Paper gas check, or half jacket

[Milsurp Junkie]

Has anyone done any work on paper gas checks or half jackets? Basically enough to cover the base of a plain base bullet, and protect the base from the propellant gases? It could even be glued on to the base. I was just thinking of getting slightly higher speeds out of PB bullets without all the effort of fully paper patching.

[longbow]

There was a thread a while back about paper gas checks and half jackets.

I tried half jackets behind a front driving band on a reduced body with poor results. Not only were they hard to wrap but I did not succeed in getting decent accuracy.

Gearnasher got some pretty good results with paper gas checks. I can't remember details but I think he used a regular check maker and heavy paper/light cardboard.

A search should turn up the thread.

Longbow

[Hardcast416taylor]

I have been doing what I refer to as 3/4 patch on undersized bullets. The for instance is my patching .40 cal. (.410" bullets) up to large enough dia. to be run thru my push thru sizer for a .417" dia. bullet that is then loaded in my .416 cal. rifle. I load these bullets that are cast with soft lead, for my shooting, and load them with starter loads for jacketed bullets of same close weight. I have also done this type patching of .338 bullets and .30 cal. up to use in .303 cal. rifles.Robert

[303Guy]

I've done some basic tests. A card wad seems to do just fine in protecting the boolit base against powder kernel peening. Have a look at the sticky on boolit base damage. It also seems that with a dense enough polyester filler the same is achieved. Not Dacron. Dacron is a trade name insulator pillow or duvet filler. The stuff I used was filter medium. It's what was there and is pretty thick and dense and more mass goes into the case but otherwise it's pretty much the same stuff - polyester.



It looks the same apart from the thickness but it's more dense.

The effects. The base was fully exposed.

[geargnasher]

Longbow remembers, here's the thread: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...aper+gas+check

There's an explanation of how I made them with a pic on post #22, no special tools required.

Overall they worked very well, eliminated throat leading entirely, left a beautiful, shiny bore shot after shot, and did stretch the useable accuracy window vs. a plain-based version of the exact same boolit, but did not make as much difference in accurate velocity as I'd hoped. I still use them for plinking loads because they're a cinch to make and save money on gas checks while eliminating a pesky leading issue this gun has in the first inch of the barrel with any plain or unchecked boolit due to very worn, large throat. Easier than paper patching. Your milage may vary here, but they worked for me.

Gear

[Milsurp Junkie]

Many thanks Geargnasher!

[firefly1957]

I have paper patched some 44 caliber bullets then double wrapped them in paper and swaged them for use in 45 acp the paper stayed on for loading and some of it stayed stuck to the bullet though a couple dry phone books . Accuracy was poor it appeared that the paper tore on the rifling . I tried the same with Teflon tape also the bullet had a nice slick finish these were 158 gr bullets loaded about 1100f/s and even though the Teflon tape was intact to the target the bore was badly leaded after 10 shots!

As said above I have had good luck using a card wad on the bullet base in strait walled cartridges in both B.P. & smokeless powder loads.

[geargnasher]

I have good luck with soda carton card wads under both PB and PP boolits as long as I'm using a 100% density load. Doesn't do any good shooting GC boolits without the checks, though, unless they're full-length paper patched first.

Gear

[pdawg_shooter]

What am I missing here? Is it easier to half patch a bullet than full patch one? Or are you trying to save paper? A patch that goes just over the start of the ogive works perfectly and eliminates any chance of leading. It gives you full velocity and accuracy of jacketed. So what is to be gained by half patching?

[Old Coot]

Pdawg; there is really nothing to be gained by half patching, or trying to make a paper gas check. I think that these guys just like to experiment and fiddle with their bullets. They seem to get almost as much fun out of that as they do out of shooting them. More power to em. They might even stumble over something useful. Of course I was accused of that type behavior when I was in research. It's fun, and isn't that the biggest reason that we do this silly as**** stuff.[smilhttp://castboolits.gunloads.com/images/smilies/woohoo.gifie=w:

[geargnasher]

I do find the paper gas check useful in my Marlin with 1500 fps loads, the clean barrel and increased accuracy help quite a bit and I can shoot hundreds of them at cans and not feel guilty for "wasting" checks. I would be better off obtaining a check maker and making my own metal gas checks, but I AM one of those guys that just likes to fiddle with stuff, particularly if it's cheap to free, so that's probably an even better reason why I use them sometimes.

Gear