Will the Real Taurus Tracker Please Stand Up?
10/25/2011
Alright, I need all of you to take out your red pen and cross out the “0” in the cover line “Taurus 990: 2 guns in 1” on the this month’s American Rifleman cover and write in a “2” (as illustrated below). This seems like a better solution than trying to get each and every of the 1.7 million issues of the magazine back out of your mailboxes and attempting to fix them all myself.
In case you didn’t notice, there was a glitch with the model number of the extremely cool .22 Long Rifle or .22 Mag. Taurus Tracker revolver on the November 2011 cover. We also messed up in feature article that started on page 52 by Shooting Editor Glenn M. Gilbert. It turns out the variant we put on the cover is the Model 992, not the Model 990. The Model 990 has a number of barrel lengths, but it is a .22 LR revolver, while the Model 991 describes the revolver when chambered in .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire (WMR).
When this article was written three months ago, there was no information about the gun on the website. Currently, there is a 6 ½ inch listed, but still no 4 inch. Also, the designation is not visibly marked on the gun and the box it came in did not have a label. Because of this, the gun was entered into our system two ways—990 and 992.
This can happen when we work so close to the edge on guns that are not yet on the market at the time of writing. The good news is that we have confirmed with Taurus that, indeed, its designation is Model 992. If you would like to X out the, at least, 13 incorrect references in the article to the Model 992 as a Model 992, you may need another red pen. We regret the error and—if you contact Taurus—be aware that they are actually right about the Model 992’s proper designation.
