gas checks

[milltownhunter]

are gas checks hard to put on? will they stay on ?

[Lead melter]

No, not at all, the only problems I have encountered with gas checks is that the shank may be undersized {there are 3 different sizes for 41 caliber boolits}, or that the may be slightly oversized, which is possible to get when beagling a mold.
If the shank is too big, get a brass, or steel rod, or even a bolt, slightly bigger than the size of the check, then tap it lightly to open the check.
Most guys here seem to prefer the Lyman style sizer where the check is seated first before the boolit is sized. Me, I prefer the Lee system where the boolit is pushed through the die either nose first or base first. But that's just my opinion.
Will they stay on? Yes and no. A far higher percentage of checks reach the target than do not in my experience. Although, the occasional flier makes you wonder if the check stayed on in flight.
All in all, a checked boolit can normally be run at a higher velocity than a plain based boolit, and in my own opinion, a checked boolit seems to shoot better for me. It's really hard to get a side-by-side comparison, since the mold for a checked boolit is not the same as the mold for a plain base. The old apples and oranges thing.
Hope this helps.

[jlchucker]

Will gaschecks stay on? I don't know about in-flight, but a few years ago I acquired a box of 1000 lyman 30 cal and 45 cal gaschecks at a yard sale, really cheap. They were probably fairly old. Unlike the Hornaday ones I usually use, these didn't appear to crimp on when running them thru the sizer. Some fell off during the sizing process. I still have many of them and use them on occasion, but will stick to Hornaday from now on. In all fairness, I never really noticed a decrease in accuracy with the Lyman checks that I loaded, but I only used those bullets for 100 yd plinking at clay pigeon remnants at my club's range.

[Bent Ramrod]

The Ideal checks were, I think, originally designed to come off. They are merely a slip-fit on the shank. For one reason or another, this more often than not doesn't happen, and, if it does, can happen any time during the flight of the boolit, so theoretically the crimp-on check has the highest accuracy potential.

A few people have remarked on gas check holes in their chronograph screens from wayward Ideal checks. However, for a lot of my shooting the occasional flyer is lost in the noise of my terminal case of shoulder mirage, so I'm not planning on tossing out any of my Ideal gas checks, except in the downrange direction. If you find them cheap, I would say use them for practice loads. If you want them to stay on the boolit base, a little dab of red Loc-Tite should suffice.

[milltownhunter]

thanks