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Thread: Seating Gas Checks

  1. #1
    Boolit Master
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    Seating Gas Checks

    I haven't shot a million gas checked bullets, but I've surely shot many thousands. And all of them produced pretty much the same way: sit down with a bunch of cast bullets and a box of checks, get the check facing cup up and press in a bullet base. Then you run them all thru the lubrisizer, of whatever flavor you happen to use. Even if the base fits fairly well this makes for tired, sore fingers after a few hours of it (if you have that many bullets which I often do) and adds a time-consuming step to bullet production. If the bullet base doesn't fit so well (of which I have a few moulds that produce them a bit large in the toosh) I heat the checks (in the winter I use the top of our wood stove) to somewhere around 200 degrees I suppose and then the cool bullets generally will press into the heat-expanded checks fairly well. In my case I haven't had to go to the extreme of bumping up the size of the checks with some sort of expander gadget.

    I made many many this way using an ancient Lyman lube-sizer to lube/size bullets with pre-seated gas checks. Then about 25 years ago I acquired a Star lube-sizer which made life easier, especially for plain-based bullets. But I kept on seating the checks the same old way, even for the ones for which I had a Star die. Then some time ago a fellow on another forum mentioned his technique of getting better cast bullet accuracy in a 25/20 by using 6.5mm gas checks instead of the normal 25 cal. So of course I must try this out. And dang -- 6.5mm checks don't stay on a 25 cal base, so you must use a different technique. Fortunately for me I have a .258 Star die I got from fellow Castbooliteer Lathesmith, so it was no big deal to start a bullet into the die, set a check on top the base, and finish the stroke for a perfectly applied gas check with no sweat required.

    The lightbulb went on: if this works for oversized gas checks, how does it work for normal checks? And how about those tight-butted dang things that I'd been able to seat only by heating the checks? So I am here to report that it works great on all the bullets I have tried. Here's the technique in pictures: bullet ready to put into die --Click image for larger version. 

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ID:	192722 bullet in die at about the right depth: Click image for larger version. 

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ID:	192723 gas check ready to slide over onto base: Click image for larger version. 

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ID:	192724 check on base ready to make the stroke:Click image for larger version. 

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ID:	192725 sizing stroke being applied:Click image for larger version. 

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ID:	192726 and the product:Click image for larger version. 

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    I now have Star dies for all of the sizes for which I have big-butted moulds. I'll never slave over a hot stove again! And about 3 more dies and I'll have all my rifle sizes covered by Star (much thanks to Lathesmith who even makes 22 cal dies like in these pictures!) Oh yeah, I should mention that I give the press handle a sharp downward rap to use some velocity/inertia physics to seat the check fully before the begin sizing. This is probably only needed on the checks that wouldn't fit nicely otherwise, but I just have the habit now and do it every time.

    If you have good-fitting checks this different technique is not greatly faster than the old "seat 'em first and then size 'em" technique, but it is maybe 50% faster or so. But it sure keeps you away from the old "sore finger" syndrome. And for the bad-fit boogers -- man, this is the only way to go!

    And for you Lee push-through fellers, you can do the same thing there but it is probably slower than the old way. Unless you have a bad-fit bullet, in which case I think you'd be able to skip whatever step you have been using to get check on base and just use the Lee the same way I use the Star, with the bullet pressed a little ways up into the die and then the check popped up with a sharp rap before completing the size stroke.

  2. #2
    Boolit Master Oklahoma Rebel's Avatar
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    I have a lyman lubrisizer 450, and I put my gas check on the sizing die, set the boolit on top, then size and lube,they hold on good and tight. you never tried it that way first? I've never tried seating them by hand before pressing them on and sizing, they would never go on straight anyways
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  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Oklahoma Rebel View Post
    I have a lyman lubrisizer 450, and I put my gas check on the sizing die, set the boolit on top, then size and lube,they hold on good and tight. you never tried it that way first? I've never tried seating them by hand before pressing them on and sizing, they would never go on straight anyways
    When the boolit shank is the correct size, the GC should just 'snap on" with just finger pressure, the lubesizer should hold them square, as they are sized/crimped on. The problem arises when the shank is oversize or undersize. The old 22 Bator is infamous for having a undersize shank, and I use Oklahoma Rebel's technique for that boolit... just put the GC into the sizer Die, then the boolit on top...it actually makes sizing easier with tiny boolits.








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  4. #4
    Boolit Master Oklahoma Rebel's Avatar
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    is the boolit in the pic the "bater" you mentioned? what is it's weight, and is it out of production?
    An armed man in a citizen.
    An unarmed man is a subject.
    A disarmed man is a slave.

  5. #5
    Boolit Master Oklahoma Rebel's Avatar
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    oh nevermind, I just now noticed that the box is labeled
    An armed man in a citizen.
    An unarmed man is a subject.
    A disarmed man is a slave.

  6. #6
    Boolit Master
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    Since I made my initial post I have heard from several other folks who also use Oklahoma Rebel's technique. I have about 20 moulds that take gas checks and there are maybe two of them that would work fine with the Oklahoma technique in the Lyman sizer. The others are fat enough in the butt that I get too many with a poorly seated check. Either a bunch of people are real lucky or the kid here is real unlucky in the mould department. The 22 cal from the 6-cavity Lee mould that I used for my pictures is a good example: they are just fat enough in the butt that they are a bit of a struggle to press on the gas check. I have a nice .225 size die for the Lyman and when I tried to use the Oklahoma technique I get about 20% of them seated kinda' funny looking and not to be trusted.

    That Star die from Chris Smith (lathesmith) is just worth it's weight in gold to a fellow who ended up with 1600 of these little pills to lube-size from a casting session a couple of weeks ago...

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Oklahoma Rebel View Post
    I have a lyman lubrisizer 450, and I put my gas check on the sizing die, set the boolit on top, then size and lube,they hold on good and tight. you never tried it that way first? I've never tried seating them by hand before pressing them on and sizing, they would never go on straight anyways
    My method also ! I didn't know there was any other way to do it....I'm self taught and it just seemed logical to do it this way !
    The GC's should just snap on but in real life some are too large just fall off, this method elimanates all that.
    Gary
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    " Let's Go Brandon !"

  8. #8
    Boolit Master


    Walks's Avatar
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    What ? Nobody ever heard of the LYMAN gas check seater ?

  9. #9
    Boolit Master Retumbo's Avatar
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    Retumbo gas check seater


  10. #10
    In Remembrance

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    I spent quite a bit of time trying to come up with a better way to install gas checks. My initial installation was with a Lyman 450 Lubricizer. I found that if I set the sizing die just right, I could drop a gas check right on top of the push through bottom punch, and the top of the legs of the gas check would just barely reach the top of the sizing die. I could then place a boolit in place over the gas check, and cycle the press. The gas checks would get properly seated on the base of the boolit, and the press would "bottom out" making the gas check seat squarely on the base. That always seemed to work for me. (And, still does with the pointy rifle boolits I have to size/lube on the Lyman.

    Most of you know that pointy rifle bullets do NOT WORK well on the Star sizer. The Star works by leaving a boolit in the sizing die, and pushing that through with the next sized boolit. As such, the points of the bottom-most boolit indent the gas check on the incoming boolit, ruining the point on the bottom boolit,and denting the gas check of the incoming boolit, often making the incoming gas check not seat properly. So, I keep the Lyman for pointy rifle boolits, but use a Star Lubricizer for the rest of what I make.

    If you are installing gas checks on pistol and non-pointy rifle boolits in a Star, the whole process goes better if you use a sizing die for the Star which has a modified "lead in" to facilitate the gas check seating.

    Chris (Lathesmith )will, if you tell him that you will be seating gas checks, make you such a modified die, so that it handles the gas checks better.
    Chris is one of the Vendor Sponsors here, and a good guy to get the dies from.
    Link: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...th-s-Star-dies


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  11. #11
    Boolit Grand Master


    Larry Gibson's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Walks View Post
    What ? Nobody ever heard of the LYMAN gas check seater ?
    +1 here, been using one for years......works for me.

    Larry Gibson

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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