Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots T-C G2 "Match Chamber"?

I have a T-C Contender Carbine 23" .22 LR barrel that was sold to me as having a "Match Chamber." It is one of those made fairly recently in Springfield Mass.

Took it to the range yesterday for a first sight-in and found that it was very hard to chamber CCI Hi-speed LRs and also the CCI "Green" (non-lead) LRs. I'd expected a tight chamber in a "match-chambered" barrel, but this required really serious force to get the 40 gr. bullets AND the 28 gr. to chamber at all, and many times the rifle wouldn't cock without re-opening the action and then slamming it shut HARD. Is this normal behavior for a T-C "Match" .22 barrel?

I didn't have any actual match-grade LRs to try, so don't know if these chambers are only for premium grade ammo. Anybody know?

Also noticed that both the "Green" and Hi-speed LRs were bulged at a spot near the rim. Not a huge bulge but definitely noticeable. I've had other .22 LR barrels on this pre-S&W New Hampshire-made G2 action and never had ANY of this occur with them (all custom MGM barrels), or any funny business with various T-C or MGM-made CF barrels, from .22 Hornet to 7-30 to .410 shotgun.

Bore was very clean to begin with, and I scrubbed out the chamber HARD with a brass brush when I noticed the tight chambering on the first round. No change.

Did I get a bum barrel? Will I need to use match-grade ammo to get decent functioning? If the barrel is defective is there any recourse from T-C or whatever they call themselves now, given that I bought the barrel used?

Any info or experiences gratefully accepted!

Pretty common to have case bulges near the rim on TC rimfires; there is a cut on the chamber bottom for the extractor and that case heads tend to bulge a bit on mine with certain types of ammo....and it is more noticeable on my 22match barrel, than my 22 standard chambers.... It is even more pronounced in the other rimfire calibers, 17HMR, 17M2, etc, in my barrels.

the match has tighter chamber specs and it is normal to have tight chambering in the match barrels...

G~

Thanks, Fyrepower. Nice to know it's "normal." Next question I have (for myself) is whether I want to keep it....

T/C barrels that were marked "Match" (at least the old ones) actually engraved the bullet with the rifling. As such, it was common to need to use some extra force to chamber a round, where the non-match barrels simply close w/o any real force. I don't know just how hard the CCI "Green" bullets are so I can't offer any real help there.

Try chambering a lead standard velocity round and then extract it - you should be able to see rifling marks on the bullet.

Odd stuff. I have two "match" chambered RF barrels for the Contender, and neither does what you're experiencing. One is from Fox Ridge, the other from Bullberry. Engraving the bullet in normal, not so much having to "slam" the action shut.

Have a bolt action Anschutz with a match chamber. Bolt closure is a cinch, but a loaded round can not be ejected without using a cleaning rod down the muzzle. Fired rounds eject just fine.

The up side is one could have it reamed out if so desired.

Don't recall any such issue with the match grade Contender pistol I had, nor any remarkable accuracy for that matter.

You can get "match" Aguila for about $5.00 a box. Not Tenex, but good stuff. Try something like that before you get wound too tight about it. If it shoots really well, you'll be a happy camper.

I have a .22 LR (match) barrel from SSK. It's tight to load when dirty and makes a noticeable bulge right near the rim on the fired case. It also shoots match grade ammo into little bitty groups.

If yours is hard to load when clean, that sounds a little strange to me.