Shooting PC coated Gas Check withoy GC?

[Dom]

Does any one shoot PC cast bullets designed for gas checks with out the gas check ? I'm just getting started with PC bullets & several of my molds are GC style. Would be great to leave the GC off if accuracy would not suffer. My main concern is for a Saeco 45 cal 350gr sized .460 for my 45-70 , about 1500 fps. The other is for my 44 cal bullets, mainly a Saeco 260gr sized .430 at any where from 1000 to 1350 fps in handguns. Also 44 cal up to 1800 fps from a Win 94 Legacy 24" bbl. Your info greatly appreciated.

[Fastleo]

I’ve tried this but it did affect the accuracy. Some tried and true loads became a lot less accurate

[charlie b]

Yes, many of us have.

Yes, it works, but, usually accuracy suffers a bit. Acceptable? Depends on your goal.

Pistols at 'normal' ranges probably won't see much difference without GC. Rifles at longer ranges you might see a difference.

The only way to see is to try a few in your guns and compare to bullets with GC or plain base.

[Dom]

Thanks so much. I guess I will just have to try a few.

[The Dar]

I cast, PC and shoot the Lee C-358-158-SWC and I find accuracy the same as the 358-158-RF. I've never used a gas check on it so I can't compare the difference.

[GregLaROCHE]

I shoot PCed check type, unchecked in my 45/70 all the time.

[Shuz]

I am experimenting with powder coated non gas checked boolits in my Savage 16 bolt gun in .250 Savage. Jury is still out! I've got some 5 shot groups a little more than 1" at 100 yds, and I've got some that were closer to 3". But the reason the jury is still out is that I have the same results with gas checked powder coated and non powder coated boolits!

[Conditor22]

NOE 311-238 GC is a tack drive PC'd no GC in a 300 BO

Just make sure you have nice sharp edges (good fill out) on the base of your boolits

[P Flados]

I have shot a lot of powder coated bullets in plain base or checkless (GC boolit without check).

I found that gas operated guns (AR-15 etc.) are likely to do poorly without checks. All others seem to do pretty good without checks. Some cartridges/guns can maintain accuracy at a higher velocities with checks. However, regular straight wall pistol rounds (including 44 mag) can typically be pushed to full power with no problems.

[Dragonheart]

This question keeps coming up but the fact is a bullet is steered from the base. It was proven more than 70 years ago that any imperfections or deviations from a perfectly flat and perpendicular bullet base will degrade accuracy; a uniform bevel base is still considered flat & perpendicular. However, the base of a gas check bullet is imperfect and only a properly installed gas check will make the base perfect. Powder coating protects the base from the heat and prevents gas cutting, but does not correct major imperfections in a GC bullets base.

[cwlongshot]

Yes, many of us have.

Yes, it works, but, usually accuracy suffers a bit. Acceptable? Depends on your goal.

Pistols at 'normal' ranges probably won't see much difference without GC. Rifles at longer ranges you might see a difference.

The only way to see is to try a few in your guns and compare to bullets with GC or plain base.


^^^ 100% ^^^

[Dom]

My thoughts also. The base of the bullet is paramount to accuracy. A bit difficult to make the base of every PC bullet uniform. Gas check much more likely to be uniform.

[Shuz]

When I look at the bases of my powder coated RCBS 25-100's they sure seem quite uniform to me. Much more so than the occasional boolit that has a gas check not seated squarely for whatever reason. If my experiments with gas checked PC'd vs PC'd boolits sans checks shows that the gas checked are more accurate, I would say that the gas check ridge would be the cause more than an imperfect base.

[P Flados]

For everything except gas operate semi-automatics, I am a big fan of plain base / checkless. If the bases are uniform, my results are "as good as jacketed". This primarily for Revolvers and Contender 10" & 14" barrels.

For my AR-15 applications, I have become a firm believer that gas checks are needed. I am still working on the details of what works best for me with the AR-15 platform.

[markmars]

So would gas checks help with a 100 yard shot with a 9 mm carbine?

[P Flados]

So would gas checks help with a 100 yard shot with a 9 mm carbine?

Even at full power, gas checks for a 9mm (typical pistol or a blow back carbine) are not normally needed for PC boolits. For some 9mm guns, leading can be a problem. Gas checks sometimes help with or fix leading.

The issue with gas operated guns is gas cutting damage to a small portion of the bullet base as the bullet is crossing the gas port. We know this is happening in AR-15s because of lead buildup in the bolt. I have also found loads that go from "almost as good as jacketed" with gas checks to shotgun patterns without. This was discussed at:
https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?424359-AR-15-Problems-with-Plain-Base-amp-Checkless

[odette]

I have been wondering about this also. With shortages on everything, I bought a bunch of .44 Spl brass instead of waiting for .44 mag to come in. I was thinking of loading the .44 Spl without GC's, kind of as a rebated boat tail. Mainly shooting out of a Henry X Model.
I just finished 3rd coat of Hi-Tek Old Gold on .44 cal RCBS SIL boolits. Will try 10 rds with GC's and 10 without and see if there is much difference.

[odette]

shot 10 rds with gc's and 10 without from 50 yds 6.1 gn of Unique for a start load. Gc's shot 6-8" high but good windage 4" group. Without gc's was terrible, shot high, keyholed, 5 on paper, 5 high off paper. The 5 on paper had about an 8" spread. With gc's there were perfect holes, just need to work up a good load.