Reloading the 22 TCM

[DennRN]

Loaded a bunch at 10.5 gr 1.55oal

isn't the OAL suppose to be 1.25

1.255 combined over-all length is what I have found to be the ticket in my own experimenting. Having measured and averaged two boxes worth of factory ammo I can say with confidence that 1.25 COL is well within the average distribution and that a longer COL will not only alter pressure and burn rate, but also give feed issues.

While I would love for more people to do some "speerment'in" with this round and reporting back, I have to say exercise EXTREME caution when going off the reservation in terms of recipes that have been confirmed to be safe.

ran across some failure to go into battery

Failure to go into battery can be from not having the sizing die going down far enough down the case, or an issue with your bullet seating and crimping.

Pull the barrel out of the gun that you were using and "plunk test" all the rounds you have loaded through it. The back of the case should be completely flush or barely below the Barrel Hood (#4 on this link).
If they aren't sitting flush or a few thousandths below the hood, I would first check to make sure that you aren't squashing the case shoulders while sizing, (too little lube).
Make sure that the sizing die is all the way down to the point where it just bottoms out just as your press cams over.
Next I would check to make sure that there is just enough bell being applied to make sure you're not smashing the bullet into the neck (you'll notice copper/lead shavings when seating).
Check that you have sufficiently removed the bell afterwards.
That should solve your failure to return to battery if it is the reloads causing the issue.

[Handloader109]

Sorry, yes 1.255, me and my tablet.....yes failure to go in battery was from needing to be sized Entirely the whole length. Resorted to grinding off Lee holder about 30 thou in order to push load In far enough. Used my single Stage to take care of the obstinate ones. Plunk tested all of them...

[Taroman]

Had the same issue with 1000s of cases I was given.
About a third of them needed the shoulder set back to fully chamber.
Shortened the RCBS sized .020" to make things right

[tmattox]

I just got my RAI 22 TCM rifle in last week. I shot 20 factory rounds over my chrono @ 2784 FPS. Because I was bored I loaded 10 rounds of H-110 10.0 grains @ 2642 FPS. I guess the rifle gives the powder a chance for better velocities. I travelled to San Antonio, TX and found 5 lbs. of W-296 powder, which I'll load when I get back to Louisiana. Velocity doesn't seem to be a problem with the rifle, but I haven't grouped them yet. Probably next week. I'm loading a little longer then recommended, 1.258"OAL. This seems to fit in the magazine and hasn't affected the loading as of yet. After I have a chance to load and chrono a few more I'll come back on with the results.
I'd encourage anyone loading the 22 TCM, especially the rifle version, to fully document their results and post them. With SAMMI guidelines, this forum is the only way to safely get information disseminated.

[JeepermanTCM]

@tmattox...... Did you ever do the loads? Interested in the results! Got a cousin that going to have a TC contender barrel made and he is gonna load LOTS of different loads in this caliber! He was very impressed with the TCM rifle he shot, but feels the 1:16 twist is too limiting for the true potential of this round. He's considering 1:10-1:12 twist and 55gr projectiles!! Also gonna do some sub-sonic for quiet time.

[DennRN]

Please advise your cousin that a 55 grain bullet will have more bearing surface and inertia which will lead to a higher pressures. I would hate for him to blow up a custom barrel and especially concerned that he might hurt himself while experimenting.
Going lighter on the projectile is easy but going up presents a ton of added risk and engineering issues. Subsonic will require an even heavier bullet and since the diameter is fixed that means an even longer projectile which will again cause tons of issues for for the same reasons, additionally feeding these longer bullets will probably be a large issue even on a bolt gun.

Lastly what is the goal of trying to increase the weight of the bullet or to go subsonic? I tend not to be the type of person to tell a man how to spend his money, but it appears to me that there are already plenty of tried and true .22 cal solutions on the market for both of these goals.

The appeal of using a stock 22 tcm with factory or equivalent load is that the 40 grain projectile is light enough to hit rifle velocities out of a handgun while producing very light recoil, the massive bark and light show from the muzzle is also a draw for a lot of people. In a rifle it produces even higher velocities which leads to flatter trajectories which is also a large bonus.

Increasing the bullet weight would inherently slow down the round OR drastically increase pressure. It would also increase the recoil significantly. There is no free lunch when it comes to the physics of it.

I don't profess to be an expert in any way so please take my advice with a grain of salt, but wisdom dictates that you advise your cousin to proceed with extreme caution and seek advice from experts before attempting to wildcat an already hot loading.

[JeepermanTCM]

Thank you for your reply. I will talk to him about his plan. I'm thoroughly impressed with the performance of the factory ammo. This is a very fun gun to shoot for sure!

[paco1999]

Been reading about the 22TCM, and would like more information about reloading this one. I do a lot of reloading in a variety of other hand gun cal. Is there any published results for powder / bullets? If not how about you that have done your own reloading, sharing your results?

[DennRN]

Hi Paco,

This thread is pretty old but it just so happens that I have been sitting on a Lab Radar chronograph I wanted to do an unboxing and review on. I haven't had time to get around to editing the video yet since I was hoping to test a few more calibers with it before I pass judgement. I was planning the TCM to be the final test because it is the most challenging round to chrony that I reload.

I'll be taking it to the indoor range with me probably on the 22nd of this month and I'll post back here for you with:
Powder
COL
Highest velocity
Lowest velocity
Average velocity
Standard deviation

[paco1999]

Look forward to your results.

[DennRN]

Well... The lab radar chose that day to not work...
I would like to confirm that I have video footage of my hand load zipping through a bullet proof panel that was still able to stop a 9mm from a Sig MPX next to the pass through.

The load info is the same as mentioned by me earlier in this thread, (disclaimer: please use this for reference only).the only thing I was waiting on was solid chronograph data. I still intend to update when I get another chance to go out to the range.

[surveyor]

Has anyone done any annealing of cases, I noticed some neck splitting on some fired brass.

[DennRN]

[...] I noticed some neck splitting on some fired brass

Personally I haven't had any neck splits. Can We have more info?

Do you have any pictures? What headstamp does the brass have? How many firings? Custom barrel or armscor/ria? If not custom barrel, was it fired from a pistol or rifle?

The short version of this reply is that I know you've been around this site for a while and probably know more about reloading then I do. It probably isn't worth your time and there is the safety concern with improper annealing but let's get into it for anyone else who is thinking about annealing.

I've heard of this happening to cases on the first firing with a high failure rate on another forum due to a bad batch of armscor brass sold through ammo supply warehouse. They contacted the seller and let them know and got replacements as compensation for sending in the split cases and the rest of the unused brass so they could try and figure out the problem.

If they are splitting on the 22tcm rifle it isn't that unusual unless you are getting a bunch of splits per box of 1st firing. At baseline, it seems like the stock ammo is loaded too hot for the barrel length. If you are reloading for the rifle try experimenting with a load ladder to see how case life and accuracy respond.

If you still want to anneal maybe use some way to heat sink the case head such as performing the annealing in a water bath. Something that might make annealing a bit safer is Tempilaq temperature indicating paint. I'm not going to go into too much detail on how to use the stuff besides saying that a stripe of 450 from the shoulder down will help make sure you're not compromising cases while you figure out the heat dwell time and technique.

Final point, I promise!
If you're going to the trouble to anneal to save your cases, maybe it makes more sense to just go all out and start making your own brass from 223 cases.

[surveyor]

They were new brass, first firing, brass and bullets sourced from ammo supply wharehouse, shot from pistol, RIA chamber.

I wasn't aware of issue with bad batch of brass, but this may be the case for me.
It has been too long a time since I bought the brass, and unless they are aware of the problem, and will exchange the brass, I guess they are a one shot thing.

I'm aware I can cut down 223 cases with a jig and resize, but I don't really want to invest the time into doing it. I have a friend that makes 300 blackout cases, so I'm familiar with it.
(At least at this point)

they were loaded 10 gr H110, full length sized, 40 gr armscor projectiles, small pistol primers and passed the plunk test, in the chamber.

If it were just to anneal the cases of a TCM, it would not be worthwhile, but I load 6 other rifle calibers. And of those the 6 mm rem is the hardest on brass but I run a max load in it.
So annealling is not out of the question for me to consider at some point.

I agree that as short as the case is, there is not a whole lot of space between the neck,/shoulder and the case web. So it brings up concerns other calibers don't have.

thanks for the info on batch of bad brass, that seems to make the most sense, hopefully they have it squared away now, if not, I'll make my own.

[paco1999]

I thought I had seen somewhere in your post what shell holder you found to be the most effective, but cannot find it now. tried using RCBS 16, but cases wanted to pull out.