Brass gas checks??

[Gussy]

There's a wide range of thickness' in brass shim stock. It's fairly reasonable if on sale. 600 sq in for $15-18.00 plus shipping for .0200.

Too hard?? Or ??

Gus

[44man]

Should work fine if annealed so it forms without folds or cracks.
But is that any cheaper then buying them? You need to consider the work and how many you will get.

[Larry Gibson]

I use sheets of brass shim stock .014 thick for my own .30/.31 and 8mm GCs. It requires no annealing. A couple moulds require .16 thickness. I get it from McMaster-Carr.

Larry Gibson

[JIMinPHX]

I tried some .016" half hard brass shim stock. It was much harder to cut than .016" copper was. The brass really put a beating on my check maker.

[JeffinNZ]

I have used 15 thou brass with success.

[HangFireW8]

I tried some .016" half hard brass shim stock. It was much harder to cut than .016" copper was. The brass really put a beating on my check maker.

Half hard? Did you consider annealing?

-HF

[jlchucker]

I picked up a box of 30 cal Lyman gaschecks about 20 years ago at a yard sale, and they appear to be brass. Don't know how old they were when I got them but they are clearly press-on, not crimp on like Hornaday, and brass colored. Once in a while one would fall off, so I never really used them enough to use up the whole box.

[RayinNH]

jlchucker, I got some 7mm gaschecks as you described, brass colored, off of the Swappin and Sellin section. I annealed them with a propane torch until just light red and dumped in water. Now they crimp on just fine when run through a lube sizer. Give it a try, you might be able to use up your supply...Ray

[Shiloh]

I've seen and used brass gas checks. They were old and in a small re-inforced carboard box. They were used up long ago.

[JIMinPHX]

Half hard? Did you consider annealing?

-HF

I did not. I just bought 1 strip of it to try out. It was very expensive & I ended up deciding against trying to use it again. I either use copper or aluminum these days. The aluminum works well in most of my guns. The ones with chromed bores require copper gas checks because the aluminum fouls them badly.

[RayinNH]

The ones with chromed bores require copper gas checks because the aluminum fouls them badly.

Jim, that's good to know. I just picked up a Type 99 Arisaka with a chrome lined bore. The only appropriately sized boolits that I have at the moment have aluminum gas checks. I shot about twenty rounds through it at 50 yards, and accuracy was horrible. The jacketed that I shot just before the lead was superb. When I cleaned the rifle it looked to me like I had leading. It's probably aluminum fouling. Any suggested tips on getting the aluminum out...Ray

[JIMinPHX]

It's probably aluminum fouling. Any suggested tips on getting the aluminum out...Ray

I just scrubbed the dickens out of them with a bronze brush & alternated wet & dry patches of Hoppies. It took several days to get the aluminum out that way.

There was another thread, here on the board, where I posted about the aluminum fouling & some people suggested various chemicals that I might try to get the aluminum fouling out more easily. None of the chemicals sounded like anything that I wanted to fool with. If you do a search for posts with my name & the words "chrome bore", you will probably find that thread.

[RayinNH]

Will do, thanks Jim. It's been said before, but you learn something new here every day...Ray

[StarMetal]

That's not necessarily true. It may be in his particular rifle, but I too have a 7.7 Jap with the chrome bore and shoot the living daylights out of it and in addition I have a Colt HBAR AR15 with chrome bore I shoot cast from, and often at high velocity, and not only do then not foul (with anything) I find them much easier to clean then non chromed bores.

I wouldn't believe this until more shooters could really confirm it.

[JIMinPHX]

Star metal, like you said, one example of a rifle that fouls is not a statistically significant sample upon which to base an irrefutable conclusion. I also agree that in general, chrome bores foul less & are much easier to clean.

That aside, the rifle in question shot fine with the same boolits using copper gas checks & another rifle with a non-chromed bore did not foul with the same aluminum checks.

The chrome bore was a mess after 5 shots with aluminum checks. That particular batch of aluminum checks was made out of bud lite aluminum beer bottles (not cans). I tried two different strings of 5 shots, each starting with a clean bore. Both were around 1800fps. One set used LLA lube. The other used Lyman Super Moly. If neither of those lubes will cut the mustard at that speed, than I don't know what will.

I wouldn't tell someone that it's not possible to use aluminum checks in a chrome bore, but I would suggest that they check the condition of the bore after the first few shots.

[StarMetal]

Star metal, like you said, one example of a rifle that fouls is not a statistically significant sample upon which to base an irrefutable conclusion.

That aside, the rifle in question shot fine with the same boolits using copper gas checks & another rifle with a non-chromed bore did not foul with the same aluminum checks.

The chrome bore was a mess after 5 shots with aluminum checks. That particular batch of aluminum checks was made out of bud lite aluminum beer bottles (not cans). I tried two different strings of 5 shots, each starting with a clean bore. Both were around 1800fps. One set used LLA lube. The other used Lyman Super Moly. If neither of those lubes will cut the mustard at that speed, than I don't know what will.

I wouldn't tell someone that it's not possible to use aluminum checks in a chrome bore, but I would suggest that they check the condition of the bore after the first few shots.

Apparently the type of aluminum in those bottles has peculiar traits such as you mentioned. It may also require a certain type of lube. The lube you mentioned, although good, apparently wasn't the lube for that type of aluminum. I've shot various types of aluminum, but not the bottle one you mentioned, in all my firearms that I use gas checks in, with nary a problem.

When I said my chrome bores clean easy I mean it. Most often just a patch will clean them including after jacketed.

How are you positive it's aluminum fouling?

[JIMinPHX]

How are you positive it's aluminum fouling?

It's hard, crispy crud. It either has to be aluminum or lead because that's all that was in there & it doesn't look like lead at all.

[StarMetal]

It's hard, crispy crud. It either has to be aluminum or lead because that's all that was in there & it doesn't look like lead at all.

Well too late now, but if you would have collected some of it out the bore and touched either a soldering iron to it, or a little propane torch with the flame on low you'd know for sure.

I hope it's an isolated case.