Does it matter if GC comes off after Boolit leaves the muzzle?

[UBER7MM]

I... I've noticed a number of gc's several feet forward of the muzzle, and like Robert says, I don't think they are all coming off.....

I've found one of mine 10 yards behind the shooting bench. I'm hoping the rains washed it there.....

[osteodoc08]

I like mine to stay attached. Uniformity is the key to accuracy. If some fly off and some don't, accuracy suffers. I also imagine that the GC doesn't come off uniformly and the last nanosecond of the one edge that hangs on just before it departs the boolit will cause enough disturbance to affect accuracy.

[pls1911]

Shooting IHMSA silhouettes for years and hunting even more, I've used old Lyman checks when I find 'em at a buck or two a box and Hornady crimp ons the rest of the time.
Absolute bench rest paper accuracy may show some variation, but steel rams or tough old pigs don't seem to notice the difference.. both fall with equal authority... 7 mm, .30 cals, .35, .416, and .458

[Low$John]

Few weeks ago, i was comparing some gas check bullets with others in my H&R Handy rifle 357 Max by shooting into stacks of paper books. I was surprised to find the slugs still had my home made aluminum checks stuck to them with 1/2 the slug blown away. I would have guessed it would have been brushed off shortly after penetration. Distance was around 50/60 ft. Penetration around 5 to 7 inches. Bullet hardness close to 14BHN.

[El Bango]

I had a slip on Lyman come off in a rough bore of a Savage 219 30-30 the next round was a jacketed 150 gr Winchester that blew the first 11 inches off the front of the barrel.I didn't know what happened but the part that blew off flew up hit the ceiling of the range and bounced off the bench to my right, no one was hurt thankfully. I stubbed the barrel and built a nice 22 Hornet on it.

[5.7 MAN]

I was about to ask about this very subject, I have one of the new ruger SBH 480s and I've been shooting a commercially cast Lee 325 grain GC bullet. Accuracy has been so so and I get awful flyers from time to time. Luckily I didn't buy very many of these bullets but disappointing accuracy can shake confidence in a new gun.

[Ricochet]

I have a great fondness for the Swiss M1889 rifle, despite its relatively weak, enormously long action. It used the 7.5x53.5 round, which is actually the same chambering as the later 7.5x54.5 except for a greatly oversized chamber neck. The bullet was paper-patched lead alloy with a steel cap on the ogive alone, and it was greatly oversize for the rifling, with a heel to fit the case neck. My guess was that it was originally designed to hold a bullet of that full diameter, but swaging it down so much in the lead caused "finning" at its rear edge, which they decided to keep at the heel step where it would be relatively harmless.

As a relatively new Swiss 1889 shooter, I've trimmed modern 7.5X55 brass back to 53.5mm length (absolutely necessary for using bullets larger than standard .30s as the mouths of my fired cases at the full length taper down in the chamber to .312"), fire them once with the old NuJudge group buy boolit sized to .314" and gas checked, then use the cases unsized with the necks fire formed to the rifle's chamber. Measurements of original Swiss GP90 bullets on the SwissRifles board report a .315" diameter of the lead body ahead of the case, .307" heel, paper patched to .321". My NuJudge boolits have a "bore rider" section that's .308", the grooved shank is .316" unsized, and I paper patch it to .322-.323". Lubed with Vaseline, it makes a nice press fit into the unsized case mouths with just a kiss from a Lee Universal case flaring die with chamfered mouths. The unchecked gas check shank serves the purpose of the heel in preventing finning of the base from squeezing down the grossly oversized bullet/patch combination into the tight bore.

Just speculating here. When the Swiss adopted Schmidt's rifle with Rubin's cartridge, Rubin had already been using FMJ spitzer boat tailed bullets. I'll bet he'd developed a load for that but the Swiss wouldn't spring for the cost of new equipment to make those bullets and insisted on sticking with paper patched lead like the old ".41 Swiss" rimfire cartridge. (Actually I think I've read that much.) Anyway, here's the speculative part: When trying to make the patched lead bullet work with their new "reduced smoke powder" that was likely a new nitrocellulose powder similar to what the French and Germans had already adopted rather than a semi-smokeless as has often been said from translating the name, I'll bet he ran into problems getting consistent ignition with the soft 1:20 tin/lead bullets with greased patches and came up with the idea of oversizing the bullets to increase the shot start pressure to approximate what the jacketed bullets gave, helping the smokeless powder to get off to a better start. At any rate the oversized patched bullet worked for the Swiss from 1890-1921 and it still works today.

[fred2892]

I have used well over 10,000 gator checks and of bullets recovered from the backstop, not one has had a gas check still fitted.
Accuracy has not suffered, most of the gator checks I use are in 30 cal and fitted to either the lyman 314299 or noe 316299. Lately I have been using the 316299 sized to .314 and lubed with Lars carnuba red on a newly aquired swiss 1889.
Heres the results from its second outing at 100yards.


First shot clipping at 3 oclock, second was the bull, the other 10 clustered together below. (12 round magazine on the swiss 1889).
These are almost identical results to my mosin nagant pu in 7.62x54 using the same bullet, check, lube and powder charge.
Sent from my GT-P5110 using Tapatalk

[too many things]

only if shooting through a choronagraph then you may wipe it out
never had a gator come off but many I don't look for either

[Boolseye]

I don't like checks that aren't tightly on the boolits. I believe gas checks are best when almost unremovable without pliers.
I like seeing them littered around the point of impact, then I know they did their job. I picked up a NOE HP that had been turned inside out after being fired at a swinging target from a 357 SIG at about 1400 fps. The check was sitting right next to it, and I could still fit it onto the base. I've remelted lots of boolits when there's a gas check problem (such as some AL checks). AL checks can be great, but I prefer ones that I make myself with my Pat Marlin's checkmaker (in .30 cal) and I anneal them. Good copper checks, I find (Hornadys and Gators) are pretty much bulletproof (no pun intended).