Remember these?

[XBT]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y9/retiredBT/gaschecks.jpg

The price tag on the lid says $3.00. Probably from around 1967, the first and only .357 gas checks I ever bought. I still have nearly a full tin. (found out I didn’t need them.)

[NVcurmudgeon]

XBT, I sure remember that old Hornady packaging. My first 1000 of their product was a can of .30 caliber, c. 1973, price tag is still legible-$ 6.50. It came from the Alpine Reloading Room in Reno, now long gone. I was disappointed when I went back for another and learned that the package had been changed to a cardboard box. I still have that can and scrupulously refill it when empty. At the last big Reno Gun show I scored an almost full can of .35 caliber, so now I have two of the cans.

[felix]

Gosh, the can today is worth 3 bucks on the collector's market, don't you think? Also, consider that 2700 dollars into IBM back in 1927 would be worth 27,000,000 today. So, the moral of the story is that you have to bet on the futures market in whatever you purchase today. ... felix

[Char-Gar]

I still have some Sierra gas checks...when did they go out of print?

[jhalcott]

Hey X, if you still have no use for those checks I do! Keep the can and drop them into a zip lock bag and send them here!

[9.3X62AL]

Cool pic, X.

I must be one of the "Second Generation" users of the Hornady gas checks, all of mine have come in red boxes since I Went Silver Stream in 1981 or so. We now have Third Generation Hornady checks, I suppose--delete the steel corner supports, add some more cardboard to strengthen the packaging, and put up the checks in a ziplock bag inside the box. Very nice. Considering the price of the contents, I would expect ermine packing insulation, but I might be a little sensitive on that issue.

[Bent Ramrod]

Chargar,

Sierra gas checks were mentioned in the 3rd edition of Handloader's Digest and were not in the 4th edition, so the phase-out year should be 1967.

They were pretty miserable gas checks IMHO. Got two boxes of .25 caliber, "Sierra--Manufactured by Harris Machine Co." checks at a gun show for the bargain price of $5.00, took them home and found they were not really gas checks at all, just blanked cups with circular burrs curled around the tops which kept them from fitting the shank of any .25 casting I had.

Righteously refusing to write off my investment (strictly for the principle of the thing) I made a punch and die and proceeded to widen and flatten each and every "check," one at a time, all two thousand of them, so they'd fit. They did not crimp on afterwards, either. Finally attached what I thought was the last of them a couple months ago, but found one I dropped on the floor so I get to look at it and descant betimes upon the perils of bargain prices.

The Hornady cans, full or partially so, are still occasionally found at gun shows. Like comb-jointed wooden butter and cheese boxes and hinged-lid tinplate tea boxes, they are a product of the pre-bottom line era of manufacture. I wonder when the highly useful sliding-lid plastic rimfire boxes, so useful for storing cast bullets (you can see what's in them without opening them) will also be sacrificed on the altar of Mammon.

[sundog]

XBT, I had to go look, and sure enough, I still have some thataway.

Felix, my bet is these cans would bring more than just a measly ole three bucks on the collectors side, especially with an intact and legible label. sundog

added - while I was putting them back, I also ran across a small cardboard box (smaller than 2x2x3) of 30s with a light OD label and black print marked IDEAL GAS CHECKS..., MADE BY THE LYMAN GUN SIGHT CORP. It's an oldie, too.

[454PB]

I have several of the metal Hornady GC cans, and a box of Sierra .30 GC's....still full, and the price tag says $1.75.

[Bret4207]

I still have several of the small Lyman pasteboard boxes. 30's and 35's, the non crimping style. They serve as a great excuse for wild groups. "The GC came off and altered the balance!"

[Paul B]

I have three cans of Hornady 30 caliber checks and one of 35 caliber, all still sealed. I picked them up at a gun show for $5.00 each. Sometimes I di things right.
paul B.

[catboat]

It's like reading old Handloader digests, and coming across "classics" and low prices. You almost hate to use the up-almost.