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Post by 22boomer on Sept 23, 2016 6:50:33 GMT -5
I used my home-made M1 carbine magazine adapter and loaded 5 rounds. The cartridges were made up of 9.5 grains of Lil' Gun and Hornady 35gr V-max NTX bullets. I don't have the gas tube yet so this was just a test of how well the magazine worked. I fired all 5 rounds and operated the charging handle to cycle the action and it worked like a charm -- easy and smooth as silk. The M1 carbine magazine feeds the longer rounds perfect which made me a happy camper. the gas tube may be here today or tomorrow so I can start to work up loads. I had originally planned on just using hand loads but now I think I may check on how well the system works with the commercial ammo. That testing will come much later.
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Post by HMC710 on Sept 23, 2016 20:53:39 GMT -5
Let us know how it does!
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Post by 22boomer on Sept 24, 2016 8:14:10 GMT -5
I'm hoping that the post office will deliver that gas tube today so I can work on loading some brass. When I have it all completely together I'll post a picture of it.
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Post by 22boomer on Sept 25, 2016 10:22:40 GMT -5
I finally got the 22 TCM together by taking the gas tube off my 22 Reed Express which I'll replace as soon as I get the new one. I got FF hanguard on and test fired the carbine using 3 rounds loaded with 10.5gr of Lil' Gun, 35gr Hornady NTX bullet and all stuffed into my M1 carbine magazine setup. It fired like a champ, cycled flawlessly and the brass looked really good. Pictured below is the 22 TCM carbine with the mag in place. By the way, the case capacity of the 22 TCM is just a bit less than the 22 Hornet. Below is a picture of the 22 TCM rounds I used compared to a regular .223 round. I like the 22 Reed Express but the only drawback is having to form the brass which takes some time. the 22 TCM brass can be bought already formed inexpensively as commercial 22 TCM brass or reformed .223 brass. Either one works although they both should be full length sized before loading. I really need to get one of Tim's M1 Carbine magazine adapters for the AR-15. I only have one magazine setup and I would like to be able to have loaded mags that I can just pop into the carbine and shoot.
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Post by 22boomer on Sept 30, 2016 6:48:22 GMT -5
Just ran some tests using my PPS-43 magazine adapter and magazine and the 22 TCM feeds like a champ as long as I keep the bullet length 1.37" or less. I'm using a shortened PPS magazine that only holds 10 rounds so I don't know what would happen if the full length PPS mag were used since the 22 TCM is slightly smaller in diameter. The Hornady 35gr NTX bullet is a little too long to get the correct length for the PPS magazine but Hornady 35gr V-max, Barnes Varmint Grenades and Midway 34gr Dog Town bullets can fit easily. I honestly don't know if the Armscor 22 TCM commercial ammo will feed as smoothly since I don't have any of that ammo. It is short enough to fit easily in the PPS magazine but the kind of blunt nose on the bullet might make feeding an issue. I need to order some of the commercial ammo and try it out but for now I'm concentrating on my hand loads.
EDIT to add: I went to the range today and shot using the PPS mag and it worked great with all the rounds I had. They were all under 1.37" and I used Barnes 30gr Varmint Grenade, Hornady 35gr V-mav and Midway36gr Dog Town bullets. All the bullets shot really great but the Varmint grenades shot the best for me. I tried the short rounds in the M1 Carbine magazine setup and it went kind of so-so with some mis-feeds I think caused by the cartridges having enough room to shift a lot when the carbine was fired. The longer cartridges using longer bullets like the Hornady 40gr V-max work perfect in the Carbine magazine. I think I like the shorter bullets so I'll be using the PPS magazine for a while. I will be ordering some of the Armscor commercial 22 TCM ammo to test at the range soon.
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Post by 22boomer on Oct 19, 2016 13:39:04 GMT -5
I finally got a box of Armscor 22 TCM ammo and tried it in my carbine -- it worked great. Actually it worked better than I expected and I wish I knew what powder they use. I'm using Lil' Gun powder and it works fine about the same as the commercial ammo but I tried an equal load of W296 and it was short stroking. Another thing I found is some of my brass is the converted .223 brass not the original head stamped 22 TCM brass and I found that some of the converted brass not only needed to be trimmed to correct length but the necks on some needed to be turned. I think in the future I'll either by the factory ammo and reload their brass or try to buy 22 TCM head stamped new brass. By the way, I was using the PPS magazine for the 22 TCM commercial ammo test and it worked fine.
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