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  #1  
Old 01-21-2019, 09:46 PM
SEM SEM is offline
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Default 22 TCM Guidance ?

Thinking of having a barrel made 18" ? have brass source so good there have not shot one before, Quirks ?

I do have 22 K Hornets think the brass is a PITA

tomorrow is my B day so I thought I would buy myself something I don't have, NO way I'm I buying a wife !!! so left with another barrel... sad face

for my Contender

Last edited by SEM; 01-21-2019 at 10:22 PM.
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  #2  
Old 01-21-2019, 10:19 PM
squirrel_slayer squirrel_slayer is offline
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what action are you building on?

I haven't shot a 22 TCM but have shot a similar wildcat (.100" longer based on the .223 rem case) and it's a sweet shooter. I too have an 18" barrel and i'm getting 3264 ft/sec with a 40gr v-max and 13.5gr of lil gun with room to push it a little harder.
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  #3  
Old 01-21-2019, 11:43 PM
dungheap dungheap is offline
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.22 TCM should be a fun project. If you have a source for Armscor brass, go for it. It is reasonably priced and a no-hassle way to get into the caliber. I size only enough of the neck to hold a bullet, and have gotten probably 10 firings without losing any brass to splits, etc. I did not anneal mine.

Forming brass is another story. I found cases I had scrapped in .223, .222 Rem, .17 Fireball, .221 Fireball, .20 Vartarg and probably a few others. A Harbor Freight mini chop saw is a necessity IMO. There are probably other ways of chopping off the excess, but all would be tedious by comparison. My key to forming without losing a lot of cases involves a shortened 7mm Mauser sizing die, with which I do the initial forming, and from there a pass into the .22 TCM Hornady sizing die does the trick. You may need to neck turn or inside neck ream cases.

LilGun is the way to go for powder if you want any respectable velocity out of the little bugger. Lots of other powders will make 'em go bang, but most yield pitifully slow velocities or crazy high pressures, or both.

JMO, open to questions.
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Old 01-21-2019, 11:53 PM
SEM SEM is offline
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thank you dungheap, I have no problem forming brass, just don't want to if I don't need to, save my time for those that don't exist, That's why I thought this little cartridge would fill a niche on my road trips seems a bit tougher than hornet brass, and not as much fuss, I do like to play with the hornets just at home
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  #5  
Old 01-22-2019, 12:59 PM
Nor Cal Mikie Nor Cal Mikie is offline
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Forming brass from .223 CAN be a real PITA!! Tried making a 20 VT "short" (.200 shorter) and had issues with distorted case heads/ primer pockets.
Ran into some 22 TCM brass from Ammo Supply Warehouse. Once I saw that, I never looked back. GOOD solid brass right from the start.
Shorter than I had wanted but that lead me to my Wildcat project, the "20 TCM" (MGM) . One pass and I'am down from to 22 to 20 and ready to load. It's a toss up which is better, one pass in my Custom made full length die or going down to 20 in my Wildcat Shoulder Bump Die. A little more R&D should tell the answer.
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Old 01-22-2019, 03:02 PM
SEM SEM is offline
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Nor Cal Mikie, That is why I settled on the 22 TCM I found LOTS of brass just wanted to see if anyone here had good or bad tales. so far guess my next stop is MGM

Thank you all for your input
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  #7  
Old 01-22-2019, 04:22 PM
GLWenzl GLWenzl is offline
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I sold or traded my rifle (forget) but I didn’t care for the factory rifle. Other than that I think you’re in for some fun. You have done good advice. The only other thing I will add is bullets. For some reason those cheap lil 40 gr tcm bullets have worked out pretty darn good.

I’ve also shot Hornady 30 & 35 gr Vmax as well as their hornet and bee bullets.

I purchased some TCM & N0. 11FS to try out but haven’t got out to test the loaded rounds out yet.
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  #8  
Old 03-17-2019, 01:28 AM
TOU TOU is offline
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I have a CZ 527 American that was rebarreled with a Lilja 1:7 twist SS barrel...LOVE IT!!! This has become one of my all time favorite sub 200 yard cotton, jack, gopher, & prairie dog CF rifles. It performs with amazing accuracy (I mainly keep it to 200 yds or less) with absolute explosive devastation & destruction...way more than most think. They do NOT crawl away!

Without being to graphic, neck shots on PD's & jacks result in 10' arial decapitation. Gophers?...well...if you hit them, no followup's are necessary.

Part of this performance is the bullet itself very destructive, it performs very well on critters. A friend & I believe that a huge part of it is the 1:7 twist that helps extracts the true performance this round is capable of from a rifle. I.e. 2-2.5x the rotation of Armscor's rifles with the same velocity equals absolute & humane elimination. Accuracy is completely maintained & bullets stay intact...until impact & then do their job. Keep in mind...we are not talking 300-500 yard ranges from this pistol round.

That all being said, I'm unsure on serious penetration as it works very well for my applications thus far. I have not tried them on anything bigger than PD's or Jacks yet. (Like most here, I have several others for that application.) That said, should the opportunity present itself, I wouldn't hesitate to use it on badgers, fox's, ground hogs or even coyotes...under the noted 200 yds.

I believe that most Armscore rifles shipped 1:16 twist barrels. Besides the light strike issues of using a modified rimfire rifle...IF Armscor had made it with this fast twist barrell on their M22 TCM BA (like they provably should have in the first place), this rifle would have performed much more impressively like it was intended. In the end, I just didn't think it was a worthy platform to upgrade although the repeater would have been nice over the CZ which is effectively a single shot.

Yes, twist makes that big of a difference! The bullets they use are essentially the ones originally intended for the 22 Hornets...way back when. If you were to spin them any faster back then, I have heard that they'd come apart...hence the slow 1:16 & 1:20 twist barrels etc for the original 22 Hornets & what perpetuates today. But...bullets are made better now when this is essentially a non-issue & do not come apart at these velocities or ranges. I believe that if Armscore's had a 1:7 twist or at least faster than 1:16, I would have kept one in spite of the other short comings of their rifle design. I really do like the high capacity & interchangeable magazines.

A few other really great things about using this rifle & round combo for my walk-about rifle. It is so nice to walk around with a large pocket full of ammo...similar to a pocket full of 22 WMR's. Unlike the pistol, the report is minimal compared to many other small calibers, nearly zero kick & the barrel seems to never get hot even on rapid successive shots. (As rapid as I can load it anyway.) About the only thing I'd wish for is cheaper factory ammo...don't we always. Reality is it isn't bad If you think of it as small caliber rifle ammo. YMMA, JMHO etc.

Oh...one more thing of more on the USA made factory ammo. The last 6 boxes that I bought, came with nickel cases instead of brass.

Cheers,
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Last edited by TOU; 03-17-2019 at 01:36 AM.
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  #9  
Old 03-17-2019, 04:19 AM
TOU TOU is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rickiesrevenge View Post
What bullets do you shoot in your 7 twist?

Aaron
So far...factory ammo only.
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  #10  
Old 03-17-2019, 11:22 AM
dungheap dungheap is offline
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TOU,it sounds like you might be the go-to guy for once fired brass! I thought you were shooting handloads from the gist of your post. While I never shot a round of factory ammo, I got my best results with the really lightweight bullets -- 30gr to 36gr, and they have to be a lot faster than the factory ammo. I'd guess that the factory ammo is engineered more for pistol use and short for the magazines they use with their rifles and pistols.

In any case, if that factory stuff makes ya smile, good. I totally agree with your comments concerning fast twist (mine's a 9 twist). Also wondering what you did with your rifle for feeding.
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