...
I got an email from a customer the other day who wrote:
"I got the Checkmaker™ and it's good at punching "miniature bottle caps" from .010 copper. I would like to return this thing for a refund, the tool doesn't do as advertised."
Over the years, many seasoned cast shooters and myself here have found bottle capping to improve accuracy, so if your metals are not creating a smooth top end on your gas checks, you can relax. The proof is in the shooting performance.
This being the first email of it's kind received got me thinking. I realized that after all this time and now several dies in use by shooters not everyone has followed my development of the die design and have seen the results we have obtained during the process.
When I set out to design a gas check forming die, I wanted a design that truly made it easy for the user to manufacture his own gas checks, and match the accuracy of factory offerings. Eliminate the need to buy factory checks entirely. I took a careful look at the designs that had been sold years ago, and the design currently on the market- the problems, the benefits, and the desires of the shooters using them.
What I found was guys having problems with things like gas check fit and having to use super glue. Lopsided checks. A limited narrow range of metal material thickness choices that could be used. A limited narrow range of fit from various shank sizes within a caliber, and the need to use a mallet and round punch, or buy an arbor press. Fewer shooting reports and no one reporting accuracy matching factory gas checks.
My first thought was, "Why not design gas check dies like reloading dies, and use what everyone already has... our reloading press?". I wanted to make my own checks at the reloading bench and not have to bang on it with a mallet. Having experience with using round hole punches for other needs, and knowing what a pain they can be to sharpen and keep sharp, I didn't want to go there either.
As I progressed and tested designs in R&D for weeks on end, and bouncing ideas off of a dear friend of the family who's a talented machinist, I knew I was close when I loaded some rounds up for my circa 1978 Ruger #1 in 300 Winchester Magnum.
This rifle is a copper tack driver- I mean it will put the bullet where you want it if you're man enough to hold it there. Problem for a hopelessly addicted cast shooter is the 300 Win Mag scares lead out the door. They just didn't mix well for me, no matter what I tried short of using Lino, and I don't care to use linotype. May as well melt copper for that matter... LOL.
So when putting my first 30 caliber .010 copper formed gas checks from the official Checkmaker™ design, the current design as now offered to the test I thought let's pull out the old Ruger #1.
I have some great powders including some very good 4895 mil surp and other mil surps to play with. Powders that would be the "go-to" speeds for such purposes, but this time I pulled a load from the good old Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, and employed one of the fast burning loads for my cavernous 300 Win mag belted brass. Previous attempts using slower burning powders, and even with the lowest pressure loads I still got leading and poor performance. I thought let's just throw all caution to the wind and roll with it.
...