"soft Checks"

[DonH]

Has anyone tried the soft type "gas check" with cast bullets in .22 centerfire? If so, what type/material, what were the results and where can they be obtained? Regular gas checks are out of th equestion here due to a rule mandating the use of plain base bullets.

TIA

[buck1]

I havent used them but I hear it just dental wax. FWIW>>>>>>>>>>>>Buck

[Dale53]

I have some of the "official" soft checks and some dental wax. Visually, they are exactly the same. I have never tried to have them analyzed but I believe that they are the same thing.

Your dentist can get you some for not much money. If they come in different thickness sheets, ask for the 1/16" thickness.

Dale53

[JRR]

As an experiment, I once tried a flat sheet of bee's wax, sprayed with a dry moly/graphite lube. After charging a case, take the sheet and press it onto the mouth, cookie cutting it. Seat the bullet, but make sure the seating debth does not exceed the case neck length. A slightly compressed powder charge should hold the check in place in the neck.

It worked very well but was very slow to hand load. Completely clean bore and a bit smokey at approx. 2400 fps.

Go to your local feed store that carries bee keeping supplies. If they only have the wax sheets with the honey comb pattern embossed, just lay flat, warm with a hair dryer, and roll flat with anything clyindrical such as a rolling pin or large juice can. It probably will work even embossed. Make sure the sheets are pure wax and do not have the plastic center/wax outer layer because they won't cookie cut.

Jeff

[Blammer]

you got me curios on this "rule" for flat base.

what rule and where and why?

[Bob S]

ASSRA ... for traditional scheutzen style shooting.

Resp'y,
Bob S.

[Bad Flynch]

I have loaded and shot wax base wads/soft gas checks and have experimented with a buddy on same. Here are a few things you should know:

You can make them out of plain beeswax by forming a thin sheet. We tried floating a thin layer on hot water in a flat pan, but ended up coating a cold quart jar of water and flatening it out after removal. You can add anything you want to the beeswax, but it seems not to change much.

The wads are technically tedious to load and work best in straight-wallled cases. They are trouble in bottle-necked cases, especially if the bullet base extends below the base of the neck. They can fall off inside the case.

They can separate and come off in the barrel, but that is very rare.

The soft checks stay on the bullet bases with some degree of irregularity. Bullets tracked down range and paths of bullets inspected showed that some would stay put and others fell off at irregular times. We were uncertain just how that affected accuracy, since we could not tell which holes in the target went with which bullets.

They do sometimes improve leading and grouping, making the gun easier (by far) to clean. They are really fun to experiment with.