Longer/deeper gas check?

[NoAngel]

There are small variations in check depth [I've noticed] depending on brand and lot but nothing drastic.
I'm working with a 311413. If you know that bullet, you know it has a rather long tail that would lend itself to a longer gas check.
The one I have is pretty loose and difficult to get a check to stay on...BUT, that works to my advantage. I powder coat a raw casting and check and size last. It works GREAT!

My intentions are to feed these to a STG-58 I am currently building. The FAL is pretty rough on feeding and will need a fairly good amount of pressure to cycle reliably. Seems to me a longer gas check might help things as I push them a little harder than one might for a bolt action.

It's doubtful anyone makes such an animal. If not, reckon a gas check maker could be engineered to make a deeper check? Be happy to pay Pat to make one special if it would work.


Thoughts??

[Wayne Smith]

PM Pat and see if he is able to do it. I can imagine some issues with drag and needed lubrication?

[longbow]

My home made and rather crude but functional gas check maker makes quite deep checks because I sized everything to use the "standard" 0.014" thickness material or is it 0.012"? but I had a bunch of old gutter material that is 0.019" so I am using that and being so thick it extrudes deeper than normal checks.

I get away with the thick material because my check maker is a Flintstone style that uses a hammer to punch disks then a hammer to form the checks. Not sure you would be able to do the extrusion using a loading press. I guess those using a FreeChex type check maker could do the same especially if using an arbor press.

I could send you a few if you want to try them. However, I am not going into business so if they work better for you than standard checks you would have to find another source or someone to make you a tool so you can make your own.

For that matter, I suspect that a thinner material using a larger disk would work just as well and might be doable on a loading press and Pat Marlin may be able to make a tool to do that for you.

Longbow

[JSnover]

I wonder how easy it would be to swage them out of .22 short or CB brass?

[JSnover]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...ghlight=checks
Jackets from primers. Not quite the same thing but it might be adaptable.

[rmatchell]

If you had a check maker. You could try a thicker material although it would most likely only work with copper.

[gwpercle]

A " long" gas check would be like the 1/4 length jackets of yesteryear . They have pretty much gone the way of the Doo-Doo Bird. They just didn't offer much better performance than standard "short" gas checks.
The 3/4 jacket pistol bullets that Speer made I really liked, but they covered all of the bearing surface and only exposed the lead nose. In 41 magnum the soft point solids were awesome , in 357 magnum the hollow points were even awesomener .
Your project might be good application for powder coated and standard gas checked boolits.

Gary

[HollowPoint]

I've been having basically the same problem in that the Gator checks I'm using for my 6.5mm bullets are so shallow that I have to Powder Coat over the top of them to get them to stay in place. I can't confirm this; I'm just assuming that powder coat tends to keep them in place; at least I hope it does.

I use a suppressor to shoot my 30 caliber cast bullets and my home-made gas checks extend far enough up the gas-check-shank on the bullet to keep a firm grip once I run them through my push through sizer. These 6.5mm checks are a different animal all together. I've really never recovered a fired bullet so I'm just assuming they stay on. I don't want to take the chance that they aren't staying on so I avoid using my suppressor on my 6.5 rifle.

I spent a little time yesterday and this morning fabricating some rudimentary check making dies that fit my arbor press. I too wanted some gas checks that extended farther up the gas-check-shank of my bullets so that I can shoot them through my suppressor without fear of a baffle strike by a loose check.

Using the same aluminum flashing I bought at Home Depot several years ago, the 6.5 checks I'm making now do indeed extrude to give me that extra bit of length on the gas check skirts. It's just what I was looking for. I haven't tried firing them yet but as soon as I get a free day off work, that's next on my to-do list. I'd like to shoot them in such a way that I can recover a bullet or two just to see if the checks are still on them.

HollowPoint

[labradigger1]

The old Lyman checks are much taller than those made by Hornady.

[HollowPoint]

The aluminum flashing I'm using now measures .010" thick according to my digital calipers and this is the flashing that extrudes up tightly against the last driving band of my bullets. Ideally, I'd like to have the extrusion stop just before it touches that last driving band.

I just found out today that HomeDepot carries some short rolls of aluminum flashing that measures .0092" thick and cost just eleven bucks and change. I think I'll give it a try to see if it will lessen the extrusion so as to only reach just below the last driving band. With my present extruding home made gas checks bumping up against the bottom of that last driving band, it leaves me wondering if when I fully seat that check during the sizing process, there still might remain an air space between the base of the bullet and the inside bottom face of the check.

If I can tweak the extrusion-effect of my home made checks just a bit I'll be about 99.9 percent sure that they'll stay on if I shoot them through my suppressor.

HollowPoint