Anyone have the RIA CCO TCM 9R? I have a question.

This is obscure but I’m hoping someone may know.

I’ve held off buying the RIA CCO 9/TCM9R combo for years because I didn’t want to deal with stocking both base TCM and TCM 9R. In fact there is a post here on THR from back in 2017 where I lament that the CCO is 9R. However, I ran into some info that raises questions.

Apparently the Armscor CCO frame will hold a standard .38 Super mag just fine. The .38 super mag works fine for full length TCM. So...is the CCO combo marked as 9R because it really needs 9R to work reliably, or because the flush 8rd magazines they sourced are 9mm length?

In searching online, I found one vague reference to an Armscor/RIA employee saying they used standard TCM in the CCO, but the source had no info about how that was done.

Edit: for those that don’t know: The TCM and TCM 9R are the same cartridge, with different bullets. The 9R bullet is loaded to give a shorter OAL to fit in 9mm magazines.

Yeah they made things really confusing. Again.

They sell the combo CCO as model number 56634 now. Or maybe 56636 - I’ve seen it listed online under both model numbers recently. If there is any actual difference between the 51858 and the 56634 I don’t know what it is. And they don’t list it on their website right now, but RIA has never done a great job of keeping their website up to date. Online listings for the 56634 9mm/TCM combo show unlikely differences (4.2” barrel vs. 4.25”) that I don’t actually believe.

I have the option to pick up a 56634 in 9mm/TCM9R locally today, and have verified it’s a combo (both barrels included) and can physically accept the same 10rd .38 super size magazines as the single-stack commander sized TCM (though the 10rd sticks out)...but I have no way of verifying function with the TCM magazine/non-9R ammo without splashing out $600+ and taking it to a range, so I was hoping someone knew.

Edit:typos

Well I guess I have at least a partial answer for myself on this one now.

The CCO (56634) comes with a magazine that will only accept 9mm/TCM 9R - standard .22 TCM does not fit. It has an internal insert to keep the round in the forward portion of the magazine. However, it is externally identical to a .38 super magazine, and when a .38 super/standard single stack TCM magazine (loaded with standard .22 TCM ammo) is used, the gun passes as much of a function test as one can perform without firing.

I’ll verify next time I have a chance to go to the range, but from everything I can tell the only reason they put the 9R designation on this gun is the magazine. Which is a real shame because I’d have bought one in 2017 if they had used a different magazine. Hopefully it will work so I never need to buy 9R ammo.

Rittmeister said:

Interesting. I'd like to know if the new version is still a standard 4.25" barrel with bushing - some of RIA's compact models have a bull barrel, which I will not be buying.

Let us know what happens!

Click to expand...

It appears to be visually identical to the standard midsize (4.25”) TCM barrel. Same full length guide rod, bushing, etc.. Comparing the 9mm barrels it would be impossible to tell them apart except the markings are slightly bigger on one.

No problem, they made finding them tricky for some reason. I was price comparing just 2-3 weeks ago and I saw three in stock online at that same time, so was hoping I could point you to an in stock gun. Unfortunately they seem to be gone now. But it was only a few weeks ago so hopefully one will turn up for you.

https://www.budsgunshop.com/product_info.php/products_id/415011680

https://g4gguns.com/product/rock-ultra-cco-9mm22tcm-4.2#product_detail

Grabagun had one under the same 56634 model number a few weeks ago as well, but I can’t find it now.

Note that the links show the barrel length as 4.2” but it’s actually 4.25”. Well, all of the listings had errors. The worst was this one where the description doesn’t match at all:

https://g4gguns.com/product/ria-1911-rock-ultra-cco-combo-9mm22tcm9r-8rd#product_detail