BruceB
08-08-2006, 02:35 PM
The current batch of Hornady .45 gaschecks on my bench are a loose (VERY loose) fit on no less than three different .45-caliber rifle-boolit designs which I use.
The fit is so bad that the checks are chopping the bejaysus out of my chrono screens and their diffuser supports, located just ten feet from the edge of my van's benchrest. EVERY gascheck imprint on the chrono assembly is a .45, in spite of my having fired thousands of rounds of other calibers over the screens. They are obviously leaving the bullet as soon as they hit open air.
I found that I can firm-up the attachment by sizing just the bases of checked boolits in a .457" die, but that sort of ruins the whole purpose of sizing to fit the bore, which in my Shiloh is .4575 or so. (My customary sizing diameter is .459", which works well in this rifle.)
After arriving home from work last night, and not having to arise at 0330 on my day off, I cast up a few hundred 457483s, a roundnose 390-grain gascheck design. On sizing a few, I naturally encountered the same loose fit with the checks. After a bit of searching, I found my 50ml bottle of red "permanent" LocTite, and treated a couple dozen gaschecks before placing them on the boolits for sizing. They were still loose, of course, some pulling off while still in the die, and some partly coming off as they were removed from the sizer. I just pushed 'em back in place and left them overnight.
This morning, they are TIGHT. I can't move them at all with any force I can exert with my fingers. So...it may just work!
To avoid the mess associated with LocTited checks coming off in the sizing die, I now have a hundred or so naked boolits on the bench with checks LocTited in place. The bottle says, "Fixtures in 30-60 minutes, full cure in 24 hours". In an hour or so, I'll see if they're secure enough for the sizing process. I'm quite hopeful about this, even though it's an extra step. What I do is lay out a dozen or so checks mouth-up on the bench, and place just a small drop of LocTite in the center of each one. On removing a freshly-applied check from the bullet to have a peek, I find that there's an even coat of the stuff on both base and gascheck, but none escapes around the edges to foul the die. Of course, a nice flat boolit base helps here, too.
Shooting tests of these bullets should be fired on Thursday, if not before.
The fit is so bad that the checks are chopping the bejaysus out of my chrono screens and their diffuser supports, located just ten feet from the edge of my van's benchrest. EVERY gascheck imprint on the chrono assembly is a .45, in spite of my having fired thousands of rounds of other calibers over the screens. They are obviously leaving the bullet as soon as they hit open air.
I found that I can firm-up the attachment by sizing just the bases of checked boolits in a .457" die, but that sort of ruins the whole purpose of sizing to fit the bore, which in my Shiloh is .4575 or so. (My customary sizing diameter is .459", which works well in this rifle.)
After arriving home from work last night, and not having to arise at 0330 on my day off, I cast up a few hundred 457483s, a roundnose 390-grain gascheck design. On sizing a few, I naturally encountered the same loose fit with the checks. After a bit of searching, I found my 50ml bottle of red "permanent" LocTite, and treated a couple dozen gaschecks before placing them on the boolits for sizing. They were still loose, of course, some pulling off while still in the die, and some partly coming off as they were removed from the sizer. I just pushed 'em back in place and left them overnight.
This morning, they are TIGHT. I can't move them at all with any force I can exert with my fingers. So...it may just work!
To avoid the mess associated with LocTited checks coming off in the sizing die, I now have a hundred or so naked boolits on the bench with checks LocTited in place. The bottle says, "Fixtures in 30-60 minutes, full cure in 24 hours". In an hour or so, I'll see if they're secure enough for the sizing process. I'm quite hopeful about this, even though it's an extra step. What I do is lay out a dozen or so checks mouth-up on the bench, and place just a small drop of LocTite in the center of each one. On removing a freshly-applied check from the bullet to have a peek, I find that there's an even coat of the stuff on both base and gascheck, but none escapes around the edges to foul the die. Of course, a nice flat boolit base helps here, too.
Shooting tests of these bullets should be fired on Thursday, if not before.