Update on 22TCM
Originally published at VolkStudio Blog. You can comment here or there.
While I hope to try a 5″ pistol, a bolt action rifle and a semi-auto carbine in that caliber, I do not have them on hand yet. What I have is a 4″ 1911.
I brought it to the range to test penetration on armor plates and had a chance to chronograph it. The 40-grain soft point exits at around 1910fps and consistently expands to about .3″ in gelatin. Penetration is about 17.5″ with a mostly straight path and the bullet remaining mushroomed front first.
Considering that 9mm Luger ball penetrates considerably further and starts about at .355″, 22TCM would seem an inferior performer. The magazine capacity is the same between the two calibers. The difference is in the felt recoil and speed of follow-up shots. 22TCM has no muzzle flip to speak of and can be fired very rapidly. It also has a flatter trajectory, with nearly half the drop of the 9mm at ranges under 300 yards. It’s a niche round but appears quite useful for small game hunting using the same 9mm sidearm with a different slide, or for self-defense by the recoil-sensitive.