I usually wait until I have my project's completed and tested before posting anything about them but, I'm having a hard time containing my excitement about these Gas-Checks.
After completing my third set of Prototype dies I finally hit on the ones that seem to work the best for me.
These are just "Proof-Of-Concept" dies. Meaning; before I get anymore involved with this project I just wanted to make sure I wasn't just chasing farts in the wind.
Two things I've learned so far:
(1) This type of Gas-Check has to be formed in stages otherwise .
My first two attempts at making these specialty dies entailed forming them from copper/brass cups in three initial stages, then a fourth and final separate stage. The first three "Stages" were all integral to the first die and the final forming stage required a separate forming punch. (the fourth stage)
(2) It IS possible to make them out of aluminum as I'd hoped BUT:
The aluminum sheeting I use must be annealed first. In addition; aluminum Boat-Tailed Gas-Checks require a dedicated set of dies. You can't use the same dies for copper/brass and aluminum.
The reason for this is because, I'm using 44 caliber gas checks that I had left over from my 44 cal. reloading days. The diameter of these 44 caliber checks remains the same after the initial forming stages. With the aluminum checks, the initial forming stages reduces the overall diameter which caused the semi-completed aluminum check to fall down into the die.
It can be retrieved and placed manually on the final forming punch but, it's almost impossible to center it perfectly so the final outcome is an exercise in futility.
BECAUSE of the angles that these Boat-Tailed Gas-Checks are formed in, you can't just form them the way you form normal flat based gas checks. That method just rips the little metal disks all to hell.
Also, I wanted the walls of these Boat-Tailed gas checks to go a little higher than the regular flat base gas checks so that after I installed them I could go back and crimp them in place.
With my regular gas checks I've noticed that they don't always stay on the boolit; which effects accuracy. I figure that crimping them on would mitigate this problem.
I still have a ways to go before I even test my first Boat-Tailed Gas-Checked Boolits but, I just couldn't contain myself. I had to let it be known that this was on the horizon.
The things left to do before I can officially get to the range for testing are:
Make my crimping die to crimp on these Boat-Tailed Gas-Checks.
Rather than making an entirely new dedicated bullet mold to accommodate these Boat-Tailed Gas-Checks, I plan on just milling some Boat-Tailed extensions to add to the tail end of my existing bullet molds.
In theory, I'll just add a thin layer of metal to the top of my molds with the beveled shape I need to fill the inside dimensions of the Boat-Tailed Gas-Checks.
I'll be posting some photos of my first few checks and the prototype dies tomorrow some time.
I've had this project in mind for some time now and the main thing that's kept me from getting this far has been the fact that my bench top lathe is anything but accurate.
In order for these gas checks to work properly, everything has to be perfectly aligned. I just haven't been able to get that kind of accuracy up until lately. (still not perfectly aligned but, better than it was)
As most of you guys know, the tail end of our bullets has to be as perfectly shaped (wether flat or Boat-Tailed) as possible in order to get the accuracy we're after.
I'll be back soon.
HollowPoint