Hornady Camlock squeezing plain base bullets for GC to fit?

[onondaga]

Has anyone done this? I found reference about this in MidwayUSA customer review of the Hornady Camlock bullet puller die:

Kathy McMiester of Augusta, GA
Date posted: 3/18/2010
Works very well for me. Pulled hundreds of Mil spec 7.62 NATO and 5.56x45mm rounds. However, it has also served me well for putting gas check grooves in all my cast lead bullets. I insert the bottom driving band of the lead bullet inside the puller's collet fingers and actuate the puller lever to squeeze down the bullet's diameter enough to insert a gas check. Then I crimp the gas check in place like usual. I've saved a lot of money from buying FMJ bullets for my 454 Casull, 44 mag, 500 S&W, 357 mag & 44 marlin by using this tool to put gas checks on bullets. I've fired them up to 2,000 fps w/o leading the barrel too much. This tool has super high value for me

I have also noticed reviews stating the hornady tool's handle has a frequent breakage rate too. Will other brand puller dies do this trick too?

I shoot a lot of plain base bullets in my .458 Win Mag and have a load I'd like to stick with for bullet weight but it is only available in plain base casting mould. If this Hornady Camlock really works to pinch plain base bullets for gas checks to be seated, I'd like to hear from someone with experience about their technique.

Gary

[onondaga]

I'd sure like an answer on this. There now is a question by another member about this subject in Castboolits.

[ReloaderFred]

I'd like to know, too, but I don't have the tool to try it out. Maybe I'll see about ordering one and give it a try.

Fred

[9.3X62AL]

I might have to take out the seldom-utilized RCBS Collet Bullet Puller and give this a try. The threads on the collet-draw are fairly stout. Film at 11, sports fans.

[yondering]

I found this post as I was writing up a similar method for forming gas check shanks:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?p=1042633#post1042633

I have not used the Hornady or RCBS bullet pullers for this purpose, but the Forster tool works great. One advantage of the Forster trimmer collets is they will crimp the same length shank on every boolit.

[vernm]

I had a lapse in good judgement while honing a Lee die to fit the throat on my worn Mosin Nagant. Boolits fit fine, but gas checks will not fit on the enlarged shank. Put the shank end into my RCBS bullet puller. A 270 die fit the 30 cal shank perfectly. Turned it down a bit and reduced the shank by .004". Cranked it again and got another .004" (total .008"). Now a gas check fits fine. problem solved.

Edit to add: My alloy is BHN 22. Trying to get as big a boolit as possible.

[EMC45]

Why isn't she a member here on the board?

[101VooDoo]

Bound to better at gas checks than it is at boolit pulling...

Jim

[45 2.1]

Has anyone done this? Gary

Yes...........a member here by the name of castalot used a similar setup to crimp homemade gaschecks on boolits. He posted the entire method and tooling quite some time ago. Same theory.

[PineTreeGreen]

I was looking over the Midway selection of LEE plain base handgun boolit moulds a couple weeks ago and noticed an odd thing in the reviews. If you read down through,you will find a female name and an explanation of how to attach a GC to a PB boolit. It almost seems like someone is"spikeing" the reviews. I called customer service and made them aware,but it is still there.

[keebo52]

Tried it today and it works like a charm! I put a PB 9mm cast boolit upside down in a fired 9 mak brass. This left the bottom 1/8" or so of the boolit exposed. Next, run the boolit up into the puller die until the case touches the die and tighten the handle. Release and rotate the brass slightly and repeat. This gets rid of ridges left in the boolit by grooves in the puller collet. You will have to experiment find the right amount of "squeeze" to make the GC fit properly. It took slightly less than 1/2 turn for me.

[PatMarlin]

PineTreeGreen- like your handle. Coulda used it yesterday with all the pine we cut and split.

Here's another option:

Using the Checkmaker™ 45PB Pistol Caliber Dies
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=133265

[lead chucker]

I tried it but did not have any luck didnt like the way the bullet turned out. I would like to get patmarlin pb gas check maker.

[sharpshooter3040]

I made a gas check shank cutter. I had to figure out a way to make a gas check boolet to shoot in my vintage Marlin 38-40 with a less than pristeen bore. Lots of plain base moulds around, but with the oversized groove diameter the gas cutting was prolithic and accuracy was non existant. I took a Forster case trimmer, machined a tailsock to accept 7/8 14 dies (RCBS Bullet Puller). I then used my dividing head and milling machine to fabricate a cutter to fit into the cutter shaft assembly. Its fully adjustable and repeatable. I have made cutters for my 40-82, and different calibers as well, that have limited availability of gas check moulds. I even have a gas check boolet that I use in my 10mm and 40S&W. My old 94 marlin will now at least keep consistant 2" groups at 50 yds now, where it shot 7 and 8 inch groups with the plain base designs. I can fudge the gas check size to fit the groove by using 416 size gas checks to fit the 405 groove.

[tatwell]

I know this is an old thread, however I am interested to see if those who have tried this got good results with an RCBS bullet puller. I have one of these in 45, and soon as I can dig out my casting equipment I intend to try this out. Regarding the reviews on Midway, I also noticed that there are several posts on there for the RCBS and the Hornady tool, it is puzzling that everyone is posted by a female. Doesn't matter to m, but it does seem odd. In fact, the reason I came across the idea of using a puller to make a GC groove was because of a reference to the posts. I do know that I have almost a new box of Hornady gas checks that I need to use up, but I don't have any 458 GC molds. Thanks if anyone has any results to report.

[tatwell]

I finally got around to trying this, and thought I'd share my results for those considering doing this. As mentioned I have an RCBS collet bullet puller. I had some 45 caliber bullets cast from Lyman's 457125 mold, these have a wide base band so I thought they were a good choice to experiment with. I am using these for the 458 win mag and in the 458 lott. I sized the bullets in the luber-sizer first, and then I took one of the fired 458 win mag cases and filled it with cream of wheat until a bullet inserted nose first in the case exposed enough of the band to allow the gas check to seat. Then I put the case in the press and screwed the puller collet down until it stopped on the case mouth. This left the portion of the band I was working with in the collet. Then tightened the collet until the base was reduced enough, I did have to loosen the collet and rotate the case to take care of the small ridges left from the splits in the collet. I then seated the gas check using the gas check seater and then ran the bullet through the sizer again. The checks couldn't be pulled off the bullet with fingernails, so they appear to be tight enough.

I only had a few bullets to play with, so I did about 10 or so and loaded them up and test fired them. The bullets grouped well, without any fliers and no apparent leading.

I did encounter a few problems during the process that I think I can fix with practice. The major problem was determining when I had formed the groove enough, this probably has to do with the short handle on the puller. I tried turning the handle about the same amount after the bullet was gripped with some success. A better way might be to use a click type torque wrench, if I could get the die ground down so one could be used. Another problem was when I rotated the bullet to get the little ridges squeezed down, sometimes I tightened the die down too much and ended up with a too small check groove.

I also think that if I had some of the crimp on type checks, instead of the older Lyman type, that I may have less problems. However, I have a full box of the old Lyman's and will use them up before buying some more. All things considered, I think the results were worth the effort. If anyone has anything to add or other comments I look forward to the information.