Beretta B22 Jaguar Tac Metal & Metal Competition: $749/$969

Beretta USA launched two .22 LR pistols on August 7, 2026: the B22 Jaguar Tac Metal at $749 MSRP, available now through authorized dealers, and the B22 Jaguar Metal Competition at $969 MSRP, listed as coming soon. Both are metal-chassis builds of the B22 Jaguar, and both are aimed squarely at cheap trigger time rather than carry or defense.

The Tac Metal is the general-purpose gun. Beretta describes it as built for recreational shooting, skill development, and training, with a modular aluminum chassis, a fixed barrel, an optics-ready Picatinny rail, ambidextrous controls, and threaded-barrel models for suppressor use. Disassembly is tool-free. The Metal Competition takes that same chassis and adds a factory parts package developed with the Scholastic Action Shooting Program and TANDEMKROSS, aimed at Steel Challenge-style matches and at youth and newcomer shooters moving into competition.

Logan Killam, senior product manager for Beretta USA, framed the platform as an on-ramp: “The B22 Jaguar platform was developed to welcome new participants while providing a capable platform for those looking to advance their skills.” Neither price is entry-level for a rimfire. What the money buys is an aluminum chassis, a fixed barrel, and a rail-first optics interface on a gun that runs the cheapest ammunition on the shelf.

The Tac Metal runs a fixed 5.25-inch barrel, an 8.85-inch overall length, and a 33.6 oz unloaded weight, which is heavy for a rimfire and deliberately so. Two 15-round magazines ship in the box, with a 10-round magazine option for capacity-restricted states. Beretta lists four catalog numbers at the same $749 price, and the barrel is where they split: JB22TACMET10 and JB22TACMET15 carry a 1/2x28 muzzle thread, while JB22TACMET10SB and JB22TACMET15SB are non-threaded. Order the SB number by accident and there is nothing to screw a can onto.

The feature set reads like a checklist of what rimfire shooters normally buy aftermarket. Adjustable fiber-optic sights. A full-length 1913 Picatinny rail across the top of the upper. An M-LOK slotted barrel shroud with a short Picatinny section underneath. Dual side ejection ports and an ambidextrous safety, so the gun configures for right or left-handed use. A semi-flat-faced trigger and interchangeable grip panels. The chassis fire control system lets an owner swap the grip frame, upper receiver, fire control, and grip panels without sending anything to a gunsmith.

The fixed barrel is the spec that matters most for how this gun shoots. Because the barrel and the rail are anchored to the chassis instead of to a reciprocating slide, an optic keeps a static relationship to the bore and a suppressor does not add reciprocating mass. That is the same architecture the better .22 LR competition pistols have converged on, and it is why rimfire race guns rarely put the dot on the slide.

The $969 Metal Competition is the same chassis with a TANDEMKROSS parts package installed at the factory: the Steam Demon compensator, the Accelerator thumb ledge, a fiber optic front sight, and an adjustable TANDEMKROSS trigger with a textured semi-flat face. It also ships with three grip sizes rather than a single set of panels, and it wears a bronze frame under a grey upper instead of the Tac Metal's all-black finish.

Beretta calls it the first .22 LR pistol explicitly developed in partnership with the Scholastic Action Shooting Program, with design input from SASP coaches, athletes, and industry experts. Bryan Haaker, president and co-founder of TANDEMKROSS, put the collaboration this way: “To be trusted as a partner in developing the B22 Jaguar platform is both humbling and an honor.” The practical version of that partnership is that a new Steel Challenge shooter does not have to learn which comp, trigger, and thumb rest to buy before the gun is competitive.

The Steam Demon is the most consequential of the four parts, and TANDEMKROSS sells it separately. It is an open-body steel comp with an easy-clean coating that retails at $77.99, and the open geometry is specifically a rimfire answer: there is far less enclosed surface for .22 fouling to cake onto than on a closed-body design. That single part accounts for roughly a third of the $220 spread between the two models, before the trigger, the thumb ledge, and the extra grip sets.

Any Picatinny-mount micro red dot bolts directly to the B22 Jaguar Metal with no adapter plate and no slide milling, because the full-length 1913 rail is part of the upper. That removes the entire footprint-compatibility problem that governs optic choice on a modern striker pistol: there is no RMR-versus-RMSc decision to make and no plate stack to shim.

The rail also runs long enough to move the dot fore and aft, which matters more on a fixed-barrel rimfire than it does on a carry gun. Sitting the dot further forward lengthens the apparent sight picture for slow-fire accuracy work; pulling it back over the grip speeds up transitions on a Steel Challenge stage. For a ranked breakdown of what to bolt on, see our best pistol red dot guide.

The direct comparison is the Taurus TX22 Competition at $533.33, which reaches the same design conclusions from a much lower price point: a 5.25-inch threaded bull barrel, a barrel-mounted optic system that keeps the dot off the slide, and 16+1 capacity. On paper the TX22 Competition holds one more round than the Jaguar and costs meaningfully less.

What the B22 Jaguar Metal buys over it is the chassis. The TX22 is a polymer-framed gun with an optic bridge; the Jaguar is a modular aluminum chassis where the grip frame, upper receiver, fire control, and grip panels are separately swappable, and it weighs 33.6 oz to the TX22 Competition's 23.2 oz. Ten ounces of static weight on a rimfire is a real difference in how flat it tracks. The Metal Competition also arrives with the comp and trigger already sorted, which is exactly the work TX22 owners do aftermarket. Our competition pistol guide by division covers where rimfire fits in a match-gun lineup, and you can put the two platforms side by side on their full spec sheets.

Buy a threaded catalog number, JB22TACMET10 or JB22TACMET15, and the 1/2x28 muzzle thread is the standard rimfire pitch, so the existing .22 can market fits without an adapter. The SB numbers are non-threaded and cannot host a can without barrel work. A fixed barrel makes the threaded version a better host than a blowback pistol with a reciprocating threaded barrel, because the can hangs off the chassis rather than off a moving part, and nothing about the added mass changes slide timing.

The federal cost of doing this changed in 2026. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act zeroed the federal making and transfer tax on suppressors, so the tax stamp on a .22 can is $0, and eForm 4 approvals are currently running days to a couple of weeks rather than months. The NFA registration, the Form 4, the fingerprints, and the NICS check all still apply, and state law still governs whether you can own one. Suppressors are legal in 42 states. For which can to hang off the muzzle, our .22 LR suppressor rankings cover the user-serviceable options, and subsonic .22 ammunition is what actually makes a rimfire can quiet.

The B22 Jaguar Tac Metal at $749 is the model most people should look at first. It carries the parts that define the platform, the aluminum chassis, the fixed barrel, the full-length rail, and the ambidextrous dual-ejection setup, and it is the one that is actually shipping. Buy JB22TACMET10 or JB22TACMET15 rather than an SB number if a can is anywhere in the plan. Beretta pricing a rimfire against mid-tier centerfire pistols is a bet that shooters will pay for chassis modularity and a fixed barrel rather than for the caliber.

The $969 Metal Competition is the better value only if you were going to buy the parts anyway. The Steam Demon alone covers about a third of the $220 difference, and the SASP development work means the configuration was chosen by people who shoot Steel Challenge rather than assembled from a catalog. If the plan is a rimfire trainer that lives on the range with a can on it, buy the Tac Metal; if the plan is a match gun for a new competitor, wait for the Competition. Beretta's other current handgun launches, including the 94X Performance, show the same pattern of shipping the competition parts from the factory.