I came into an RIA .22TCM about 3 years ago, kept it and shot it for a while, then traded it to a fellow forum member that is local for a birth year Model 14-1. He had it and shot it a bit, picked up all the reloading gear and loaded for it for a few months. About a year ago, I came across his ad on FGT(or armslist, can’t remember) and bought it back from him along with powder, shells, primers, and dies. Only thing I needed was projectiles. I never got around to loading the round when I had my Lee equipment and for the past couple of months, I’ve been fully transitioning to my new Dillon equipment. I ordered 1200 TCM 40 grain HP bullets which came Thursday and yesterday I got the last piece I needed, which was the .22TCM powder funnel. The shell plate and locator pins are the same as the .223 kit that I already had. I put it all together this morning and adjusted everything to my satisfaction and began loading.
I find it to be a fairly easy round to load. I have to admit I was a little intimidated by everything I’ve heard about loading for the .22TCM. The Dillon powder funnel doesn’t flare the case like it does on other calibers, so I had to use my flaring die in station 1 in place of the sizing/decapping die. I deprime on a single stage Lee press with a universal decapping die and use an RCBS universal hand primer, so I really don’t need the sizer/decapper in that position. The Accurate TCM powder is extremely fine ball powder and meters very nicely. I started out weighing my first several drops, then every five, and finally every tenth for a while. Every drop was spot on with both my Dillon digital and RCBS beam scales. I set my COAL at 1.27” based on what I’ve read about the round and after loading and cycling a few magazines through the RIA 1911. Doing a visual check on the powder drop would be tricky, but I set up a borescope camera that has a birdseye view of station 3 before I set the bullet (I started a thread detailing the camera setup a couple weeks ago). One tricky thing I found was actually picking up the bullets from the bullet tray and setting them in place. They are very small and I’m used to setting at least a .32 projectile. The seating is easy and I applied a very slight crimp. I loaded slightly over 500 of them in less than three hours, and cheaply too. The bullets from Armscor are only about $.06 each and powder, brass, and primers came with the gun. I have plenty of H110 and W296 on hand when I run out of the TCM powder and a total of about 900 casings including what I saved from commercial ammo I bought for it. So it appears to be a very affordable cartridge to reload. I’m planning on a range trip tomorrow so I’ll have a report on that.

I’d love to hear some thoughts on the .22TCM from others that reload it.

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Interesting review, thanks.

Getting small projectiles into short cases has always been problematic. For me making my left thumb and forefinger a little "tacky" (like bank tellers for counting money) has helped.

Ivan

Ivan, thanks for that tip. I think my wife has some of that around somewhere. I’ll give it a try.

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USS Brewton FF1086
SWCA#3597

Looks like you have it pretty well figured out. I have 550 C , but i don't shoot my TCM enough to justify setting it up to load the rounds.
When I first started loading for it , I was trying to seat the bullet without flaring the mouth, after all, I've never flared the necks on any other bottle neck cartridges. Well I finally gave in a bought me a Lee die to do the job and that made a huge difference in time and effort spent loading the little rounds.
Let us know how the TCM powder works out. I've pretty much settled on L'il Gun and H110 for my loads. I like the Hornady 45 gr Bee Hollow point. Started shooting it a few years back when the Armscor bullet wasn't available. Loaded rounds look like mini Hornady "XTP" rounds.

Here is a thread I started on the Dillon forum in 2014. Evidently I was one of the first to attempt at loading it on the XL650. I'm sorry but Photobucket ate all the pics. I'll see if I can dig them up.

It is a great little cartridge. It's really fun shooting it out of the RI 2011 platform. Lotsa noise but almost zero recoil. I have since added a RI bolt gun. It loves the Hornady 35 gr. VMax. It's prairie dog accurate.

Found the pics. The first two show the modified case feed adapter. The other is the flaring die from the Hornady set.

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Good information there. Thanks for the link MrG. I read through it and picked up some pointers like flaring after the powder drop. I’m going to try that next session after I produce some spent brass, which hopefully I’ll do tomorrow. I’ve really been itching to get out and try the rounds I’ve loaded, but things just keep coming up

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USS Brewton FF1086
SWCA#3597

I reload for the TCM in the rifle. Figured a hot little centerfire mag fed bolt action for about $325.00 was too good a deal to pass up. Getting the TCM 40 grain bullets helped alot. I had tried 35 and 40 grain Hornet bullets and couldn't get the OAL right - ended up seating too deep to make them fit in the magazine.

The 35gr Hornady is shorter and fatter than the hornet bullets. No problems with the magazine.

By fatter I mean not as pointed.

I've had good luck over the last few years finding brass at gun shows.

May the flash be with you.

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