Purchase of GC maker and material for 75 gr NATO 5.56

[dverna]

I have put my name in for the 75 gr. NATO GB mold. There are a few different manufactures of GC makers. My questions are:

First, which GC maker would you recommend and why? Second, what type and thickness of GC material would be best for this bullet?

Thanks for your opinions and advice.

[HDS]

I have no experience in this, I found it simpler to buy them. Since then I saw you can get from castboolits for even cheaper so I doubt I will be investing in a check maker anytime soon. With that said I did investigate the option before deciding to buy instead. I've heard lots of positive reports on the Freechex III system, you put it in an arbor press and start squeezing them out.

Now if they had something that could be put in a single stage press I'd be a bit more interested.

[dverna]

HDS

I have two Pat Marlin PB GC makers that fit in my RCBS press. I don't see why a regular GC could not be formed in a Rockchucker - after all some people have done light swaging on one.

My desire to make instead of buy is to be self-sufficient and also to have the flexibility to select type and thickness of material if that has any bearing on accuracy. With two and soon three AR's to feed, I will be using a few thousand a year so the break-even point should be reasonably quick. If I fired 1000 a year, you are correct and buying pre-made makes sense.

[fcvan]

I have 3 CheckMaker dies from PatMarlins and use them on the Lee Reloader press, the smallest one they make. Making checks isn't like swaging boolits which takes a lot more force. Yes, you can swage boolits on an RCBS 'Rock Chucker' press. RCBS stands for Rock Chuck Bullet Swage and is built very strong. I've seen some very serious swage presses but the RCBS will certainly swage .22, .243, and I believe .30 boolits.

For now, PatMarlins isn't selling a CheckMaker in .22, but it is in the works. I'm hoping since he's picked up another CNC he will have the .22 on the inventory soon. Until then it would seem the Freechex III from Charlie, or maybe a die from Goodsteel is what's available. There may be other folks making them using the designs posted on this site.

[Taylor]

I have a check maker on order from Pat,hopefully the 22 will be up and running soon.As for the freechex,I can never locate it.