Gas Check ?

[PhatForrest]

Hello all,

Is it a problem to load a gas check bullet design, such as for a 357 bullet, without a check installed?

[lead chucker]

Not a problem I have done it a lot with my 44 mag but you have to keep your velocity down or you will spend a lot of time cleaning lead out of your barrel. I make my own gc now so every thing gets a gas check accept for my 45 acp.

[PhatForrest]

The leading was kinda what I was afraid of. I'm a newb at this art, and didn't know if it would cause the extra leading if i ran the rounds at standard velocity, not looking to hot rod them without the checks in place.

[MtGun44]

May not be very accurate, but it might be.

I quit using GCs in pistols many years ago, they are totally unecessary
and cost a good bit of money, and are fiddly to put on.

Bill

[geargnasher]

Hello all,

Is it a problem to load a gas check bullet design, such as for a 357 bullet, without a check installed?

It depends a lot on your alloy, your powder selection, quality of your castings (particularly how sharp and well-defined the base band is), how fast you push them, how well they fit the gun and lots of other things, but there isn't inherently any problem with doing it except they sometimes don't shoot as accurately as a plain (flat) based boolit.

If you'll look in the classics and stickies section, there's a long thread discussing just this topic, you might find some useful information there.

Gear

[44man]

Gear and Bill sum it up real good.
Several things to consider. Soft boolits need the check to halt skid at the base.
Leaving the check off shortens the drive area and could make a certain weight boolit no longer match twist.
Some will shoot and some won't. You must test with your gun and boolit.

[targetshootr]

This months Handloader has a good article on how different alloys perform. After several hardness mixes were shot at various speeds he found little difference in accuracy. His testing was done in a 44 mag Blackhawk in a fixed rest setup. He concluded plain based ac wheel weights were all he'd ever bother with.

[williamwaco]

May not be very accurate, but it might be.

I quit using GCs in pistols many years ago, they are totally unecessary
and cost a good bit of money, and are fiddly to put on.

Bill

+1 on every word.

+ I did a test only yesterday with the Lee C358-158-GC bullet in the .357 in my Thompson Contender.

Results
5 fiveshot groups at 25 yards with no gas check
Smallest 1.33
Largest 3.06
Average 2.50

8 five shot groups with gas check
Smallest 0.84
Largest 1.84
Average 1.72

Load was 11.6 gr A9 in matched commercial cases.

My opinion:

You do not need a gas check in the .357 Magnum up to 1600 fps in rifle loads.

You can shoot gas check bullets without the gas check. Leading should be no more or no less than with any other bullet with no gas check.

If you don't want to buy gas checks ( I don't ). Buy a plain base mold. Don't waste your components and your practice time on gas check bullets with no gas checks.

.

[bobthenailer]

With the 2 moulds that ive tried it with and no gas check installed, ive gotten excellent accuracy from various firearms up to 1,100 fps , I did not try them at a higher velocity as that was all the velocity i wanted .
each mould & firearm is a indivdual ,! but do try it

[Love Life]

Somebody please forward this question to Bret.


To answer the op. Shoot it and see what it does. Leading can be cleaned out if it leads and you will have you answer either way.

[ScottJ]

I run my 358156 out of .38 special without check when I don't feel like bothering to run them through the sizer to put them on.

Ran an experimental batch recently over 4.0gr of Bullseye in .38 cases crimped in the lower groove. Ran them across the chrono yesterday and got an average of 828 fps for 12 shots out of a 5" S&W. The accuracy seemed about the same as the Lee 358-158-RF over 4.3gr HP-38.