GCing non-GC boolits?

[WallyM3]

There are three possibilities: I dreamed it, it floated out of a Scotch bottle or I read it here.

Is it really possible to GC non-GC boolits?

I can see compressing materials with sufficient swaging horsepower to pull it off. Similar things are done in industry, but is this a common or even practical practice for us?

(It's frustrating how boolits will spin in a lathe chuck when presented with a turning tool.)

[imashooter2]

A few years back, Slughammer built a kit that would swage aluminum soda can checks onto plain base boolits. It formed and swaged the disk in a single operation. They performed decently. A traditional check is too thick and the boolit bases are too large to be done this way though...

[Poygan]

I had Buckshot make me a die that would allow reshaping a boolit base so that a gas check could be used. Mine is for the .357. I haven't used it extensively so far but it does the job.

[georgewxxx]

You might want to review Beagle's article in Castpics on the subject...Gas Checked PB Bullets. He has a different slant on doing it. ....Geo

[WallyM3]

That's where I saw it, on Castpics.

Thanks!

[PatMarlin]

Not a problem at all.

Here is my 358429 Keith boolit gas checked. Check size and lube within hours of casting while your lead is relatively soft.


http://www.patmarlins.com/35PB1.jpg

[imashooter2]

But that's using your system and not store bought checks, correct?

ETA: The results look very similar to what Slughammer did...

[Wally]

You can also use a regular gas check & reverse it and use on a PB bullet. In all my tests such there is no detriment to accuarcy when doing so. However you must size the gas check to the bullet diameter. I make my own using a Freechex tool. However they are a bit tricky to install and you have to be careful using them with bottlenecked calibers.

[PatMarlin]

But that's using your system and not store bought checks, correct?

ETA: The results look very similar to what Slughammer did...


Yaw- those are from my dies... :Fire:

[35 Whelen]

I've been gas-checking my plain-base 358429 HP bullets for years. I use factory Lyman checks. I made, out of a flat point punch, a tool that flares out the mouth of the checks. The checks are flaired then laid in the sizing die, and a bullet that's already been sized and lubed set on it, then the whole thing is pushed into the sizing die. It takes a little physical effort, but not a whole lot more than a normal sizing and lubing operation.
Since the operation requires a little more than normal down pressure, I did make a top punch that pushes on the top of the soulder of the bullet rather than the nose.
35W

[WallyM3]

All of the above was what I was hoping to hear. And more. For the present, I'm thinking of straight-walled cases.

I'm a little unclear about reversing the gas check?

Great tips. Many thanks to all.

[StarMetal]

You can take a Lyman or RCBS bullet sizer die and modify it. You first determine what size disc that you need that you cut from soda cans. Then you cut a recess in the top of that sizer die. Next you make a tool to cut the discs. Now you make a little sleeve to fit over top the disc after you put it in the recess you cut in that sizer die and it's job is to center the bullet. So here's the process, place disk in sizer die recess, place sleeve in place, put in bullet, run it down and you size, check, and lube it all at the same time. Very easy to make, works great, is fast.

[WallyM3]

Now that is slick.

[imashooter2]

Starmetal describes pretty much what Slughammer did, except his didn't use a sleeve. The die body was modified with a shallow counterbore to hold the disk and the entry was flared and radiused for a smoother fold of the check material.

[JRR]

It's very easy to apply a hornady style gas check to a bevel based bullet of 35 caliber or smaller. The bevel is a greater percentage of the diameter the smaller you go. I had no problem putting gas checks on the hardest commercial bullets in 357 mag. as long as the bevel was pronounced. The base was simply re-formed for the check. I used a Lee push through sizer and got great results.

I had poor results with 45 caliber bevel base because the bevel simply was not enough.

This exercise was done before I began casting my own flat base and GC based bullets.

Jeff