Beer can gas checks

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Hmm,, too bad.
I think the Foster's beer from Australia is also in a thick walled can.
You might find them there, and its good stuff too.

Something else that might do for ya is those throw away foil baking pans at the grocery store.
The ones we have here are pretty thick, more so than a drink can.

The Foster's beer I've bought in the last few years was brewed and canned in Texas
The can thickness was same as other American beer and soda pop cans...about .0045"

[Johansson81]

I use a Lyman lubesizer to seat/crimp the GC, with the correct Top Punch to fit the boolit nose.

Ah, nice. It is a bit of an inconvenience to fit the GC when seating the bullet but I can live with it since I dont shoot 1000++ rifle rounds every year.

[longbow]

I've been curious about using the thin PB gas checks as well but on PB boolits. Pat Marlin is/was making a PB check maker and Paco Kelly and Ed Wosika used to make a PB check maker using pop can material but on regular PB boolits. Not sure if Paco and Ed did rifle checks or only handgun/pistol calibers.

http://www.lasc.us/TaylorFreeChec.htm

I am lazy and cheap so don't like to use gas checks when I don't have to but for higher velocity loads in my .308 and .303's gas checks are necessary. I made a .30 cal. check maker from Ed Smith's plans and it works very well. I have been using 0.019" old gutter material which is thick and extrudes some making a deep check but that is for regular gas check shank.

I also have the Mihec 316410 HP in PB mould and want to try the thin checks on PB boolit. I am interested in your results for sure! I will have to make a PB check maker and give it a try now!

I know others have tried it but I have not found any threads with info on relatively high velocity loads using the thin checks in rifle.

Longbow

[Allamerican401]

Hello all!... This is my first post here. I've lurked and also had lurked on the falfiles for nearly 10 years before I joined to buy some cheap, rusty mags in 2013 or 2016? (Had a couple beers)... Anyway, what about using beer bottle caps for gas checks? They must be a pretty malleable steel alloy since they bend easier (over cracking) than some aluminum alloys.. Would it hurt the barrel over many rounds? I've been reading a lot and really trying to learn since I've been getting a LOT of free lead pipe from a friend that I do mechanic work for. I'm looking into options for casting alloys for fal & ishapore 2a1. I read up on possibly layering for aluminum checks and thought about the possibility of malleable beer caps as I opened a becks from an $11 12 pack, since the miller light went off sale..

[toot]

the best part of it is that you have to drink em to get em!

[Southpaw198486]

I'm interested in making a gas check maker myself for .22 cal. To start with, could you share your idea on how you made your check maker? No gas checks to be found right now and I have plenty of beer cans at my disposal lol.

[cast367]

[QUOTE=Johansson81;4990924]Since I have an endless supply of empty beer cans in my workshop I wanted to try and use them for my 300 Blackout loads, a Lee 155gn PCed bullet for plinkling up to 200meters.

I made myself a gas check punch tool for the single stage press which works just fine, but since the beer cans are quite thin walled the checks wont stick to the bullet base even after passing through the sizing die. Despite that I milled the gas check groove in the mold so that it matches the thickness of the GC
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In my opinion are beer cans not thick enough or you must use 2 or 3 disks. Many years I make GC from alu plates used by a printshop.They are 0.3mm.Its works fine .I have a Pat Marlins GC maker for my .30 rifles.
Alu cans from DEO , shaving foam are good useble aswell.

Cast 367

[longbow]

It doesn't help the OP since he has modified his mould already but I decided to make an "Ed Smith" style gas check maker for use in my .30 cal. rifles... mostly .303's. The gas check maker is easy to make and punch/bore size could be altered to use that thin beer can check material but I had a bunch of old aluminum gutter material at 0.019" thick so wanted to use that. Recommended check material is 0.014" thick but since I use a hammer to operate the check maker I can apply enough force to punch and "extrude" the thicker material resulting in a deeper cup and perfect gas check from free material.

No, not a beer can so I am not a hero in that regard but being able to use up scrap gutter is a good reason to drink beer anyway!

As an observation from someone who has not used beer or pop can checks, that aluminum is very springy (tempered) so may well spring back and drop off which if consistent isn't an issue but if some drop off and some don't and some almost drop off that could be an issue. If you anneal the checks in an oven they should become dead soft and then stay shaped to and stuck to the boolit.

Some posters advocate annealing all checks for that reason. I find that my gutter material is very soft to begin with so not enough spring to worry about and they do stay on... at least all recovered boolits to date have gas checks on them.

The Ed Smith plans are free to download as are plans for the "easy to build gas check maker"

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...gas-checkmaker

Longbow

[longbow]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...s-Check-Makers

Path to the Ed Smith gas check maker. I didn't think it was still here though it is hosted on another download site. Anyway, there you go!

[Johansson81]

Long time since I checked this thread, sorry for late reply.

1900fps is how fast I am pushing my beer can gas checked 155gn bullets now, I won´t go any hotter since they group fine and I will only wear the cases out faster.

The check maker design is pretty similar to the Ed Smith design but upside down to it pushes the finished GC`s up instead of down. I haven´t got any pictures or drawings of it, I just winged the design.

The beer can checks are too thin to stick to the bullet bases, but as long as you don´t seat the bullet base below the case neck section the neck tension will hold the GC firmly in place. I hold the GC to the bullet base when I seat the bullet and with a generous flare on the case mouth it works perfectly.

I once shot through a 3mm steel plate at 30 meters and found a piece of the GC stuck in the hole in the plate so they seem to cling to the bullets even after leaving the barrel.

Cheers!
/Anders

[Gunslinger1911]

I think I read in your orig post you made a GC cut in your mould ?
That's what's getting you,
The thin cop/beer can checks are best on plain base bullets. I've never had one come off after sizing it on.
For your mould, maybe some slightly thicker material would hold on through the sizing step.