Gas check seat die ?

[TNsailorman]

Does anyone have experience with the gas check seating dies? I am thinking about seating the gas check with one of these dies prior to sizing and lubing. I have a Lyman 450 but no gas check seater right now for it and I was trying to decide whether to get a Lyman gas check seater for the 450 or to just buy one of the dies and use a reloading press to seat the checks. Any thougts? james

[454PB]

I do it a couple of ways. One is to place a coin on the retaining nut of the sizer and then use the proper top punch to push the check in place. The other is using a pair of pliers with the jaws ground smooth to prevent marking the boolit.

[exdxgxe4life]

Do you size with a lubri-sizer? I don't own one so I don't know if you can seat checks with that. However, I size and seat with my LEE sizer die and have had nothing but success. It's cheap, fast, and effective, like most other Lee products.

[Mk42gunner]

I have a 450 that I bought used, even came with the gas check seater attachment, but I have never sized a boolit with a gas check in the 450.

I have seated a lot of gas checked boolits in my RCBS LAM, even with Lyamn dies, and had no problems seating the gascheck.

I'd say try it before you make a special order just for the gas check seater.

Robert

[gwpercle]

I've never had a problem pressing .30 and .357 cal. gas checks ( Lyman brand) onto the base of rifle and pistol bullets, then setting them in the tapered opening of the Lyman 450 sizer die and pulling down on the handle , it seats the check, sizes and lubricates all in one.
Try using it to see if the seperate check seater is really necessary.
Gary

[Ben]

For whatever it is worth, I have a 4 cent device that I made & installed on my Lyman 45 that comes in very handy for me with stubborn gas checks on tight shanks. It is made out of a piece of 1/4 " thick polished steel bar stock.

The hole in the end of the bar stock is a bit over sized to insure that there is no binding when the lube sizer is used in its normal operation mode.


It swings into and out of position in about 2 seconds. I got the idea from looking at the design of the SAECO lube sizers ( in the 1st photo below ). They have a similar device that swings into and out of position for seating gas checks.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/756252.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/haysb/media/756252.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/001-58.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/haysb/media/001-58.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/002-57.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/haysb/media/002-57.jpg.html)

[TNsailorman]

Thanks for the replies. I think I wil try the suggestions and see if I can seat the checks without a check seater. later, james

[Smoke4320]

ben Thats a great simple solution

[Newtire]

Have had trouble seating gas checks in my new beauty of an RCBS sizer. About 30% seat crooked without seating the check first. Have used the Lyman sizer and it was worth it but probably most of the suggestions here will do the same. I just got a new Lyman mould with an undersized gas check shank and the easy flat bar stock method won't work on these. Does anyone know anyone who can open one of these shanks up? You'd think they could take the time to make it right in the first place!

[Mk42gunner]

You'd think they could take the time to make it right in the first place!

You'd think so. With all the precision metal work done in our sport, I think Lyman has the highest rate of rejects. They get away with it because:

a) most of the buyers aren't aware that something is wrong, and decide casting is a bunch of hooey.

b) handy people (such as the members here) fix it on their own dime.

c) not many send the defects back and hold them accountable.

Robert

[Newtire]

This is an RCBS that I have and it still doesn't seat the checks without the seater tool.
You'd think so. With all the precision metal work done in our sport, I think Lyman has the highest rate of rejects. They get away with it because:

a) most of the buyers aren't aware that something is wrong, and decide casting is a bunch of hooey.

b) handy people (such as the members here) fix it on their own dime.

c) not many send the defects back and hold them accountable.

Robert

I found a solution! The shanks fit a .257 gator check and still leaves the outside diameter big enough to touch the sizer die and the bottoms are flat. Like you said, we fix it ourselves.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I do it the same way that Ben does. except I do it on a Lyman 450. I have a piece of 1/4 x 1" bar stock I just sit on top of the die hold down nut.

I seat the check and then set the block aside and then stuff the boolit into the sizing die, lube and push back out a done boolit, ready to load.

My unit doesn't have the two guide rods like a Lyman 45 has or I would have drilled a hole in the block like Ben did. Mine usually ends up on the floor around my sizer. Was looking at drilling a hole for a string or something to tether it, but it's a lot of work to drill a 1/8" hole.

Randy

[seagiant]

Hi,
Here's my gas check seater! Never a problem!