shooting GC bullets with no GC

[canuck4570]

would it be a good idea to have the sliding stem in the seizing die machined so the GC portion of the bullet would go in it and so preventing the lube to go there..... any of you did this .....

[Treeman]

The gas check designs that I shoot without gaschecks are Tumble Lubed so I have no experiece with Lubrizer lube rings around gas check rebates..... But wouldn't the lube act as a "soft gas check"? If you are using a firm consisency lube I doubt that it would do any harm and it might help prevent leading. Of course what it will do to group size is a "shoot and see" matter.

[canuck4570]

yes with hard lube but these are for plinking so soft lube is used and after a while it might contaminate the powder and when assembling the round it messy.....

[grouch]

I seat the sized and un - lubricated bullet on the first drving band, lubricate the bullet by hand, seat to desired depth and wipe off any excess lube. No problem at all with lube in powder, but rifle still shoots a bit better with the gas check in place.

[dragonrider]

It is possible but the resulting edge would be delicate and may cause some problems removing the bullet, it would probably be usefull only on that boolit #.

[Nardoo]

I occasionally run RCBS 458-405GC bullets unchecked in a 45/70. I wipe the lube away from the base and keep them under 1200 fps. Cannot tell the difference between them and the checked ones. You could probably push them faster, say to 1400 or 1500 fps but I have not tried it.

Nardoo

[Springfield]

Buy a Star sizer and you won't have lube on the base, only in the grooves.

[Bullshop]

I would think it would be better to have lube at the base to prevent the base, the stearing end from deforming. I think also in this case it will act much the way some fillers do as an additional gas seal.
Thats why I prefer to have the check area lubed. I get very good accuracy up to the limit in pressure/velocity of PB boolits. For me this seems to be arround 1500 to 1600 fps.
Been working with 22's as usual lately. Got an old model single six converted to 22 ccm from 22 wmr. Trying to get it to shoot as cheap as possible so shooting without checks. Two gn unique with the NEI #2 out of the rifle at 1550 fps put 5 at just slightly over 1" at 100 yards. This load gives me 3500 shots per lb powder and cost about $1.50 per box of 50 figuring the cost of brass at .01 per shot. Another very good load in the 5.5" pistal is 3.8gn hs-7 giving about 1200 fps. This load w/o check is a bit too much for the rifle at 1990 and poor grouping at 100 yds
BIC/BS

[bobthenailer]

i use a star bullet sizer, and have had excellent results shooting various gas ck bullet designes without gas checks installed at velocties under 1100 fps out of pistols and a 357 mag rifle.

[Kraschenbirn]

I'm just a newbie when it comes to long guns, but I've loaded and shot thousands of Lyman 358156s (hard alloy and alox lube) w/o gascheck into .38 Spls. at around 800 fps without any noticeable increase in leading or apparent loss of accuracy when compared with the same load w/gascheck.

Bill

[Leverluver]

I remember an old article in an NRA publication that said that one of the harder lubes in the rear of the bullet where the gas check would normally go, was of benefit, just like a wax cookie under the bullet. It kept the hot gases from the outside edge of the bullet. Their results were reduced fouling compared to bare bottomed bullets, even at higher velocities.

[ELFEGO BACA]

I have had no problems with using gas check style cast bullets with out the gas check in my 44 magnum revolvers.

[45r]

you can punch out wads by putting milk carton strips under top punch and press into lube die ,pry out with x-xto knife and seat bullet and wad over case filling powder like 4227.Use hard lube like carnuba red,blue angle etc. and leave lube in groove.helps to keep lube off powder and helps protect bullet base.works well with plain base also.Poor mans gas check you might say.Slight compression with enough 4227 keeps wad against bullet.I've read articles about chamber ringing using powders that don't fill the case using wads so I always use powders that can be compressed a little.It is more work than using a good plain base so I don't do it much but it did seem to work Ok when I tried it to see if gas checks got too expensive or became unavailable.