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Thread: Gas Checks vs Shank Size

  1. #21
    Boolit Master

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    Yessir, welcome to the site too...Ray
    Proud member in the basket of deplorables.

    I've got the itch, but don't got the scratch.




  2. #22
    Boolit Master thehouseproduct's Avatar
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    What about some of the guns that have a 305/316 dimension barrel? Do they still need to be limited to a 0.283~0.284 shank?

  3. #23
    Moderator Emeritus/Boolit Master in Heavens Range
    Molly's Avatar
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    http://www.thegascheckstore.com/home.html

    This is a neat little site where you can buy gas checks of varying thickness and diameters to match your bullet's gas check shank. Prices are reasonable too!
    Regards,

    Molly

    "The remedy for evil men is not the abrogation of the rights of law abiding citizens. The remedy for evil men is the gallows." Thomas Jefferson

  4. #24
    Boolit Master Rodfac's Avatar
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    I have two Lyman molds for the old Thompson designed, #429215 GC bullet. When cast from WW alloy with just enough tin added to ensure good fill out, I find it impossible to seat Hornady crimp on Gas Checks. In frustration, as I had nearly 3000 of them, I experimented with various methods of slightly flaring the Check to allow it to fully seat on the bullet shank prior to crimping in my old Lyman 450 sizer/lubricator.

    I ended up using a fairly large ball peen hammer for a flaring tool. I polished the ball end to a mirror finish (well at least down to 800 grit), then pressed it against the new check, set cup up on my bench vice's anvil. With a vary light tap from a 2nd hammer, it flares out just right. Initially I tried it on about 50 of them, thinking that accuracy would suffer from the flaring operation, but not so. My 1964 vintage Marlin 336 in .44 Magnum shoots them into nice tight 1+" clusters at 50 yds with a Lyman Peep Receiver sight and 66 yo eyes doing the steering. This rifle needs .432" bullets of lead alloy, minimum, to shoot accurately and avoid leading issues, which luckily is the "as cast" dia. of those two 429215 molds. I use a Lee push through sizer in one of my single stage presses for sizing in this off-beat dia. as Lyman didn't at the time offer that size for the 450 too.

    In a pair of Ruger .44 Magnums, 3 Ruger .44 Special Flat Tops, and a Smith 429, sizing the whole shebang to .430" does marginally better, but not by much; roughly a 1/4" at 25 yds in group size. All of the listed guns will do an honest 1" for 5 at 25 yds if I'm having a good eyes day.

    Recently, I visited my son who's got a 1903 vintage Winchester M-92 in .44-40. I'd cast him up a bunch of those 429215's for use in his lever gun, but had not sized them, nor seated the checks. Talking it over, and demonstrating the ball peen hammer method to him, he suggested using a large carriage machine bolt for a flaring tool. (The one with the rounded dome end.) We've not tried it as yet but the dome of the bolt is ok, radius wise, to prevent it from bottoming out as the edges of the check are flared, so we'll see. The bolt would offer a bit more convenience than wielding that big ball peen hammer around.

    In operation, I place 6 or 8 of the checks, cup up, on the anvil then flare using the two hammers as previously described. Works well for me, and the accuracy can't be beat with my guns. The method sounds time consuming, but really doesn't amount to much. Yesterday AM, I spent an hour and a half at it, including finding the hammers after a year's lay off etc. By actual timing, I averaged 6 checks flared per minute; that's roughly 360 per hour. Plenty for my purposes.

    Those under size Hornady checks (or an oversized pair of Lyman molds) are about gone now. Don't know if Lyman checks would work better, or if newer Hornady's would slip on better.

    HTH's Rod
    Last edited by Rodfac; 04-11-2013 at 01:30 PM.

  5. #25
    Boolit Master
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    I got a mould from Lyman (Lyman 266469) and it casts a boolit that will fit my bore on my 6.5-06 just fine. Only thing is that the gas checks are real loose. Looked up this thread and found Felix' post on the gas check shank sizes. This 6.5 mm mould has a .241 X .242" shank coming out of this mould-both cavities. Dug out my .257 Gator checks and they squeeze right on! Outside mic's out at .265-.266 so the .265" sizer just touches them and the bases are flat. I've decided to just keep it the way it is. Sure takes alot of doing these days to get a boolit to fit!

    So thanks again Felix.

  6. #26
    Boolit Master
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    I am thinking about getting in on the group buy for the 41 Magnum NOE hollow point mold but I haven't decided on whether to go plain base or gas checked. . I have both a microgroover Marlin and a S&W model 57. As far as I can tell, neither Lyman nor Hornady makes gas checks for this caliber so I have two questions:

    Who does make them?

    Can I use a .416 check for this caliber in both the rifle and the pistol?
    Some times it's the pot,
    Some times it's the pan,
    It might even be the skillet,
    But, most of the time, it's the cook.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check