Heat Treating/Gas Check

[northmn]

I heat treat many of my bullets and have wondered if it matters whether the gas check can be applied before heat treating as some bullets work best sized. Would eliminate a step. Inother words, does heat treating the bullets with gas checks on work?

Northmn

[Doc Highwall]

It will not work because the annealing temperature of the copper gas checks is higher then the temperature that you will use for heat treating the the bullets. I heat treat my gas checks with a propane torch and drop them into the citric acid / Lemi Shine and they come out nice and pink.

[454PB]

Doc, I think he's asking if the gas check will hinder the heat treating, not if the heat treating will anneal the gas check.

The answer is that having the GC installed will not hinder boolit heat treating, and a heat treated boolit should be sized either before heat treating or immediately afterwards. Sizing an already hardened boolit is especially difficult, and can actually reduce the added hardness.

[Doc Highwall]

You are right the gas check will not hinder the heat treat. I was thinking he was going to heat treat the gas check and the bullets at the same time.

[Shiloh]

I anneal mine.

Have a 1 1/2" black iron nipple with end caps. fill it with checks, put it on the BBQ in the summer or in the wood stove in the winter. Heat it till it glows, leave for a while, remove with tongs.

Outside in the winter cold, it takes an hour until its cool enough to handle. Several hours in the summer.

Shiloh

[swheeler]

northmn; your bullets will heat treat just fine with gas checks applied first. Now if you want annealed gas checks, anneal them first, crimp and size then heat treat.

[northmn]

I was not interested in annealing the gas checks so much as the heat treatment of the bullets. From what I am reading after looking at the subject some like annealing gas checks anyway such that the heat would not affect them. Annealing gas checks is another issue. I really had never thought of it until I started reading some of the threads. Never had any real problems with that aspect of the bullet construction, but I do drive my hunting bullets around 1950fps + or - .

DP

[Doc Highwall]

northmn, I anneal all of my gas checks as it removes any spring back of the gas check when the bullet comes out of the sizer die. Before I started to anneal them I could feel the bullets size with different forces some easy and some hard. I took this as being a variable and a possible cause of fliers.