Ed. note: For the latest on the Taurus 590 revolver in 5mm, skip to the bottom of this post.

With a recent surge of interest in rimfire cartridges not starting with the number 22, Taurus International has brought out a new revolver in their Tracker line chambered for the 5mm Remington Magnum rimfire.

For those not familiar with the 5mm Magnum, the rimfire cartridge was introduced in 1970 by Remington Arms Co. Along with the cartridge, Remington introduced two rifles chambered for the 5mm, the models 591 and 592. However, a lack of sales prompted Remington to cease sales of the rifles in 1974, and by the early 1980′s, they stopped making the ammunition as well. However, like many discontinued cartridges, the 5mm rimfire has a small, loyal band of followers who have kept interest in this cartridge alive.

In recent years, several new rimfire cartridges (.17 HMR, .17HM2) have renewed the interest of the shooting community for high speed rimfire cartridges. Taurus, never afraid to think outside the box, introduced the first handgun chambered for the 5mm RMR at the 2008 SHOT Show.

The new Taurus revolver is a Tracker revolver with a nine-shot cylinder and 6 1/2″ barrel. According to Bob Morrison of Taurus said the new 5mm RMR Tracker is designed for varmint shooting and the revolver is “very scope-able.”

Taurus has not listed the new Tracker on their website yet, but the revolver should be shipping to dealers in the near future.

Aguila Ammunition announced that they will begin producing 5mm Remington Magnum ammunition for the Tracker. This is also good news for the owners of those Remington model 591 and model 592 rifles.

Update: Refer to my post here about the new Aguila 5mm RMR ammunition and when it is shipping.

Update:  The specs on the Taurus 590 revolver have been released:

• caliber:  5mm rimfire
• capacity:  nine rounds
• weight:  43.7 ounces
• barrel length:  6.5″
• overall length:  10.75″
• action:  double action/single action
• sights:  adjustable
• finish:  matte stainless
• MSRP:  $514

Taurus has not announced a specific ship date, but they expect late 2008.

Update (July, 2010):  5MMEagle at the 5mm Forums website is reporting that his distributor has told him that the Taurus 590 is not yet in production and is not scheduled to enter production in the next few months.  I wonder if we will ever see this rimfire revolver.

Update (2012):  I don’t know if the 5mm Taurus revolver ever made it into production.  I do know that the gun is listed in the Taurus archives as “discontinued.”  I wonder if Aguila is upset that Taurus failed to deliver the guns for which they were making ammo?  Hopefully there are enough 5mm rifle owners out there that will keep buying Aguila’s ammo.

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