Thompson/Center Ugalde

The Thompson/Center Ugalde, or TCU family of wildcat cartridges was developed by Wes Ugalde of Fallon, Nevada, by necking up .223 Remington brass to accept larger bullets. The cartridges were developed for the Thompson Center Arms Contender single shot pistol, and are widely used in handgun metallic silhouette competition and handgun hunting.cite journal |url=http://www.gun-tests.com/performance/may97FTform.html |journal=Performance Shooter |title=Case-Forming Top Contender Hunting Loads |author=Bryce M. Towsley |month=May |year=1997]

History and motivation

The Contender pistol, with its break action, provides a very versatile platform for experimenting with cartridges, since all that is needed to change calibers is to change barrels. While not as strong as bolt action designs, such as the Remington XP-100, the Contender is capable of handling medium power cartridges, and many wildcats appeared based on cartridges such as the .30-30 Winchester and the .223 Remington. The TCU family is formed by necking up the .223 to the new diameter, and fire forming to reduce case taper and increase shoulder angle. The 7 mm version first appeared around 1980, with the .25 caliber appearing in 1987. The larger calibers provide more downrange energy, and resist wind deflection better than the original .22 caliber (5.56mm) bullet, and the moderate case capacity of the .223 Remington works well in the short pistol barrels.cite web |url=http://www.reloadbench.com/cartridges/w6mmtcu.html |title=6mm TCU |publisher=The Reload Bench] cite web |url=http://www.reloadbench.com/cartridges/w25ugalde.html |title=.25 Uglade/TCU |publisher=The Reload Bench] cite web |url=http://www.reloadbench.com/cartridges/w65mmtcu.html |title=6.5mm TCU |publisher=The Reload Bench] cite web |url=http://www.reloadbench.com/cartridges/w7mmtcu.html |title=7mm TCU |publisher=The Reload Bench]

The cartridges in the TCU family include:
*6mm TCU (.243 caliber)
*.25 Ulade, also known as .25 TCU (6.53 mm)
*6.5mm TCU (.264 caliber, really a 6.7 mm bullet)
*7mm TCU (.284 caliber)

The TCU family of cartridges is still going strong in competition, with top shooters at the 2007 IHMSA championship shooting 6.5 mm and 7 mm TCU from both Contenders and other pistols. [cite web |url=http://ihmsa.org/Int2007/BB%20-%202007.RTF |title=Results from the 2007 Internationals, Big Bore]

References