some bullet designs have a groove for a gas check but it seems most do not.
Is a cast bullet (38/357) REQUIRED to have a gas check groove in order to use a gas check or not?
I'l be using a Lyman 450 to size and seat the checks
thanks!
some bullet designs have a groove for a gas check but it seems most do not.
Is a cast bullet (38/357) REQUIRED to have a gas check groove in order to use a gas check or not?
I'l be using a Lyman 450 to size and seat the checks
thanks!
No. You can buy plain based gas checks. Using plain based gas checks in 9mm Luger i noticed a better cluster grouping. I also had random leading problems. Those went away. For once I didn't have to clean my 9mm after some range fun.
For .357 Mag and .38 Special I hear tell that some can push those bullets harder with plane based gas checks. I am not speed deamon though with my cast bullets. I am looking for the most consistent accuracy. Gas checks help that.
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"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far."
~Theodore Roosevelt~
Check out plain base gas checks. Pat Marlin's sells dies to make them, I don't know about commercial sellers, I think they exist but haven't bought any. If you post in the swapping and selling forum you might get someone to sell you some, or provide a few to try. They are really thin metal. You can make them from beverage cans.
One thing that you can't really expect to work well is gas check base without gas check. I have read a few who said some bullet or another worked ok without the gas check covering the inset base and grove but I would expect it to not work more often than it works.
Some molds can be ordered that will have some cavities plain base and some gas checked. I have an NOE mold for .303 British that is like that. Four cavity, two plain, two GC. Bolt action so don't need the high volume and like having plain base for mild loads without needing to deal with gas checks or use the gas check cavity for when I want to have a stouter load.
Scrap.... because all the really pithy and emphatic four letter words were taken and we had to describe this source of casting material somehow so we added an "S" to what non casters and wives call what we collect.
Kind of hard to claim to love America while one is hating half the Americans that disagree with you. One nation indivisible requires work.
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I drive plain based .357's faster than that with just PC.
Old enough to know better, young enough to do it anyway!
Men who don't understand women fall into two categories: bachelors and husbands!
Well this is a new one on me as i rarely use gas checks. You really can learn an old dog new tricks thanks.
"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far."
~Theodore Roosevelt~
I don't like gas checks on handgun bullets - period.
You can push a plain base bullet plenty fast without a gas check and it's just so much easier to avoid the things to start with.
Now rifles are a different story.
For me its about keeping the compensator from getting gunked up. Some shooters are pushing the coated 9mm bullets that fast without gas checks no issue in the bore, but the comp cleaning/maintenance is more burdensome. I still have a half a mind to just buy FMJ bullets and shoot plain base coated bullets for my lighter steel plinking loads or practice ammo.
My 125 gr bullets seat fine either way through a lee sizer. I do like to push base first just because it makes a nice flat, square base. Nose first leaves the base rounded (still shoot fine though).
The 105g bulllets are tinny and its just plane easier to push them through base first.
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"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far."
~Theodore Roosevelt~
I do base first because I think it does a better job of seating the gas checks. Most of my cast bullets are a RNFP design so the ram pushing on the tip isn't a problem. Almost all the rest are a broad rounded point where a little metplat is not a problem it's a feature
I sometimes use a tiny amount of Lee sizing lube to lubricate the bullet nose so it doesn't leave excessive lube before the check goes through the die base first. Lee sizing lube cleans off with hot (tea kettle hot) water very well and has given no indication of contaminating the surface so PC won't stick. Dry with towel and time or hit with a blow dryer to speed the drying process along.
Scrap.... because all the really pithy and emphatic four letter words were taken and we had to describe this source of casting material somehow so we added an "S" to what non casters and wives call what we collect.
Kind of hard to claim to love America while one is hating half the Americans that disagree with you. One nation indivisible requires work.
Feedback page http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...light=RogerDat
Sweet... I'm going to order some checks from Sages. Thanks for the info guys! Hope I can make this work and save some dollars!
I tried PB gas checks and found them to be a PIA–incredible force was necessary for me to apply them, and they didn't always stay on very well. I really wanted to like them, but I gave up on the concept. Seems others have much better luck with them, hopefully you do, too.
just looked, no dice. Don't know what I did with them.
They're pretty cheap from Sage–he's definitely a good guy, I just couldn't find a system.
Ballistic Expansion. You have a PM./beagle
diplomacy is being able to say, "nice doggie" until you find a big rock.....
All things being equal, I have always found that gas checked boolits were more accurate in magnum revolvers than similar plain based. In the special cartridges, particularly the 38 special, plain based work so well that there is no benefit worthy of the time it takes to fiddle with them.
In rifles, however, save for "cat's sneeze" or similar loads, gas checks are essential for adequate accuracy, if more than a few cartridges are to be shot at a sitting. Once you get much past 1500 fps, especially in "fast " twist bores 1-10", 1-12" etc, leading becomes a real problem.
_________________________________________________It's not that I can't spell: it is that I can't type.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |