So this weekend I started to work in earnest on the 22 TCM with cast bullets. I selected an old Ideal (non-vented) 225438 for the task, this bullet is 44 grains with gas check. My mould drops .225 and change. I wanted the final bullet to be .225, powder coat takes care of that and gives me a little room for sizing. My alloy is 94/3/3 and my gas checks are aluminum. I have never cast 22's, never sized them or checked them... What a PITA! I will update this thread as warranted.
I selected CCI OEM primers and 2400 powder, starting charge about 9.5 grains. This load was a little light as the slide lacked full velocity, it did feed and did cycle, primers were still completely rounded. One thing I did find out is the fat part of my chamber is long. I may contact RIA about this, my sized cases have the should set back a fair bit. Or, the recoil spring is to light and allowing the slide to start moving to soon. I am not sure yet. Factory rounds show it more and have a slight bulge at the lower half of the case sometimes. I am working with the double stack non-ramped barrel model.
My goal was to match factory velocity with a less harsh powder and I hit it with 9.8 grains of 2400! My average velocity was 1732fps with an SD of 33 across 6 shots and factory was 1735 fps with an SD of 41! I am going to keep playing with this as I would like to see just a little more velocity without the pressure signs of factory ammo. I did find one downside, about 3 in 10 are loosing the gas check and it is going thru the target right next to the bullet. I am not sure if this is a process problem or because the gas check is below the neck. I had to scramble to load these, no M die and the bullets had the gas check installed in a Lee push thru die. I did not like that part because the bullet is going thru the die the wrong direction for seating checks. PC was done after checks were installed and then they were final sized in the same Lee die.
I do have a proper H&I die on the way, this should eliminate the improper check seating. I also of some copper checks on the way, the aluminum checks seemed awfully thin to me and I think they contributed to the problem. I am going to order a Lee expander insert from Al at NOE. The question becomes .226x.222 or .228x.224? I wish there was a .227x.223 as I think that would be the ideal size for this bullet and would still provide decent neck tension as I do not crimp these. I got zero leading with the cast rounds at this velocity, I would like to get about 200 fps more out of them, not sure that can be done with 2400. My next powder will likely be H110 Data powder, it is 10-12% faster than consumer H110. It is an old powder that I was able to get 100 pounds of when I worked with a commercial reloader. This powder is my staple magnum powder, it is clean burning and allows a little more to be dumped into some cases with great results.
I have a very early set of the Lee TCM dies, they kinda stink! I had to add hot glue to the seater to keep from chewing up the bullet and the seater stem cap is very loose on these dies. What dies are you using and are you happy with them?
Some eye candy???
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