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Testing Powder Lot Variances

Ammunition Reloading Journal

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October 2015 No. 298Rifle Magazine Presents - HANDLOADER

Display until 11/21/15 Printed in USA

New Bullets fromCuttingEdge!

Whisper toBlackout Rifle Loads

for theRockIsland.22TCM

TESTED: Rim RockCast Bullets

FEATURES

COLUMNS

Page 6 . . .

Page 46 . . .

4 Handloader 298

Publisher of Handloader® is not responsible formishaps of any nature that might occur from use ofpublished loading data or from recommendations byany member of The Staff. No part of this publicationmay be reproduced without written permission fromthe publisher. Publisher assumes all North AmericanRights upon acceptance and payment for all manu-scripts. Although all possible care is exercised, thepublisher cannot accept responsibility for lost or mu-tilated manuscripts.

ISSN 0017-7393 Volume 50 Number 5 Issue No. 298 October 2015

Ammunition Reloading Journal

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Publisher/President – Don PolacekPublishing Consultant – Mark Harris

Editor in Chief – Lee J. HootsEditor Emeritus – Dave Scovill

Managing Editor – Roberta ScovillSenior Art Director – Gerald HudsonProduction Director – Becky Pinkley

Contributing EditorsJohn Barsness Gil SengelJohn Haviland Stan TrzoniecBrian Pearce R.H. VanDenburg, Jr.Charles E. Petty Mike VenturinoClair Rees Ken Waters Terry Wieland

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Handloader® (ISSN 0017-7393) is published bi-monthly by Polacek Publishing Corporation, dbaWolfe Publishing Company (Don Polacek, Pres -ident), 2180 Gulfstream, Ste. A, Prescott, Arizona86301 (also publisher of Rifle® magazine). Tele -phone: (928) 445-7810. Periodical Postage paid atPrescott, Arizona, and additional mailing offices.Subscription prices: U.S. possessions – single issue,$5.99; 6 issues, $22.97; 12 issues, $39.00. Foreign andCanada – single issue, $5.99; 6 issues $29.00; 12 is-sues, $51.00. Please allow 8-10 weeks for first issue.Advertising rates furnished on request. All rights re-served.Change of address: Please give six weeks notice.

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On the cover . . . A Rock IslandArmory .22 TCM with a 3-9x 40mmscope.

32 .22 TCM Handloads for a Rifle John Haviland

38 Cutting Edge Handgun Bullets Solid Copper Hollowpoints Brian Pearce

46 Webley’s Patented “Man-Stopper” Bullet Considerations for Carry Guns Terry Wieland

52 Different Batches, “Same” Powder Testing Lot-to-Lot Variances John Barsness

60 Whisper to Blackout .300 Blackout Loads for a Bolt Rifle Charles E. Petty

6 Skeeter and the .44 Smith & Wesson Special Reloader’s Press - Dave Scovill

10 6.5 Creedmoor Bullets & Brass - Brian Pearce

14 295 or 300 Rook Cartridge Board - Gil Sengel

18 Accurate 2495 Propellant Profiles - R.H.VanDenburg, Jr.

22 Rim Rock Cast Bullets From the Hip - Brian Pearce

26 Bottleneck Handgun Cartridges Mike’s Shootin’ Shack- Mike Venturino

28 From the Range Pistol Pointers - Charles E. Petty

70 When Simpler Is Far Better In Range - Terry Wieland

Handloader 29814 www.handloadermagazine.com

The 300 Rook (we will get tothe 295 part later) is an early

black-powder British round. It wasfired in little single shots knownas rook and rabbit rifles, with arook being a bird related to ourcrow and a rabbit being, well, justa rabbit. In America we call themsmall-game rifles and cartridges.

Shooting rabbits is pretty straight-forward, but how does one go aboutshooting birds with a rifle? It isonly logical that the birds weren’tflying. Yet after one shot, theywould be flying, not to be seenagain. Well, not exactly.

Rooks nest in large concentra-tions. Like a crow, they will eatanything but seem to prefer grainand the eggs and young of birds,especially ground-nesting gamebirds. This was not appreciated bylandowners who destroyed rookswhenever possible. The birds evenhelped the process along.

In the spring before the fledgling

rooks could fly, they had a propen-sity to sit on limbs outside the nest and peer down at farmers.Recognizing an opportunity, and a chance to have some fun at the same time, farmers, landown-ers and their friends acquiredsmall-caliber muzzleloading riflesand picked the little vermin offtheir perches. With the advent of cartridge rifles, rook shootingoften became a social event. Men,

women and children took turnssniping the feathered pests, all thewhile considering it wonderful en-tertainment.

It has been written that youngrooks were fine table fare. I sus-pect, however, this story is similarto those I heard about cookingsnipe, coot and woodcock in myyouth. Basically, the bird is tackedto a clean pine board, herbs andspices added, then cooked untiltender. At this point the carcass isremoved from the lumber andburied in a deep hole. One theneats the board.

At any rate, the best grades ofEnglish black powder were thefinest in the world. Matching pow-der, grease wad and bullet weightin the early cartridge rifles allowedsome control over the amount offouling produced. Caliber could bedecreased while maintaining ade-quate accuracy. Rook cartridges,such as the 380 Long, 360 No. 5,320 Long and 300 Rook, becameavailable starting in the early 1870s.

The 300 Rook emerged as thesmallest cartridge that could main-tain its precision for the 30- to 50-yard shots required for rooks.Cartridges using lesser bullet di-ameters became available around1900 as smokeless powders were

295 OR 300 ROOKCARTRIDGE BOARD by Gil Sengel

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developed. It should also be men-tioned that British rounds havingthe same or similar bullet diame-ters but somewhat larger powdercharges existed at the same timeas the rook cartridges. Some werefor target use. Others were fired in what were termed miniaturerifles, the intended quarry beinggame the size of small deer, defi-nitely not rooks or rabbits.

How the 300 Rook came aboutbegins with a common percussionpistol caliber, the .32. Such gunshad bore diameters of more orless .320 inch. It was well knownthat the small guns had a deterrenteffect but weren’t very effective if it became necessary to pull thetrigger. In an effort to increase the penetration of the percussionhandgun, conical bullets replacedroundballs. When the first metalliccartridges appeared, it seemedlogical to simply reduce the diam-eter of the conical bullet slightly at the rear and poke it into thecase. Thus the case and much ofthe front of the slug were the samediameter. All early cartridges usedsuch a heeled bullet – think mod-ern .22 Long Rifle ammunition.

The earliest .32 was probably the.32 Short Centerfire (talking Brit -ish rounds here) that appearedabout 1869. Case length variedfrom about .600 to .700 inch. Atnearly the same time a roundcalled the .32 Long Centerfire ap-peared for Webley and Tranter re-volvers. Case length was .830 inch.Strangely, this round is later listedas 320 Long Centerfire (perhapsusing a lighter bullet) and then the 320 Rook. For comparison, itwas nearly identical to the .32 S&WLong, except the British round useda heeled bullet.

The heeled bullet was plagued byits externally applied lube crack-ing and falling off in cold weather,becoming sticky in warm condi-tions and simply wearing awayany time rounds were carried in apocket. About 1880, the 320 Rookbullet was reduced in diameter soit fit inside its case. This suppos-edly left its diameter at .300 inch,more or less. Case length was in-


creased some .350 inch to coverthe lubed portion of the slug andprovide space for a couple of grainsmore powder. This work is said tohave been done by (or for) Holland& Holland. In H&H advertising,the cartridge was called Hollands295 or the 295 Bore Rook.

Major ammunition maker Eleyfirst listed the new round in 1885.Kynoch followed in 1886 (H&Hwas selling rifles in 1882), but forsome reason known to neither mannor rook, both makers called it the295 or 300 Rook! Some insist the300 is bullet diameter. Others opinethe 295 indicates bore diameter. I can’t say for certain, having norecord of slugging a 300 Rook barrel, but I have measured a .300Sherwood (a slightly more power-ful smokeless powder contempo-rary), and its bore was .295 inch.Given a groove depth of .004 incha .300-inch diameter slug would betoo small. Perhaps the black-pow-der explosion expanded the bulletto fit. The rooks and rabbits didn’tseem concerned.

The standard black-powder loadfor the 300 Rook was 10 grains be-hind an 80-grain lead roundnose.That’s not quite equal to the .32S&W Long pistol round. Muzzlevelocity is given by Kynoch as1,100 fps from the rifle barrel.

Eley sometimes labeled its black-powder cartridge boxes .300-10-80with no other identification. Also,early Eley rounds are seen with anobviously heavier bullet, at least100 grains. These cases are head-stamped “ELEY 295.” This bulletwould require a long, freebored sec-tion in the chamber throat whilethe common 80-grain bullet wouldneed none. Just what was goingon here is impossible to say at thislate date. All references just referto the 295 or 300 Rook as one car-tridge only.

The round began to be loadedwith smokeless powder about1900. This gave the 80-grain bul-let (solid or hollowpoint lead) amuzzle speed of 1,150 fps. It alsomarked the beginning of the end,because smaller calibers couldnow equal the 300 Rook’s accu-racy at iron-sight ranges – and itdidn’t take much power to kill arook. Kynoch listed the round until1961, near the end of its sport-ing ammunition production. Eleystopped in 1919 when it wasmerged with other ammunitionand explosives companies. Todaythe round is for handloaders only.

The 295 or 300 or whatever Rookcartridge will never disappear en-tirely because of the beautiful sin-gle-shot rifles that chambered it.Some were plain types similar toour Stevens, but a large percent-age were side-lever, Martini andespecially break-open guns. Nicewood, good bluing and engravingwere common. Then there werethe Holland & Hollands, Jefferys,Westley Richards – all the bestmakers – who produced cased rookrifles that are simply exquisite.

Fortunately there is a renewedinterest in these rifles today. I amtold they are even being shot in in-formal competition in England,the U.S. and Australia. Wouldn’t itbe wonderful if someone sold smallfalling-block, Martini or break-open actions today, so such riflescould again be built? Perhaps wecould invent a lead bullet, black-powder silhouette game in whichthe cut-outs were – what else –rooks and rabbits.

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.22TCM

Handloadsfor a Rifle

John Haviland

Armscor USA/Rock Island Ar-mory has enjoyed some suc-cess the last few years cham-bering its .22 TCM center-

fire cartridge in several versions of itsautoloading handguns. It’s only natu-ral then that Armscor would chamberthe .22 TCM in a rifle to take advan-tage of the cartridge’s full potential.According to Martin Tuason, pres -ident of Rock Island Armory and Armscor Precision International, the.22 TCM rifle “. . . is a must have forhunters looking for maximum veloc-ity and stopping power in a .22-caliberfirearm.” That might be stretching thecartridge’s performance more than abit, because it is essentially a short-ened .223 Remington.

Tuason and firearms engineer Fred Craig developedthe cartridge, and TCM stands for Tuason Craig Mag-num. The case is a .223 Remington shortened about.73 inch with a slightly deeper extractor groove .049inch in diameter and a thicker rim .050 inch in diame-ter. The neck wall thickness of TCM cases measured.015 inch. Ten .22 TCM cases weighed an average of72.1 grains, compared to 92.0 grains for Winchester.223 cases. Armscor puts the velocity of its 40-grainjacketed hollowpoint from its Precision .22 TCM fac-tory loads at 1,875 fps from a 5-inch pistol barrel and

“over 2,800” fps from a 22.75-inch rifle barrel. Factory loadpressure is about 40,000 psi.

The rifle is the first of a newline of centerfire rifles for RockIsland Armory. The model num-ber is 22 TCM BA, but it is notshown on the rifle. Stamped onthe left rear receiver wall is“APINTL-PAHRUMPNV,” whichstands for Armscor PrecisionInternational – Pahrump, Ne-


The Rock Island .22 TCM rifleworked well on ground squirrels.The cartridge generates next tono recoil from the 8-pound rifle.

vada. Below that is stamped “ACPPhilippines,” which stands for ArmsCorpo ration of the Philippines. Onthe right, the receiver is stamped“ROCK ISLAND Armory.”

The action is designed for low-pressure cartridges, because itssingle locking lug, located at therear of the bolt, latches into theside of the receiver wall. With the.22 TCM’s mild pressure, that isprobably enough of a fastener. Its

recessed bolt face has a Sako-styleextractor, and a case pulled fromthe chamber hits the head of a pin,positioned at the left rear of theejection port, to eject the case.

The stock is a Philippine hard-wood with a black forearm tip andpoint-pattern checkering panels on both sides of the grip and fore-arm. A Parkerized finish covers themetal, and the barrel is fairly heavyat .90 inch in diameter in front of

the receiver, tapering to .75 inch atthe muzzle. Trigger pull is fourpounds. A five-round detachablemagazine comes with the rifle, andthe .22 TCM 17-round pistol maga-zine also fits in the rifle.

The grooved top of the receiveraccepts clamp-on scope rings. Itried several high-magnificationscopes on the rifle, but their wideocular lens housing blocked move-ment of the bolt handle. A LeupoldM8 4x had a narrow enough hous-ing to clear the handle.

At the 2015 SHOT Show MediaDay, folks were shooting Rock Is-land TCM autoloading pistols cham-bered in .22 TCM. Empty casesflew through the air and landed atmy feet like a gift from the heav-ens, so I gathered up a pile of them.Armscor factory Precision .22TCM cartridges loaded with 40-grain bullets and brass are avail-able from www.ammosupplywarehouse.com.

At home I set about preparing the cases for reloading, but evenbasic reloading information wasunavailable for the cartridge. An-other writer has shot ArmscorUSA .22 TCM cartridges in a RockIsland autoloading pistol and es-tablished a 1.030-inch maximumlength for cases. Redding dies wereon hand for full-length sizing, andcases were trimmed to a length of1.020 inches.

No established powder weightdata is available for the .22 TCM.To develop information for suit-able powders and powder weights,I searched for an established caseof similar capacity. The total ca-pacity of the .22 TCM case is simi-lar to the .22 Hornet. In fact, TCMcases hold .4 grain more water thanPrvi Partizan .22 Hornet cases. Theshape of the two cases, however,is entirely different. The Hornetcase is long with a slender shoul-der and rim compared to the shortTCM rimless case with a sharpshoulder. Hornet starting loadslisted in various handloading man-

Above, the bolt face is recessed on the Rock Island Armory .22 TCM rifle.Right, the rifle has a single locking lug

located at the back of the bolt.


.22TCM


The .22 TCM cartridge must be kept to a length of 1.275 inches to fit in the mag-azine of the Rock Island Armory rifle.

Left, the .22 TCM (left) has about thesame total case capacity as the .22Hornet (center) and is essentially ashortened .223 Remington (right). TheTCM also has a deeper extractorgroove and thicker rim than the .223.Above, trim length is 1.020 inches for.22 TCM cases.

The .22 TCM’s short cartridge lengthlimits suitable bullets; these three bulletsfit (left to right): Nosler 40-grain HPVarmageddon, Hornady 45-grain HPBee and Speer 46-grain Bee FNSP.

uals looked like a prudent place tobegin loading the .22 TCM. Therewould be no hot-rodding the car-tridge because of the single lock-ing lug at the rear of the bolt.

The .22 TCM is limited in its use-fulness because the short cartridgelength can only be loaded withlightweight and blunt-nose bullets.The rifle’s magazine will acceptcartridges with a maximum length

of 1.275 inches, which is the sameas the .45 ACP. That short lengthruled out any bullet over 40 grainswith a pointed nose. Even thenose of the Berger 30-grain FlatBase Varmint bullet is too pointed,and the full diameter of the bulletsits below the bottom of the caseneck with a cartridge length of1.275 inches. Nosler 40-grain Var-mageddon hollowpoints fit, butbarely. Assembled cartridges lookedweird, because the bullets’ ogivessit below the case mouths. Theonly bullets that fit correctly aredesigned for the .218 Bee. Bulletson hand included the Hornady 45-grain Bee hollowpoint and Speer46-grain Bee FNSP.

The .22 TCM was loaded withpowders commonly used in the.22 Hornet, such as Accurate 1680,Ramshot Enforcer, Alliant PowerPro 300-MP and 2400 and HodgdonLil’Gun and H-4198. Winchester296 would also be an appropriatepowder, but it has been absentfrom sporting goods store shelvesfor more than a year.

The first batch of .22 TCM car-tridges were loaded with CCISmall Rifle BR4 primers. About athird of the primers failed to firedue to a light strike of the firingpin. Switching to Winchester Small

Pistol primers solved the problem,and all of them fired.

The .22 TCM delivered muchhigher speeds with Lil’Gun thanthose stated for the .22 Hornet invarious reloading manuals. For in-stance, Hornady 45-grain Bee hol-lowpoints turned in a velocity of2,670 fps with 10.0 grains of Lil’-Gun. The Hornady Handbook ofCartridge Reloading 9th Editionlists a velocity of 2,400 fps from10.2 grains of Lil’Gun for the Hor-net. Nosler 40-grain Varmageddonhollowpoints reached 2,780 fpsfrom the .22 TCM burning 10.0grains of Lil’Gun, but the Nosler

Redding makes reloading dies for the.22 TCM, and a .223 Remington shell-holder fits the case.


Reloading Guide 7 indicates 2,466fps for the same bullet loaded inthe Hornet with the same powdercharge. Of course, different cases,primers, bullets and rifles wereused for the .22 TCM and .22 Hor-net loads, but a 300 fps differencebetween cases with nearly thesame volume is significant. Thisshows one should proceed cau-tiously when developing loads bythe seat of one’s pants.

Other powders, like Accurate1680 and Ramshot Enforcer, firedfrom the .22 TCM, though, werefairly close to the speeds listed forthe .22 Hornet. Alliant 2400 pro-duced sluggish velocities.

Lil’Gun and Power Pro 300-MPare the powders for top speeds inthe .22 TCM. The loads listed forthose two powders in the accom-panying table should be consid-ered the absolute maximum forthe Rock Island Armory rifle.Bolt lift was very stiff after firingthese cartridges. Cases fired withLil’Gun and Power Pro 300-MPstretched quite a bit after one fir-

ing and being resized in the Red-ding full-length sizing die. Theygrew from 1.020 to 1.030 inchesand longer.

The Rock Island Armory rifleshot adequately at 50 and 100yards from a bench over five dif-ferent days. The rifle would shoot

.22 TCM Handloads for Rifles overall loaded

bullet powder charge length velocity group(grains) (grains) (inches) (fps) (inches)

40 Nosler HP Varmageddon 2400 8.8 1.275 2,215 1.03*A-1680 11.0 2,173 3.02, 1.42* 12.0 2,440 –Enforcer 8.5 2,280 .65*Lil’Gun 10.0 2,780 1.25, .65* 10.3 2,845 .34*

45 Hornady HP Bee Power Pro 300-MP 10.3 1.275 2,551 1.552400 8.0 1,956 3.08Lil’Gun 10.0 2,670 1.78H-4198 10.5 1,900 2.60

46 Speer Bee FNSP Power Pro 300-MP 10.3 1.275 2,496 2.682400 8.0 1,876 3.62Lil’Gun 10.0 2,644 1.83H-4198 10.3 1,749 1.95 10.5 1,815 2.33

* Groups shot at 50 yards. All others were shot at 100 yards.Notes: All loads were assembled with Armscor Precision cases and Winchester Small Pistol primers.Cases were trimmed to a length of 1.020 inches. Velocities were recorded 10 feet in front of the RockIsland rifle’s 22-inch barrel.

Be Alert – Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in published load data.

Above, the rifle printed this group at 50 yards shooting Nosler 40-grain HP Varmageddon bullets over 10.0 grainsof Hodgdon Lil’Gun powder. The groupbelow, shot at 100 yards, used Speer 46-grain Bee FNSP bullets and Lil’Gun.

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small cartridge like the .22 TCM.Nosler 40-grain Varmageddon bul-lets varied 65 fps between 10.0 and10.3 grains of Lil’Gun. Speer 46-grain bullets varied 66 fps between10.3 and 10.5 grains of H-4198.

Even though each powder chargewas weighed on a balance beamscale, velocity spread was quitehigh with some powders. Alliant2400 varied up to 119 fps; PowerPro 300-MP, up to 150 fps; Ac -curate 1680 and Lil’Gun ranged 78 fps.

This past spring my son and Ishot the rifle at ground squirrels.Cartridges loaded with Nosler 40-grain Varmageddon hollowpointscycled without a hitch from themagazine and into the chamber,even though the bullets’ ogives satbelow the case mouths. A gentlepull on the bolt usually left firedcases in the action. A hard pullthrew them clear of the rifle. Weshot out to 75 yards or so with therifle supported on shooting sticks;we missed a few and hit a few.There was no doubt of a hit, evenat the mild velocities producedwith the Varmageddon bulletsseated over Lil’Gun. Recoil fromthe load was next to nonexistentin the 8-pound rifle (with Leupoldscope). With no recoil to jar thesights off the target, it was fun tosee all the action.

If the rifle was mine, I wouldchop about 5 inches off the fore-arm and slim the grip to make therifle handier. The .22 TCM was funto shoot, and reloading cartridgeswas easy and straightforward. How-ever, acceptance of the .22 TCM asa rifle cartridge will depend onother rifle companies chamberingthe cartridge. Cartridges smallerthan the .223 Remington have notfared well. The .221 RemingtonFireball is a more useful cartridge,because it can be loaded withpointed bullets and heavier bulletsthan the .22 TCM. The Fireball alsoshoots a good 500 fps faster withonly a few grains more powder,but it is on its last legs. Perhapsthe .22 TCM’s brightest future re-mains as a handgun cartridge.

a nice round group one time, butbullets from the same load shot asecond time would spread up orsideways a good 3 inches. Therifle definitely preferred Lil’Gunwith all the bullets used andPower Pro 300-MP with Hornady45-grain Bee bullets. A scope higherthan 4x would have allowed a moreprecise aim and perhaps shrunkgroup sizes.

Even a few tenths of a grain dif-ference in powder can cause awide difference in velocity in a

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