When you hear the name Taurus in relation to firearms, you usually think of the .410 Taurus Judge revolver first, and then you might think of the imitation Beretta 92FS they’ve been making for decades. Then you might think of their various polymer, multicolored, multishaped concealed-carry pistols…but one thing you don’t think about when you hear Taurus is ARs.
You can probably guess where I’m going with this.
Yes, Taurus is has thrown its hat into the AR carbine ring after significantly paring down its semi-auto pistols offerings, focusing on its 92, 1911, Curve, and Slim product lines along with more concealed carry options.
The Taurus T4 SA is about what you’d expect from an AR introduced on today’s market: it comes with a six-position Magpul CTR stock with sling mounts, a melonite bolt assembly, a direct impingement carbine-length low-profile gas system with a pinned gas block surrounded by an aluminum KeyMod forend with a full-length top Picatinny rail with Keymod or M-LOK for additional rail sections. The forged aluminum upper includes a froward assist and shell deflector and the rifle ships with a 30-round Magpul PMAG with the Gen M2 window.
To keep the price down, the T4 doesn’t ship with any iron sights, since many shooters opt to run their ARs without them anyway, and there are many affordable sets of irons, flip-up and otherwise, on the market that can suit an individual shooter’s needs.
The innovative design allows the rifle to be safely stowed in even a small backpack. It deploys in less than 5 seconds.
Taurus says the carbine sports a barrel with a 10,000-round operational life and that the T4SA meets MIL-DTL-71186A requirements established in 2012, so this isn’t just another black gun, but a rough and tumble carbine.
The company says its engineers spent a lot of time working on the T4’s gas system, which is “tuned” to produce less fouling and run cooler.
The T4SA also features an oversized Magpul Trigger Guard and a Mil-Spec trigger unit. The rest of the rifle is Mil-Spec and is finished in black Cerakote unless otherwise specified.
The carbine is available in over a dozen configurations with 16-, 14.5-, and 11-inch barrel versions in black, sand, and jungle color schemes and M-LOK or Keymod forends—all chambered for 5.56 NATO.
Finally, the T4SA has an MSRP: of $1,199, which is also what one would expect from this type of AR, which makes it very attractive to new AR owners who want a solid base gun to modify or build up.