[Scott60]

Who has succeeded at forming .22 TCM cases from once-fired .223 brass?

Using Lee dies, I've annealed using a torch and the "tip-over in water" method. Lubed generously inside and out, then passed into the Lee die. Everything is great - except that the expander ball sucks the shoulder back up (forward) resulting in the case not chambering. Forming minus the expander resulted in very nice forms that "plunked" right into the chamber but with undersized necks.
So then I tried pushing the expander into the neck just far enough to open it up to accept a bullet without crumpling, and the result was again that the neck got pulled forward by the expander.
I did mic the neck wall thickness at around .017", and even taper-reamed into the neck quite far to create a nice shallow bevel for bullet introduction, but even that resulted in the neck buckling.

What have others done to get good, formed cases?

 

[flyover]

It sounds like the brass is over annealed.

I had this problem on some old 250 Savage brass. I got them too hot and had recycle the brass.

 

[Scott60]

It sounds like the brass is over annealed.

I had this problem on some old 250 Savage brass. I got them too hot and had recycle the brass.

Thanks for the input, I thought the same thing.
Tonight I annealed more cases before cutting to see if starting with the small neck would get better results and I think it did. After forming I cut off the long skinny neck and trimmed to length, the introduced the expander just enough to open the neck but not pop inside so as to not pull on the shoulder coming out. Mic’d The neck walks at nearly .020” with diameter at .260” and they wouldn’t insert in the chamber. So, I file-turned the necks down to .55” and blended into the shoulder and they dropped right in! So I pressed in a Nosler 35 gr. Varmageddon to an OAL of 1.275” then trimmed off the poly-tip to 1.165” which is .22 TCM9R length. This expanded the neck and required turning off another few thousandths to chamber, but I finally got a properly formed cartridge. Loaded it into an EAA Witness mag and it chambered easily in my CZ-75B with TCM barrel!
I do have factory new brass coming, but I still want to be able to form my own cases just to have all the kinks worked out. I think the process would be improved by marking out the .22 TCM shoulder on a .223 case, then turn off .005” from there to the shoulder followed by die forming. This would lower effort plus go easier on the brass. It’s definitely not a fast process, but it is fun!

 

[flyover]

I remembered this just now. there is a product called Tempilaq for annealing brass and other metals. I don't recall the temperature range needed for annealing brass.
It is available from Brownell's.

 

[biggen]

Sinclair makes expander mandrels that won't jerk you neck around.

 

[handloader109]

Neck wall is too thick.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

 

[ironhead7544]

Using an "M" die in 22 cal from Lyman will solve the pulled neck problem. You have to remove the expander ball from the decaping rod. Then it works like a straight walled handgun cartridge set. I quit using expander balls years ago.

Sounds like you may have to turn the necks for thickness. Some brass requires this for the 300 Blackout also. There are gadgets on the market that will do this.