a molded ridge, so it won’t snag on clothing during the draw.

The takedown mechanism is a slotted screw on the right side. Remove the magazine, lock back the slide, ensure the gun is unloaded, then guide the slide forward. Turn the screw a quarter-turn counterclockwise to unlock the slide and, with the gun pointed in a safe direction, pull the trigger and move the slide forward off the gun.

While the iron sights aren’t tall enough to co-witness—at least not with the Holosun red dot I used—they’re really good if you switch back and forth between dot and no-dot use. The serrated rear sight has no white dots to distract you from the front white dot, creating what I find to be an excellent and fast-to-use sight picture.

As mentioned, the gun comes with 11- and 13-round magazines, made by MecGar, with bright yellow followers. They have numbered witness holes, with every round count numbered 4 to 11. Since the 13-rounder is simply the 11-rounder with a +2 base pad, keeping track of rounds 12 and 13 is up to you. A cutout in the bottom of the frame and top of the magazines’ base pads gives extra purchase to strip out a stubborn mag.

T.O.R.O. Testing

For testing I mounted a Holosun HS507K that features a 32-MOA circle surrounding a two-MOA dot. I love this style of reticle because it’s super-fast to get on target and simultaneously permits a level of precision. The GX4’s trigger isn’t quite a straight model because it has a bit of a dogleg, but I still like it better than a curved one. The trigger on my sample broke at six pounds, with a nice clean break and a short reset. Unlike some other Taurus triggers, it does not offer restrike capability.

I enjoyed shooting the original GX4 because it’s controllable and points well, and the T.O.R.O. version does the same. It proved accurate at 15 yards and great on practical drills, and as I’d been able to experiment with the large and small backstraps previously, I knew the small one worked best for me. The ability to modify the grip is unique in the micro-compact pistol world, and it’s a big selling point for the GX4 T.O.R.O.

I did experience two failures to feed with Federal’s Syntech round during the drills, so perhaps this gun doesn’t like that ammo’s truncated-cone bullet shape. Those were the only malfunctions, though. Everything else ran flawlessly. Suggested retail price for the new GX4 T.O.R.O. is $468—about a $75 premium over the non-optics-ready version. You won’t find any other 9mms in this size/capacity class for such a low price, and it’s a quality choice for concealed carry.